Perfect Cage 2: Food and Water

In this Perfect Cage, I shall be talking about food and water!

Food...

Like humans, rats need a healthy diet to live a long, healthy life.

The size of the portion of food you give your rats should depend on the weight of your rats. You will need to replace your rat's food every day.

Rat food can be store bought or ordered online.

A balanced diet consists of :

• Rat pellets/blocks or a varied grain based mixture like muesli
• A healthy range of fruit and vegetables
• Any other rat treats (only occasionally) 

Rat pellets/blocks are the most common food people give their pet rats.
They consist of: wheat, chicken, beef, poultry fat, oats, soya beans and minerals. They provide most of the vitamins and nutrients your rat needs.

Soya beans are even known to help prevent cancer!

A mix of seeds and grains (like rat muesli) is another popular meal for rats. However rats tend to pick out their favorite bits and leave the rest! This results in an unbalanced diet. If you do choose to give your rats a seeds and grain mix, then use only muesli made for rats and containing all the nutrients a rat needs.

Some people decide to make their own rat musli! There are plenty of recipes online available.

Rat treats can be many different things, like: fruit and veg, oats, nuts, dried pasta and bread

(avoid giving your rats food that contain high fat and sugar). Make sure you give your rats different treats everyday!

My rats eat 'complete food' rat pellets as their daily food. As well as the pellets, every day I also treat them with a portion of fruit, vegetables, seeds, nuts, dried pasta or any leftover foods available. Their favourite treats are peas and dried spinach tricolour pasta.

There are plenty of human foods that are safe for rats. Here are some:

https://pethelpful.com/rodents/Rat-Nutritional-Information-Can-my-Pet-Rat-Eat-This

Food bowls are important to hold your rats food.

Here are some images of my rat's food:

                                                                                   

Water...

Water needs to be replaced every other day or as soon as the water bottle is empty. Make sure you don't leave the water in for longer that 2 days to avoid bacteria forming inside the water.

You can't give rats tap water because it contains fluoride, which is VERY dangerous to rats. You can only give your rats bottled water.

The size of your water bottle depends on the side of your rats. For example: small rat, small bottle. Although if the rat is small because it is a baby, I would recommend an average sized water bottle.

You should give your rats 25-50ml of water in their water bottle. Always make sure your rats have plenty of water available.

Here is some images of my rat's water:

Stay tuned for the next Perfect Cage!

The enjoyment of pea fishing

Pea fishing explained...

Pea fishing is a simple yet fun playtime game. It involves the rat fishing peas out of a container with shallow water in it.

Rats love fishing the peas out with their tiny little hands and also love eating them!

The only problem is that water does regularly spill out of the tray.

How to set it up...

If you want to try out pea fishing for yourself, then this is what you will need:

• A sturdy container like a paint roller tray
• 1 pint of water
• About 15 frozen peas
• Some rats

This is what you do with them:

1. Pour the water into the tray.
2. Put the peas and make sure they are spread out. 
3. Place the tray somewhere waterproof.
4. Enjoy watching your rats go fishing!

WARNING: This may get messy! Be prepared to clean up the water spill!

Here is some pictures and two videos of Darwin and Galileo pea fishing:

Hope your rats enjoy pea fishing!                                                                              

Perfect Cage 1: Hideouts

Intro to Perfect Cage

Hello everybody!

This is post number one in a series of posts I am going to write called Perfect Cage! 

It is going to be about how to make your rat's cage perfect!

WARNING: This will only work for rats!

Hideouts...

Rats need places to rest, sleep and just laze around!

Boxes, tubs, pots, second hand baby/toddler toys (doll house, baby teething blanket), vases and even hammocks and fabric tunnels are Ratty paradise!
 
For starters, you would want to get a couple of cereal boxes or large tea bag boxes and cut a small square out of one side. This shall be where your rats climb in and out. Then arrange the new rooms inside the cage on different levels so that you create different adventure spaces for them.
                                                     Result:

For plastic tubs, you cut an archway on one side and place it in a corner that is not taken
up by a litter tray.

Plant pots are a bit more trickier. You will need a plastic medium sized pot.
You could use a mini hack saw or a box cutter knife to cut an archway in the upside-down pot and place it in a corner. WARNING: Please ask an adult to help with the cutting as the knives are very sharp!!!                          
                                                                     Result:

As for the hammocks and tunnels, I shall talk a lot more about them and show you how to make them in future posts. It is lots of fun making them and the little ones will love them, I promise! 

Suitable baby toys which can be used as hammock or hideouts can be picked up at markets, charity and second hand shops for pennies. (Avoid toys which are made by very soft plastic)

I also found a vase in my dads shed that was made from paper mâché and my rats loved to chew it and sleep in it! (Only use a vase you don't want anymore because the rats will tear it apart)

If you choose something made of wood please be careful and check that wood is made of non toxic materials especially avoiding  Pine & Cedar. See the list below for suitable ones:

http://exoticpets.about.com/od/RatSupplies/fl/Safe-and-Toxic-Woods-For-Rats.htm

Paper mâché vase

Normal summer hammock

Winter cube hammock

Tunnel

Baby teething blanket used as hammock

DIY hat hammock

Stay tuned for the next Perfect Cage post!

Ratty jokes

Here are some fun jokes about rats!

What did one lab rat say to the other?

I've got my scientist so well trained that every time I push the buzzer, he brings me a treat!

Where do you go to replace a rat's tail? 

A re-tail store!

What is a rat's favorite game?

Hide and squeak!

How do you know if your rats are hungry?

They are breathing!

What did the rat say to the bully?

Be warned, I know kaRATe!

What do you call a spoilt rat?

A bRAT!

Why do ghosts have holes?

Blame the rats!

Hope you have laughed while reading these jokes!