In-Person Tours: CURRENTLY CLOSED – we are hoping to reopen our rat room soon.

Exceptions may be made by Jax.

For a Virtual Tour: Email: support@rattery.org to schedule a time and get a link.

How We Care for Our Rats

Diet

We feed moms and babies, Kalmbach 23% (protein). Most of our studs or adults not breeding are eating, Kalmbach 18%.

We chose this food based on research. We do not feed any foraging type mixes, but sometimes are pregnant or nursing rat moms will get a high protein cat food or eggs as a treat.

We are very conscious about what are all are rats are consuming. Our diets promote life longevity and numerous health benefits. We also provide treats we bake fresh.

Everyone drinks from a water bottle. Unless we supply supplemental kitten formula in a dish for moms and babies.

We use the dishwasher to sanitize our bottles routinely.

Fresh water is provided 2-3 times a week.

Enrichment

Enrichment opportunities are very important to us and our rat care. We believe in providing plenty of toys, chews, and boredom breakers to keep natural foraging and chewing instincts under control.

We adjust toys and enrichment items as needed. We also do a bit of cage swapping when we are deep cleaning. I like to do this to allow the rats to get a different view, new toys, and new rats to be next to.

Most of our rats live in the Midwest Critter Nations, or similar models like, Vevor. All of our active cages have bar spacing tight enough for any age of rat. We do have spare cages set up for emergency situations.

Our moms and babies also live in cages, not bins. We like this way of life for our rats: promoting enrichment opportunities, proper ventilation, and regular socialization.

We do not have any bins or chicken wire on site. Nor do we have any intentions of using such.

Every mischief born is closely monitored to ensure the wellbeing of the babies and mom.

To learn more about our breeding practices, click here.

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• Enrichment Opportunities include but are not limited to:
  • Running Wheels
  • Hanging Toys
  • Boredom Breakers like bamboo finger traps, paper straws, natural items like sola balls and sticks, deer antlers, papaya stems, sweet bamboo stalks
  • Chew Toys like knot nibblers, groovy sticks, natural wood sticks and toys
  • Nesting Materials for nest building and foraging
  • Tubes, plastic and cardboard
  • Ropes (variety)

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Cleaning and Sanitizing

Our cleaning routine is as follows: once a week, we do a deep clean where trays are cleaned thoroughly using a vinegar solution, unless the mess is more extreme, in which case we will remove the tray from the room and use a bleach solution.

Vinegar Solution: 7:3 water with a splash of dish soap. Spray and leave for 5 minutes before wiping clean.

Bleach Solution: we use a condensed 5:5 bleach:water spray and soak method for at least 5 minutes before rinsing off with water.

We replace all blankets, nesting materials, tray liners, and hammocks; also replacing their hideaway once a week with a clean one:

We know this is a lot, but it assures us that our pets are as healthy as they can be.

We also clean throughout the week, changing litter boxes every other day. All of our rats are litter box trained. We use Fresh News litter for small animals and provide pee rocks for every rat cage. This keeps our cages much cleaner than without them.

• Everyone of our cages starts with:
  • a Water Bottle
  • a Food Dish
  • a Hideaway
  • Blankets
  • Hammock(s)
  • Nesting Materials (shredded construction paper)

Then we fill it with toys and boredom breakers, listed above.

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Learn more about our BREEDING PRACTICES

Get to know our rats better with individual PROFILES

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