# Buying a CN cage: do's, don'ts and general advice?



## Fledermaus (Jan 28, 2015)

I posted previously that my two boys are now all grown up and getting rowdy (8 months and 6 months), "_they need more space"_ was the general consensus from my friends and the replies I got here on the forum. So I saved up my cash and amazon gift cards and I am upgrading them from a Super Pet; Habitat Defined to a one level Critter Nation (the second level add-on is next). It will be easier to move and clean, have lots more room for them, and is easier to customize.

I am going to sew cage accessories to keep the space interesting, but they never had a fleece lined cage and they aren't litter training very well. Also, my 6 month old is the nervous type, and I don't want to overwhelm him.
Have any of you made this change? How did it affect the rats, and what should I be ready for?


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## Kuildeous (Dec 26, 2014)

I can't help you with how the rats would behave. I got a DCN when my oldest rat was 2 months old, so all three of my rats have pretty much only known the Critter Nation.

I started off with the fleece. It was just too much hassle for me. The rats liked to chew on the fleece and then burrow underneath. If you already have fleece in your old cage and they don't chew on that, then maybe you'll be in a good position. I know there are people who have a great time with fleece. I just couldn't handle it. I went with Borris mats from Ikea. 

You also learn to shut the doors slowly. My rats have learned to clear the way when the doors start to close, but I've gotten a pinched hand or tail a few times. The last time was really painful judging from her squeals, and she limped around for a few hours after that. Now she's back to normal. If I was oblivious and just kept on pushing the door shut or just quickly swung it shut, I shudder to think what would have happened to her hand in that door hinge. 

My rats love to climb up on top of the CN. At first we were alarmed. Then we just opened up the starter cage that we store up there and moved our food off the top. Now when I open the CN, Loki immediately runs up top because she's super adventurous. The others make their way up there at some point. They like to play in the starter cage up top. They are out of reach when behind the starter cage, but they know the sound of Cheerios shaking, and they know that they get treats when they go back into the CN. 

You might get some urine dribbled along a corner. Just make sure when you clean the cage to really wipe down those areas. It's tempting to just run a Clorox wipe along the outside of the bars, but where the urine dribbles, you have to rub the tops and bottoms of those bars. I'll grip the bar with the wipe and give it a good couple of swiped before moving on to the next bar.

You say they're not litter trained. Have you tried one of these? I find it works pretty well in the CN. I even use the litter pictured on this page. My rats hit it about 95% of the time. What's funny is that my rats sucked at litter training at first. Then I put them in a DCN, purchased one of these trays, and introduced a third rat. I'm not sure which of these factors turned things around, but we were scooping a whole lot less poop than before. Even the newcomer used the litter tray right away while we suffered a month of the other rats pooping all over the starter cage.


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## Fledermaus (Jan 28, 2015)

I would love to let mine climb the cage! My 8 month old loves to climb, especially the top and outside of their current cage. He runs out to greet me and when I bend down a bit to pet his buddy he scrambles onto my head to get to the roof... he's a tricky one. but it's slippery on the edges and he's almost fallen several times, so I have to stop him from going up there. The CN sounds more suited to his nature.

I literally _just_ bought that exact litter pan, and they are pretty much peeing and pooping where ever they want still. I have to pick up "ratty raisins" all day and toss them into the pan, and they rumple up the fleece I put down and pee and poo on that too, they are used to the bedding in the litter-pan being all over the cage so I sometimes find them sleeping in the litter pan. It's gross, the cage is getting really smelly and I have to give them a sponge bath more often than usual to combat the sheer power of their ratty funk. I hope they take to the fleece cage liners well, because I want to make two sets and cut down on the bedding... it's not very cost effective, and I don't like the dust (no matter how little) in the air they breathe. It's still too early to toss in the towel though, I've heard it may take over a month to get them to use a litter box.

Are those door mats rat safe? Mine are little chewers, they crave texture like crazy. 

Also, I have been contemplating getting them a new little buddy, but not until the new cage is set up. What is the precise order you did those things? The details of it may matter and I would like to see if that helps them adjust.


