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In this section you will find a basic outline of rat care. There are links to more detailed sites under the link button.
If you have any specific questions regarding rat care, feel free to shoot me an email.
In no way is this information a substitute for the care and advice a veterinarian can give you, this is the information I’ve compiled from many years of rat owning and all opinions expressed are my own.
Quick Links
What should I keep my pet rats in?
Rats are best housed in large cages. Cages provide maximum ventilation, which is very important for your rats as they have extremely delicate respiratory systems and can suffer many respiratory related ailments if not kept in a well-ventilated cage. Most pet shops in South Australia display their rats in aquariums, which unfortunately gives people the impression that an aquarium is a suitable enclosure for a rat when it is in fact not ideal at all. Keeping a rat in aquarium means that it will be subjected to the concentrated amounts of ammonia generated from it’s own waste. The ammonia can build up in their systems very rapidly and cause problems with the rats respiratory system and also cause a dangerous flare up of mycoplasma (a resident bacteria that flares up when the rat is under stress) in the rats body. Also, it’s particularly important for South Australian rat owners to keep their rats cool in our extremely hot summers and a cage will make this a lot easier and greatly reduce the risk of your rats becoming heat stressed which can be rapidly fatal.
It’s also best to keep your rat cage indoors. Rats are very sensitive to both the cold and the heat and suffering both extremes can be rapidly fatal for them. The South Australian summer heat is pretty intense and most rats wouldn’t survive more than a couple of hours if housed outside on a hot day.
Some important things to consider when acquiring a rat cage:
- Bar spacing. Check the bar spacing and ensure that it is not so big that your rats can slip out. Anything bigger than a couple of centimetres will be out of the question if you intend to keep baby rats in the cage. Also keep in mind that females are smaller and more prehensile than males.
- Size. Rats are active animals and need room to move. Please measure your cage and enter the measurements into the cage calculator, which will tell you roughly how many rats your cage can hold while still giving them enough space.
- Cage shape. Most people find that their rats love to climb.. for this reason, tall cages are often preferable over level flat ones. You can install many things for your rats to play on and interact with in these types of cages. Ensure that the base of the cage is still big enough; it’s no good buying a tall vertical cage that is too small.
- Cleaning. Keep in mind that you are going to have to clean the cage out twice – three times a week (Depending on the cage size and how many rats you have, it could be more frequently). Cages with removable pans at the bottom and large doors that allow easy access to all areas of the cage will make your job a lot easier and quicker.
- Levels. Make sure the cage either comes with multiple levels or that you can easily add multiple levels.
- Floor. Where possible, try to make sure the floor of the cage is not wire. Rats can develop a painful condition called bumble foot (ulcerated feet) if they are forced to walk on wire constantly. You will find that most cages, even the ones designed for rats have wire floors. This can be easily fixed by placing something hard and flat or soft over most of the wire such as - tiles, fabric, towels, plastic sheeting, etc. It’s fine to leave some areas of the cage with wire bottoms, but it’s important to ensure that your rat has somewhere flat too rest his feet.
Here are some pictures of rat cages that are particularly well set up to give you some idea. Keep in mind that it’s all well and good to have a cage that’s plenty big enough for your rats.. but a large empty cage isn’t going to do them much good at all! Get creative and give them lots of things to climb and sleep in. Hammocks are absolutely essential for all rats!
Left: The owner of this cage has used polar fleece to line the levels and bottom of the cage. Not only does it make the cage look colourful, polar fleece is nice and warm for your rats and gentle on little ratty toes.
Right: This is great setup for a large number of rats!
(thanks to Lakeisha from 28 Rats for this photo)
Left: Another example of a good cage setup.
(thanks to Gabrielle of Barakuda rattery for this photo)
Note the use of household objects such as peg baskets for sleeping areas!
There are a few good cages available in Adelaide pet stores and shops.
We’ve compiled a short list with pictures and information on where you usually get some of these cages.
Right: This cage is commonly available from a few different pet shops in Adelaide. It doesn’t seem to have a specific name but is marketed as a ‘rat cage’. It’s a good cage with small bar spacing (great for young rats). It measures 60cm width 62cm high and 40cm deep and can hold two rats. This cage also works well if you want to extend it because the top and bottom of it is just a single panel of wire. Two cages can be purchased and stacked on top of each other and clipped creating a double story cage with twice as much space. It has a slide out tray with two large doors and is very easy to keep clean.
