Fixed up rabbit cages

[SQ]

Use a rabbit cage that is about 40 inches long.
They have large doors, are spoacious and fairly easy to keep clean.

This cage is 40 inches long, 20 inches wide and 20 inches high.
It is a good cage for 2 to 4 ratties (Cage calculator says 4 rats).
The bar spacing is too wide for babies and small rats.

Add two homemade shelves, made from very sturdy cookie cooling racks cable tied onto the cage,
and covered with dollar store dish drain trays cut to fit and cable tied on.

EDIT: It is a good idea to cover all cage =s with hardware cloth because predators can get through the large bar spacing - see - Ermines https://www.ratshackforum.com/threads/ermines-are-predators-that-can-enter-your-home.36757/

Dish drain tray :

Finished with two of godmothers girls trying it out

and another cage of mine

 

[lillyin223]

Looks great! :thumbup:

 

[SQ]

A second example:

The base is approx 39 inches by 17 inches and it is approx 20 inches high.
The bar spacing is about 1 inch.
The cage has a door in the front as well as a large door on the top.
This is a good cage for two rats.

It has a large, homemade shelf and a small homemade shelf.

And a few pictures of the set up cage with ratties

...... before the blue shelf went missing

 

[jorats]

That really looks great. You can turn any largish cage into a decent rat cage.

 

[Kaput33]

These look awesome!
I have a question that's a little off topic: How do you keep the fabric liners to stay in cages like these with large pans? My ratties like to mess my liners up and it ends up being a big mess :gaah:

 

[Cinderwolf]

These look awesome!
I have a question that's a little off topic: How do you keep the fabric liners to stay in cages like these with large pans? My ratties like to mess my liners up and it ends up being a big mess :gaah:

When I had my rabbit cage, I had a piece of coroplast cut to the size of the very bottom of the cage. thne I would wrap thatin fleece 9 and clip it down with binder clips) then place it in the bottom. it was a pain in the butt but ti worked.

 

[jorats]

I really like the coroplast idea and wrapping the fleece around it. Another thing you can do if you are good with sewing is make your fleece like a pillow case and insert the coroplast inside and place in the bottom of the cage.

SQ, these are awesome ideas.
I saw a bunny cage advertised that is 57" long and 26" wide. Wow! That would make an awesome old age home for older rats.

 

[Kaput33]

Hey guys,

Do you know where to get coroplast in Fredericton?

 

[victoria]

Try Home Depot, Rona, or any other store that sells home improvement supplies.

 

[SQ]

For large pieces cut to the size you want such as 4 ft by 4 ft or 4 ft by 6 ft, contact the businesses that make signs.

 

[Reepicheep]

Yay! Thank you. I'm renovating a bunny cage for my two baby rats. I had to wrap it in wire mesh, so as not to have any escapees. I was wracking my brain trying to think of how to put shelves in! May I post pictures here when I am finished? I made a hidey house and hammock to go in it too.

 

[Cinderwolf]

Yay! Thank you. I'm renovating a bunny cage for my two baby rats. I had to wrap it in wire mesh, so as not to have any escapees. I was wracking my brain trying to think of how to put shelves in! May I post pictures here when I am finished? I made a hidey house and hammock to go in it too.

Shelve can be easily installed All you need is a wire grid or sorts ( a oven cooling rack works, I ued panel from a hamster play pen and grids from one of those wire shelves ( thaat are ued to make guinea pig cages) then you zip tie them to the ides and cover with coroplast or dish racks, or linoleum, whatever you have.

 

[PrissyKrissy]

My first rat cage was a rabbit cage. I don't remember the dimentions but it was the biggest superpetz rat home it was huge. I loved that cage. it was so easy to decorate, i had a second level and TONS of toys. the only problem was that i could only keep one of my rats in it untill the others got big enough to not escape. even the big boy escaped a couple times, i woke up with him right by my face like HELLO. lol. he was a good boy though and it only happened a couple times.

 

[TaylahBussau]

You made a really nice cage for the rat i think it's really great your pet will enjoy there you made everything very comfortable for him.

 

[GRNDPNDR]

Holy crap, that second cage is exactly the same one we have for our girls.

Are those cookie sheets used for shelving? I've wanted to add some shelves, but have been a bit too busy to put the brain power into finding a creative and cheap way to add shelves.

 

[mamarat]

Cookie cooling racks covered by dish draining trays. You attach them with tie wraps. Everything can be bought at the Dollar store. It's a pretty cool way for extra shelves.

 

[SterlingRats0408]

That's fantastic. I got a cage with the 'dumpster girls' that had wooden shelves they were so smelly. It was just a 2x4 cut to fit. I was not bringing it into my house. So we took the shelves out and added more climbing toys. But you can tell Tatter misses the shelves. I want to try the wire racks and dish trays

Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk

 

[Ratlover2013]

Here is my fixed up rabbit cage for my two elderly boys. They do have dishes for food and water that go on their shelf, but they were out for play when I took these pics.

The shelf is a piece of plywood with coroplast on top and a CN ladder attached.