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## Wtpooh (Aug 23, 2015)

I've been using the Uhaul blankets under my fleece and it seems to be working pretty good. I do a complete cage clean up on Mondays hoping to keep down the smell. My girls are somewhat litter trained, maybe 70%. I've just discovered fleece blankets at the trift store. I went to several trift stores over the weekend and most of the fleece blankets were $2.00 or less. I even picked up one for $0.79! My girls do chew on the fleece but for $0.79 I got two sets of cage liners and I'll be able to use them more than once. That $0.79 blanket will last me at least a month if not longer. I just make sure and use lots of binder clips around the pan. When I see that they've chewed an area, I add a binder clip. Funny thing is, they only chew the bottom pan fleece, they haven't touched the fleece on the upper shelf. So, when the bottom fleece gets too chewed up, I'll cut it down to fit the top shelf. Silly rats.


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## artgecko (Nov 26, 2013)

You can also buy the metal bass pans (I have the stainless steel ones) and use regular litter like aspen. This has worked a lot better for me in terms of odor control. The regular CN pans won't hold litter.


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## Rattienewby (Aug 31, 2014)

I agree with the Uhaul furniture pads! Little hint - most stores have 'used' ones that they'll sell you for even cheaper! I just wash them 1-2 times like i do new fleece and cut them to size! Perfect and just absorbent enough


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## Kuildeous (Dec 26, 2014)

Fledermaus said:


> I literally just bought that exact litter pan, and they are pretty much peeing and pooping where ever they want still. I have to pick up "ratty raisins" all day and toss them into the pan, and they rumple up the fleece I put down and pee and poo on that too, they are used to the bedding in the litter-pan being all over the cage so I sometimes find them sleeping in the litter pan. It's gross, the cage is getting really smelly and I have to give them a sponge bath more often than usual to combat the sheer power of their ratty funk. I hope they take to the fleece cage liners well, because I want to make two sets and cut down on the bedding... it's not very cost effective, and I don't like the dust (no matter how little) in the air they breathe. It's still too early to toss in the towel though, I've heard it may take over a month to get them to use a litter box.
> 
> Are those door mats rat safe? Mine are little chewers, they crave texture like crazy.
> 
> Also, I have been contemplating getting them a new little buddy, but not until the new cage is set up. What is the precise order you did those things? The details of it may matter and I would like to see if that helps them adjust.


Precise order? I have to rack my brain. The CN came first. Before that, I had them in a starter cage, and we bought an itty-bitty litter tray. It was barely big enough for a baby rat to fit entirely in. They didn't bother using that. Shortly after the CN came in, we bought the larger litter tray. Now, I _think_ the litter tray preceded the third rat. I suppose it's possible we got the rat first and decided to try the larger tray. My memory is spotty on that one. All I know is that when all three events happened, the girls started using the litter trays.

The litter material might matter. We've always used Kay-Tee's Critter Litter clay pellets. At first, the girls were interested in chewing them, but they discovered quickly that there is nothing interesting about them except to poo on them. Sometimes they fling the pellets out. We don't have grates on our trays. 

The Borris mats have been safe so far. My rats have gnawed on the edges some, but the mats aren't that interesting to them in general. They're hard to lift up when they're new, but our continued machine-washing has softened them up so the rats can actually lift up the corners. This hasn't been a problem.


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## Fledermaus (Jan 28, 2015)

So, if I have this correctly, what works best is that I get that gray speckled/recycled-looking padding from, say, Staples, Home Depot, Target, etc. for cheap, then I cut it to fill the floor trays and make them all comfy for little ratty feet, then I cover each tier and floor panel in a fitted piece fleece, but with extra trim to fold under and then clip to the underside of the edge with those whatchamacallits, binder clips?

I also want to put some things in the cage for them to climb on that will file down on their nails as they climb, because they hate having their nails trimmed... but they get so _very sharp. =__=
_I recently purchased a lava ledge, which they seem to like, but it's only got room for one fuzzy butt on it. Besides, they will need more climbing equipment in their CN cage than a single lava ledge. The twisty wooden branches in the bird section look ideal, but are things like that rat safe? I have no idea if they treat the wood with something that won't hurt birds but will make rats sick, and though I feel paranoid worrying about it, you never know how a product is treated and prepped by the manufacturer before shipping out for retail. Also, those ECOTRITION Snak Shaks were a huge hit with my boys, and I see they also make big fake branches, but again, those are for birds and I don't want to buy them a product not intended of rats and then make them sick.


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## Kuildeous (Dec 26, 2014)

I have four lava ledges. I placed them in a fun little pattern where the girls can run up and down them. They love coming to the door to see us, so I have lava ledges there so they sit on them to greet us. I also purposefully put one of the water bottles high up on the cage above a lava ledge. 

