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Our Facilities

We use a variety of cages, both purchased and homemade, depending on the life stage of our rats.

We use kiln dried pine as a substrate as it provides great absorption and odor control. For their diet, we feed Mazuri rat blocks as their staple with a mixture of foraging seed and fresh produce to add variety. For enrichment, we add plenty of climbing ropes, hammocks, baskets, ledges, and wooden toys.

Maternity Cages

For pregnant does and litters up to 3 weeks old, we use either our rack system, bin cages, or occasionally wire cages like Prevue 528. The type of maternity cage we use depends on the mother rat and which setup we think she'd do best in. Some rats prefer more enclosed spaces while others like more room to move around. Some momma rats are extra mischievous and need to have their motion restricted more while pregnant for their own safety, in which case the rack system with its lower heigh works great.

At around 2 weeks, we add some enrichment to these cages as "training wheels" before transferring them to the grow outs.

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Grow Out Cages

Once litters begin to explore their cage more and try to climb (around 2.5-3 weeks), we move them over to a larger grow out cage where more enrichment is provided. This gives the babies a chance to practice their motor skills and learn to navigate. We use single story Critter Nations, Prevue 528's, and 110 qt bin cages as our grow outs, depending on litter size and what type of setup the mom prefers. These cages are also used to house "overflow" babies waiting on adoption.

Adult Housing

For our main breeding colony, we prefer Double Critter Nations (DCN) as housing. We remove the center rack to create one large open space and fill it with enrichment for climbing. Permanent residents that prefer to be housed in smaller groups live in 110 qt bin cages or what we refer to as the "Quarter Nation," a DCN that I have modified to be split into 4 different sections to house 4 separate groups. 

All of our rats are litter box trained and get free roam time outside their enclosures daily.  

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