We have found these pet shops most often have it in stock. It is a relatively inexpensive and costs around $60 - $75 (please note this is just an estimate, prices may vary and change! Call the pet shop of your choice and check with them.)
Toucan Pet Centres Pty Ltd
Harris Scarfe Basement
81 Rundle Mall Adelaide SA 5000
Phone: (08) 8223 1310
(Toucan pet centre also separately sells a stand on wheels with a storage shelf made specifically for this cage)
Pets Paradise
Tea Tree Plaza -
Modbury, SA, 5092
Phone:
(08) 8395 5155
This cage is also readily available online: Pets Plus and Pet City Online
This cage is another one that doesn’t seem to have a name. It’s marketed as a ‘cat cage’ but is a great rat cage! It measures 43cm wide 57cm deep and 94cm high and can hold up to 8 rats comfortably. It’s on a set of castor wheels and is easily moved around. It has two large doors giving easy access to the upper and lower parts of the cage and has a slide out tray making it very easy to keep clean. The only downside to this cage is that it has very large bar spacing making it unsuitable for young and rats and small rats. The bars are approximately 2.5cm apart.
The only place we’ve ever found it for sale (apart from online) is at Cheap as Chips stores in Adelaide.
We’ve found the availability listings along the bottom of the page be wrong a couple of times so just ring your local Cheap as Chips store and quote “BA3467” as the product reference number they will be able to tell you if they have it in stock or not right away.
This cage is also available online MyShopping - Pet Supplies
Just looking up ‘rat cage’ on ebay will give a myriad of results!
The Dapper Rat has a great guide to making your own cage from a cabinet.
First and foremost, consider how many rats your cage can comfortably hold. Overcrowding your cage will lead to very grumpy ratties who may have territorial spats and wind up injuring each other. Measure your cage carefully and enter the dimensions into the cage calculator. If the cage calculator tells you the cage is only big enough for one rat… you shouldn’t buy it two keep rats in at all.
Rats must be kept in groups of same sex animals, pairs or more. There is very rarely an exception to this rule of rat ownership. Rats are very social animals being family orientated and need a friend or two to feel happy and safe in their environment. Lone rats may appear happy enough and some people believe they can compensate for not purchasing a friend for them... but the truth is, is that humans cannot do the same things a rat does and therefore we cannot fill the gap in a lone rats heart. The best way I can explain it, is to put yourself in the rats position... imagine if someone put you - a social being with a complex mind, into a box and left you by yourself with no one to talk too or interact with. Wouldn’t you be a little lonely? I think so.
There is a myth that keeping a rat alone will make it more friendly and sociable towards its owner. This is completely false. Often when kept alone, rats will become and timid and sometimes aggressive due to feeling vulnerable. Keeping your rat with a friend will make both animals much more social and calmer as pets.
Where possible, it is recommended that you buy baby rats from a breeder rather than a petshop. There are many reasons for this:
- A responsible breeder will only sell you a properly socialized and healthy animal. Pet shops often just want to get the rats off their hands before they get too big and are no longer considered ‘cute’ by the general public.
- When buying from a breeder (a responsible one, that is!), you have the opportunity to view the parents of the rat you’re purchasing. Some breeders may even have a detailed pedigree spanning back several generations. You will also have an idea of the environment the rat came from… when buying from a pet shop, you have no real way of knowing what the rats living conditions were like before it came the pet shop or what sort of diseases it could be carrying.
- A good breeder will offer support for the entire life of the rat. If you have any questions about your new rat, a good breeder will always be there to answer them and help. You will find that a lot of breeders (within reason!) will also take their rats back if you become suddenly unable to care for them.
- A lot of pet shops seem to have trouble sexing young rats or they don’t realize that baby rats can get pregnant very early. I’ve been into a number of pet shops and seen male rats in with females that were plenty old enough to get pregnant. I’ve even bought a young female rat only to find she was pregnant and have rescued a number of visibly pregnant and uncomfortable Mum rats from pet stores.