They helped quite a bit. My wife is complaining about sharp nails again, and I see the lava ledges are smooth in places. I don't know how to revitalize a lava ledge, if that's even possible. I don't like buying them as they're kind of expensive, but I might have to. I did turn them upside-down after our last cleaning.


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## LilCritter (Feb 25, 2014)

Drs Foster and Smith have lava ledges for $5


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## JAnimal (Jul 23, 2014)

Mine just love to climb so I leave done space that could be filled with hammocks for climbing space. Also I agree with Kuildeous and you should be really careful closing the cage.


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## Fledermaus (Jan 28, 2015)

The new cage is set up and full of things and stuff!
They took to it very well.















I got the large piece of drift wood from a local pet store, they seem to enjoy it, but I over-estimated their ability to climb... I'll have to shift it so it's less steep of a climb. It looks like the transition to the CN cage has moved the litter training a huge step forward, then halted it completely. They began to only poop on the bottom half of the cage, and it looked like they were going to the litter pan intentionally to poop sometimes, but then they began to poop on the little bridge, then I went away over night this weekend and they pooped all over the floor and made a literal [email protected]#-pile on the bridge. It looked really pre-meditated. They sometimes sleep in the liter pan because it's full of what they had as bedding before, and they fling that litter and poop out of the pan. I know it's a long process, so I am just going to keep on sweeping the poops and litter back into the pan. But has anyone tried those litter training pellets? Would switching to a different and less comfy litter help deter them from treating the litter pan like a bed?


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## mimsy (Jun 8, 2014)

I use large ferret highback litterpans that all mine took too without an issue. I use a little baking soda on the bottom and then cover with wood pellets. They are close to 100%. (I don't think rats are ever completely perfect) I have a dcn with 7 girls and a qc with 8 boys. 

They also use the litterpans to store toys and food. So they are kinda multipurpose. 

The more they climb the stronger and better balanced they get. I don't use ramps in mine at all. I'll add them back if anyone gets really old and needs help. But even my almost 2 year old has no problem getting around.

Curiosity has got the best of me. what is in the black round pan in your cage?

Your cage setup looks great, cozy and fun.


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## Fledermaus (Jan 28, 2015)

mimsy said:


> I use large ferret highback litterpans that all mine took too without an issue. I use a little baking soda on the bottom and then cover with wood pellets. They are close to 100%. (I don't think rats are ever completely perfect) I have a dcn with 7 girls and a qc with 8 boys.
> 
> They also use the litterpans to store toys and food. So they are kinda multipurpose.
> 
> ...



It's a tiny wading pool they use to keep cool. It gets very hot in my room during the warm months; my room is on the back side of the house so I don't really get any air flow and there is no AC. They dip their little paws in to wash and sit in it.


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## mimsy (Jun 8, 2014)

Ok, now that you say that I see it must be a brick? LOL it looked like a hunk of raw hamburger, and I knew that didn't seem right at all and it must be me being blind.

I have air conditioning but I put water bowls in all our cages cause they love to wash their faces and hands in them, some of mine sit in the water too.


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## artgecko (Nov 26, 2013)

Nice cage setup! I agree that you don't really need the ramps and taking them out might give you more room, get the rats more exercise, and prevent them from pooping on them (if that is where they were going). 

It can help with litter training if you have a litter pan on all levels. When I was using all the levels in mine I had 2 per "half" of the dcn. One on the back of the smaller shelf and one in the corner on the bottom of that half and the same in the other half of the cage. I actually went to 3 per half at one point (1 in each of the back corners of the level and 1 on the shelf) before I switched back to apsen... Now using aspen, I only keep 1 on the bottom level of each half and I had to remove the shelves (they were chewing the plastic edges).


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## Fledermaus (Jan 28, 2015)

I took the ramps out to encourage more exercise and it went well so I rearranged the hammocks and put the food dish up in a corner so they had to climb for it. It was hilarious! Nemo has gotten fat more in his attitude than his butt, so his initial reaction was to sit under it looking up with the closest thing to bitterness as a rat can muster. He did that for about an hour before Fidget nimbly bounced up to the dish for food, and then he sullenly refused to be shown up and ambled after him.


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## artgecko (Nov 26, 2013)

Good for you! Mine have never had a problem climbing to get things. If you want to encourage them even more, buy some of those bendy rope bird perches (I use the largest size 3' ones) and put them between the hammocks, etc. Mine climb on those to go from hammock to hammock.


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