Buying a rat cage?

Be careful to get a large, quality enclosure

People new to rats or who wish to upgrade from their current cage often ask me for cage recommendations. It’s sometimes difficult to respond to questions about specific cages on the market because I haven’t owned all of them, so I tend to resort to general principles and write articles about them here on All About Rats.

With the increasing demand for stand-alone cages, a lot of manufactures are making cheap versions of good cages, so you really need to be careful. You don’t want tall narrow cages and you don’t want bars that are too wide or so weak you can’t use them for furnishings. You will hate any cage that has poor access so you can’t easily clean the cage or change hammocks, let alone get your rats in and out safely. I also understand that people want to give their rats a nice home, but they don’t want a cage so large that it takes over the house. Don’t worry, your rats will take over your house even if your cage does not, so give in and get them the best if you can afford it. Just make sure that giant cage can be divided into two in case you need to make a smaller area for them to live in. There will be times this comes in handy: when they first arrive, when you add in more rats, when the rats are old, when you need to isolate one for a medical condition, etc.

Do you really need a large cage? Well, yes and no. Depending on how many rats you have, and how often they are out of their cage, you may not need feel you need a giant cage, but what happens when you are away for a weekend and you’ve hired someone to come to look after the rats? I am lucky to find someone who will come twice daily to supply food/water and make sure no medical problems have arisen, let alone to take them out to their free roam area. I wouldn’t even trust my rats to be mellow enough with a stranger to move in and out of the cages on rotation as they do at home, nor could I afford the hours it would take for a carer to perform this task! With a big cage, I worry a little less about going away (though I do worry and I don’t often go away…hey ho).

On the other hand, I don’t always use all the space in my big cages as rats don’t always get along in a large space. To read more on inter-rat relationships see this article.

I realise some people just want a quick answer and will be annoyed. So, here I’ll just give you the cage recommendations, and that’s it.

So, here is my favourite: The Savic Suite Royale (called the SRS for some reason) which is 95cm x 63cm x 159cm. The build is robust; the quality is excellent; the bar spacing is perfect; it has a lip to both levels so you don’t immediately have to have kick-out bars fitted to keep the bedding inside the cage, and you can hang toys and hammocks at both levels. You can close off half of it or use the full cage and you can even have it sanded down and repainted if you have problems over time with rust inevitable in any metal cage, though regular cleaning and keeping the cage dry will keep rust to a minimum). I have three of them and I’d have another as a spare if I had the room for it.

The problem is getting one new. I used to buy them new very easily but since Brexit I can’t even find them new, though you can apparently buy a new one and collect it here. You can also buy them second hand and, yes, you can have them sanded down and resprayed (not cheap!), but actually you may not need to as they are superb cages that last a long time.

In fact, they are so good and in such demand that we all end up with cheaper knock-offs of these excellent cages, none of which I like as much but a few of which are perfectly good even if modifications are necessary.

Before I move on to my next recommendation, take a look at the quality of the bars in the photo below:

I hear that the double Midwest Critter Nation is just as good as the SRS. Yes, it is a little smaller than the SRS at 92cm x 62cm x 160cm, and it also has the disadvantage of shallow trays so you’ll need the kick-out or “poo” guards in order to provide deep enough substrate for digging. You can get those made a number of places including at Minipetz.

But be careful with the Midwest Double Critter Nation as there seem to be different models to this and one of them looks fine (the one with horizontal bars) while the one with vertical bars looks like they have cheapened the materials and made the cage a lot smaller.

You can also try Little Zoo Venturer. The bars aren’t as robust as the SRS and you can break them with heavy furniture and use, but the size is good at 93 x 68 x 158, a lot of which is actual cage as opposed to storage beneath the cage. However, compared to the SRS it has weaker bars, even if they are spaced correctly and you can’t hang anything easily from the middle section as there are no bars to do, so I am told. Even so, I’d have one in a jiffy. But beware, there is every kind of knock off of this cage and most of them aren’t going to be nearly as good. If you see vertical bars as opposed to horizontal bars, it isn’t a Little Zoo Venturer even if they’ve painted it gold to look like one.

You really have to study the ad, the photos, the dimensions, then ring the shop and ask about the cage before buying because there are so many copy cats. This is what the cage looks like, but cheap imitations at slightly reduced prices abound:

Are there any cages I woudl avoid? Yes, most of them. I don’t recommend cages from Cozy Pet. None of the ones I’ve seen for sale recently are wider than 80cms, and 80cm is too narrow. They used to do a wider one but no longer, it seems. So, I’d avoid them.

I definitely do not recommend Pawhut. Bars too wide, terrible access, poor materials, mean…you’d have to take the whole thing apart just to change a hammock. I was going to link to one to show you how terrible, but it depressing.

Savic is usually a great brand but they have plenty of useless, small cages or ones that are big enough but have terrible access. It’s really their Suite Royale I like. Some Savic cages make great temporary cages and cages we can travel with and bring our rats! But that is for another article.

It may surprise you to learn that even though I’m a rat breeder, I don’t like the idea of keeping animals in cages in the first place. I think I’ve found a way to keep rats as pets that suit the rats, who want to explore, and yet doesn’t create chaos in the rest of my household or an unsafe environment for them. I write a lot about having rats out to explore safely and about the importance of time with your rats. They are a demanding pet in some ways, but because they are quiet we can often fail to tune into their needs.

There are no doubt many other acceptable cages for rats and I will have a look for more in time. Whatever cage you have, make sure it is suitable even for those times you are away or are out for an evening and the rats are unable to free roam or access their usual play area.