We are aware of the fact that in Adelaide there are hardly any breeders who breed rats for pets (the ones we choose to endorse are listed under the link page). We are always on the lookout for a good petstore to link too on this page.. We have visited a lot of pet stores in Adelaide and have so far not found any that meet the standards of decent rat care and therefore do not want to endorse them. By ‘good’ we mean that they offer the correct information about rats, know to separate the sexes by five weeks of age, handle their rats regularly, feed their rats a decent diet, etc. If you know of one, please feel free to email me.
Regardless of where you get your rat from, here are some things to keep in mind…
- Become familiar with what young rats look like at different stages of growing up. A lot of people will lie about the age of young rats to get rid of them faster. It’s generally best to get rats as young as possible (5 – 6 weeks is a good age) so that they can grow up bonding with you.
- Look at the general condition of the rat. Is it plump and healthy? Does it have any patches of fur missing? Are there pophryin stains around its eyes or nose? Give the rat a good visual check over before purchasing.
- Is the rat friendly? Well-socialized babies should be curious and happy to be picked up gently and held against your body. If the rat runs to the corner of the cage and cowers in fear… it’s likely that it hasn’t been properly socialized. Pay particular attention to this when buying an older rat. Once rats get to a few months old they will have developed their attitude toward humans and it can be very difficult to change the mind of a bitey or timid rat (not to say it’s impossible, though!)
Is it better to get a male or a female rat?
I don’t think either sex is better than the other… but there are some differences.
- Females are generally very active and love to explore things. Males are the rats that will happily curl up in your lap and snooze.
- Male rats grow to be bigger than females. Adult female rats will generally appear more lithe and agile than male rats.
- In all honestly male rats do tend to smell a little more than female rats due to their scent marking. I think they make up for this by being extra cuddly, though. =p
Not nearly as much as people think they do. There is an unfortunate stereotype that says rats are stinky and dirty, which is simply not true. Rats are meticulously clean and spend much of their days grooming themselves! Like all animals, rats have a certain smell to them (eg, dog smell and horse smell!)… but as long as you keep their environment clean this is not a bad or overpowering smell at all. Our rats cage is smack bang in the middle of our lounge room and no one who has come to our house has been offended by their smell… most visitors comment sounding shocked that they “cant smell them at all!” I find that my rats smell a bit like plain corn chips if it helps you to imagine.
Keeping a clean cage is integral to maintain your rats good health. Rats kept in a dirty environment will develop a lot of health conditions quickly and will live short and unhappy lives. Rats are clean creatures and are not at all happy to sit in their own mess. You should aim to give your cage a full scale clean out at least twice a week. If you have a very big cage with only a couple of rats you could probably get away with just a weekly clean out.
The definition of a ‘full scale clean out’ to me, is changing all bedding, all cage linings, and wiping down the entire cage. It is never a good idea to use any cleaning chemicals when cleaning out a rats cage because even the tiniest amount consumed or inhaled by your rats could be very dangerous. Instead, mix some vinegar with warm water and use this to wipe down all surfaces in your cage. Vinegar has anti bacterial properties and is harmless to rats if they happen to lick some up. We have a very large cage and doing a ‘full scale clean’ for us takes about 20 minutes. It’s not that hard!
It’s also a good idea to ‘spot clean’ the cage each day when you have the time. You may also find that fabric hammocks (and other bedding things!) get dirty quickly. If you have a large amount of hammocks you can just rotate them every couple of days as needed.
Unfortunately, our little friends have short life spans... Generally around two to three and half years is the limit. This is another good reason to buy from a breeder... animals bred from healthy parents who are born into a healthy environment will live longer than those bred from sick parents. 
What should I use to put in the bottom of my rats cage?
