Housing

Our ratties are housed in a variety of large wire and plastic rat, rabbit/guinea pig, parrot and ferret cages. We have found that these types of cages to be the most convenient to maintain and keep clean along with making their house an interesting place that they enjoy to be when they aren’t out and about. Each cage is fitted out with various hammocks, tubes, snuggle-sacks, ropes, shelves, igloos, baskets and all sorts of nice, soft, snuggly material pieces to make warm nests out of.  We have used all types of litter including Shavings, Corn Cob, Lucerne Pellets, Breeders Choice, Dr. Harry’s and Back to Nature. But our final preference of late is ‘You’ll Love Coles paper litter’. It is very similar to Dr. Harry’s paper litter, but is a lot cheaper. We have found it is nice and soft for our ratties feet, and is also good to use in our breeding/nursing cages as the does can make a nice nest along side shredded tissues and material pieces and it keeps the heat in the nest nicely. Our breeding tubs are made from large storage containers that we have cut the lids out of and attached wire to. We have found that these cages/tubs are the best for breeding and raising ratties in as they are nearly draft free, there is no possibility of bubs being squashed or pushed though cage bars and the tubs come in a huge range of sizes.

Diet

Our ratties have a home made dry mix available to them at all times which is made up of Large Wild Bird Mix, Dog Kibble/Lab Blocks, various Breakfast Cereals, Rolled Oats, Wholemeal/White Pasta, Water Crackers and other Biscuits. Our mums and bubs receive a very similar dry food mix although theirs is higher in protein and I use smaller pieces in the mix as much as I can since bubs are smaller. The main difference in the babies mix is the addition of kitten biscuits. Most nights they receive a separate dinner along side their seed mix. This can be anything from wholemeal bread/rolls, cooked rice or pasta with added vegetables, scrambled egg, baby food/cereals, tuna and other tinned fish, 3-4 bean mix, tinned cat or dog food.