# Chicken and her babies.



## hikaricore (Dec 16, 2007)

My last thread was on a slightly depressing topic, so I thought I'd post up some pictures of Chicken and her rat babies in the new home I built them yesterday. As the babies are getting so much bigger I knew they needed a new place to stay until I could make or buy a proper cage for them. A 54 gallon tote seemed to do the trick. Already with side air vents near the handles the case would be suitable for living, though I didn't want that to be the only source of oxygen or light for the little ones. For lack of proper tools I heated razors on the stove (far away from the babies) for cutting two large holes in the lid. I fitted one with left over plexi-glass from their birth case, and the other with a heavy mesh screen I found at the office. Still not happy with the air circulation from just the vents and the screen, I heated a 5/8 socket and used to to melt 6 decent sized holes in the lid spaced across the corners and sides of the middle. After allowing the aquarium sealant to dry and be free of harmful vapors, I gave the tote a good scrub-down with warm water / dried it, and added bedding. Their old nest boxes were trashed so I added a long style coke 12 pack box, and 2 pringles tubes for them to hide in. ^_^ Interestingly enough, right after moving the babies they started learning to use the water bottle. Being that there are 9 of them a small fight broke out, so I re-added a tub of water on the floor for them to drink and clean with which seems to have settled them down (aside from mommy not being able to feed them all at once anymore, they're squeaking as I type, she is also not amused by them biting her).

Anyway here's new pics of the babies and the final result of my quickly made case.


----------



## BlueSkyy (Sep 27, 2007)

that is a really nice homemade cage 

chicken and her little ones are adorable!


----------



## CaptainFlow (May 16, 2007)

That is a really interesting idea for a quick cage... I know it's been proposed on a smaller scale, but having it so huge is a really good twist! I wonder if you could get something that size, cut out the whole top and use hardware cloth or something, and maybe a side or two, and use that as a permanant cage... hang some hammocks from the top... hmm... probably not quite, but certainly very nice for temp and easy!

Cute rats, too! I love babies that age, they're so teeny and soft and squirmy looking!


----------



## hikaricore (Dec 16, 2007)

BlueSkyy said:


> that is a really nice homemade cage
> 
> chicken and her little ones are adorable!


Thank you. ^_^ I had a MacGyver moment yesterday and this was the wonderful result.

I know I love how cute they are.  They are past the walking stage and they now just bounce around, they weigh nothing so they pretty much fly from spot to spot.



CaptainFlow said:


> That is a really interesting idea for a quick cage... I know it's been proposed on a smaller scale, but having it so huge is a really good twist! I wonder if you could get something that size, cut out the whole top and use hardware cloth or something, and maybe a side or two, and use that as a permanant cage... hang some hammocks from the top... hmm... probably not quite, but certainly very nice for temp and easy!
> 
> Cute rats, too! I love babies that age, they're so teeny and soft and squirmy looking!


We had 4 of them sitting around from the apartment move 2 years back so I thought I'd put one to good use, or atleast test the design aspects. If I end up continuing to use it, I'll probably fashion another lid and remove most of the top like you suggested. The only issue is I would have to leave enough intact so that the plastic doesn't just break from being pulled off the base over time...hmm there's an idea, I could actually melt cage wire into it after removing a large portion of it, and have a large door in the top. ^_^ I was thinking of using some additional plexi-glass for the side of the case, but with the tools at hand what you see here took close to 3 hours. >.< In the situation of adding cage wire to the lid /w a door and affixing the lid permanently to the base this would make hammocks possible as well as solve the trouble with removing the lid.

I will be sure to tell chicken you folks like her babies.


----------



## crapola (Feb 12, 2007)

chicken and her babies are adorable!!


----------



## Macabri (Oct 8, 2007)

I love the first picture of them all drinking.


----------



## fridayinluv (Dec 17, 2007)

I like how you've done up their home with all the boxes and containers and playthings! Like a nursery.


----------



## GracieBaby (Sep 30, 2007)

when i owned gerbils i had to put a little guy in one of these after a fight and i accidentally left the lid off beside my bed and my blanket fell into the container. the gerbil shimmied up the blanket and escaped my dad woke me up in the morning and told me that the gerbil had gotten under my door and into the hall but he had to chase it back. I was so confused bc i had just woke up i think i may use it again and attach it to my other 2 tanks.


----------



## Screechy (Dec 28, 2007)

That cage it......AMAZING!!! Your ratties look very happy!


----------