Regardless of what anyone tells you and the fact that these products are often marketed towards small animals… never ever use pine or cedar wood shavings/saw dust. These products that are unfortunately often marketed as ‘small pet beddings’ contain harmful toxic chemicals that can affect the vital organs of your rats and cause many different ailments. Gravel style cat litters are also inappropriate to use as a cage lining because they are very dusty, often heavily perfumed and will cause respiratory problems in rats. I find that it’s best to stick to paper based cat litters, such as ‘breeders choice’ (pictured below). Breeders choice is recycled newspaper in pellet form which means it’s non dusty and perfectly safe for your rats. It’s not very expensive at all and is available from supermarkets like Coles and Woolies in the pet aisle. I use breeders choice in the slide out tray part of my cage to catch any stray excrement. It’s also great to use directly as a substrate for your rats to stand on if you have a flat base in your cage. If you have a wire base in your cage, you should use something to make most of the bottom of the cage flat (fabric, ceramic tiles, ply wood, etc) so that the rats feet do not become sore from standing on the wire constantly.
Rats are omnivores meaning that they will eat a broad range of foods. They need a varied and healthy diet to be in optimum condition. There should be water and food constantly available to your rats as they have a ‘grazing’ style of feeding and eat whenever they feel hungry… they have very fast metabolisms and eat a large amount per day in relation to their size.
There are a lot of different opinions and advice out there in regards to the best diet for a rat and it is best to do a bit of research when deciding what you want to feed (There are a couple of diet related websites on the links page to get you started!). In most cases, the commercially available rat foods found in the pet aisle of your local supermarket do not meet the basic nutritional requirements of the average rat (which does seem a little ridiculous, I know!). Commercially available rat foods are usually composed of almost entirely seeds and little else. Seeds are a good thing to have in your rats diet as they do provide some important nutritional material… but there are so many other things that your rat should be fed to keep him healthy and happy.
This is the staple mix that we feed our rats on. This food is constantly available to them in a large bowl in their cage.. We do our shopping at Coles and all the ingredients listed here come to a total of approximately $15.00 at the checkout. We mix all the ingredients together as per below in a large lidded Tupperware container and find that this amount will last three rats approximately a month.
It may seem easier and cheaper at the time to just buy one of the commercial premade rat food mixes from the petfood aisle… but consider the fact that these foods come in 300 – 400g boxes and would probably only last a cage of two to three rats a week or so and cost around $5. Not only is it a little cheaper to make your own food, you’re definitely doing your rats a favor…they will be much happier and healthier for it.
*disclaimer: this diet has been formulated over several years of rat ownership. It may not be ‘perfect’ in the eyes of some... but it has worked for us and always kept our rats healthy and happy. We have chosen to put it up here to give you some ideas for making your own mixes.*
- 1kg bag of Mckenzies soup mix (the ‘colourful’ one that has peas and carrots in it)
- ‘You’ll love Coles’ brand Cornflakes
- Sanitarium Puffed Wheat
- San Remo Vegeroni Pasta spirals
- Coles ‘Smart Buy’ rolled oats
- ‘You’ll love Coles’ Dried sultana
We use the whole bag of Mckenzies soup mix as a ‘base’ and add equal portions of everything else.. This mix can be stored for a couple of months as long as it’s kept in an air tight container.
In addition to the staple diet dry mix, you should also add some fruit and vegetables to your rats diet. Our rats are given a selection of fruit and vegetables once a day in the evening. We mix up what they get each day so it’s a little different and they don’t get bored… here is a list of fruit and veggies that are good for rats!
- Broccoli
- Carrots (recent research has found that carrots help to prevent cancer in rats!)
- Corn on the cob (They love picking the kernels off)
- Mushrooms
- Kidney beans
- Strawberries
- Grapes
- Banana
- Watermelon
- Apple (no seeds!)
- Peas and corn (preferably defrosted/cooked!)
- Flax seeds
- Pepita seeds
- Sunflower Seeds
- Kiwi fruit
- Pumpkin
We also feed our rats some wholegrain bread soaked in olive oil most days. Olive oil is very good for their coats and skin and keeps them looking healthy and shiny!
All pets appreciate the occasional treat and ratties are no exception! Treats are great for bonding with rats and generally seem to make them happy and excited. This is a list of things that we use to treat our rats with. Everything on this list is still quite healthy, but a lot of it is high in fat hence the reason we use it as a ‘treat’.
- Nuts such as macadamias or almonds. Rats love most kinds of nuts and although they can be a bit high in fat it’s safe to feed them a couple of times a week.
- Low fat yogurt. We feed this to our rats several times a week. It’s healthy for them and they really enjoy it!
- Yoghurt drops/boost fruit cubes. Available in cute little packets from Coles!
- Chicken bones (cooked table scraps). Chicken bones with a bit of meat left on them are perfectly safe to feed to rats! They love them and get quite a bit of enrichment out of them. You will find that they practically devour the whole bone, which is fine. We feed our rats chicken bones twice a week.
- Avocado. Rats love avocado… unfortunately it is quite high in fat and they can’t have it very often! Also keep in mind that the skin of an avocado is toxic to rats as is the fruit directly around the pip.
- Baby food. Rats adore most varieties of baby food! We only feed baby food to our rats once a week or so… it’s great to use when bonding with new rats or trying to train your rat to do a new trick!
Rats are hardly little creatures and will eat just about anything… but there are some foods that they should NEVER be offered as they are toxic to them! Please keep this link handy as it details all of the foods that are known to be harmful to rats.
Yes, absolutely! Rats are very intelligent and will learn very quickly. Check out the videos below!
Right: URL: This rat runs through an agility course!
Left: URL: This rat spins on voice command! Very cute. =)
You will find a million and one videos like this on youtube. It’s a little known fact among those new to the rat world… but rats are highly trainable and very intelligent. The best way to go about training them is to use principles of Positive Reinforcement training. This means that you reward the rat (with their favorite food!) for performing the right behaviour and simply ignore the wrong behaviour and there is never any negativity. You will find that they can learn to do a lot of things very quickly… the video on the right is a small tutorial on teaching a pet rat to ‘spin’. URL
In basic terms, porphyrin is the equivalent of rat mucus. It is a rusty red colour and is excreted from the eyes and the nose. It can look a lot like blood and rats with porphyrin around their noses often look like they have blood noses.
It is normal to see a small amount of porphyrin flecks around the eye… but if you ever see a rat that has large amounts of porphyrin staining around its eyes (sometimes referred to as ‘red tears’) or so much porphyrin around its nose that it resembles a ratty blood nose… it is most likely sick, malnourished or stressed. Porphyrin is produced by the rats body and acts as a lubricant for the eyes and upper respiratory system… but when a rat becomes sick or stressed their bodies go into porphyrin overdrive and produce much more than required (kind of like when a person is sick and they have lots of snot!) which leads to it being excreted in large amounts via their noses and tear ducts. Porphyrin can be a sign of several diseases your rat may be suffering… but the most common in Australia is Mycoplasma.
Every pet rat in Australia is a carrier of the bacteria Mycoplasma. Mycoplasma is a resident bacteria in a rats upper respiratory system and there are virtually no pet rats in Australia that are Mycoplasma free. Mycoplasma is only a problem when it ‘flares up’… in a healthy, young rat the Mycoplasma bacteria is generally not a problem. However, if the rat becomes stressed for a long period of time or immune compromised by some other way (such as a heavy infestation of parasites, being exposed to weather extremes, etc) Mycoplasma will take the opportunity to multiply out of control and cause symptoms of a respiratory infection in rats.
Symptoms include..
- Porphyrin staining around the eyes and the nose.
- Frequent sneezing. (a rat sneeze sounds pretty similar to a tiny human sneeze!)
- Wheezing/’clicking’ noises
- General lethargy and sometimes a lack of appetite
In most cases, a Mycoplasma flare up us is easily treated. If your rat hasn’t improved and cleared up within a day or so you should seek veterinary attention. Your vet will be able to prescribe you a broad spectrum anti bacterial medication that will help your rat to overcome to the Mycoplasma and return to normal health.
As with all illnesses, the best treatment for Myco is prevention. Simple things like keeping your cage clean, feeding your rats a nutritional diet and keeping your rats indoors out of the weather will greatly decrease their chances of suffering a flare up. Keep in mind that some rats are simply more prone to it than others as Mycoplasma resistance is inherited which is another reason to buy your rats from somewhere responsible. A responsible breeder will not breed from animals who suffer frequent Myco flare ups or have had particularly bad flare ups in the past.
*MORE INFORMATION TO COME*
© Karina Tyrrell. I give permission for this information to be reproduced (but ONLY in its entirety),
as long as full credit is given and a link provided back to the S.A.R.O.N website (www.southaustralianrats.com)