# cage help



## toxic_tears1990 (Oct 7, 2007)

ok my lil sista got a cage for her rat , its kinda small but hope fully it will be ok , 

i think that the cage calculator is wronge do you ? 


how many rats can u have in one cag e?


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## A1APassion (Jul 29, 2007)

what are the dimensions of the cage you are calculating?

length(from left to right)
height (from top to bottom)
depth (front front to back)


In my opinion, the rat calculator figures too many rats per cage. It could be my personal preference but if I were to go by that RC I believe the cage would be too crowded. Once a cage becomes too crowded, aggression & other negative behaviors start up.


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## Kimmiekins (Apr 14, 2007)

Figure at least 2 cubic feet *per* rat. The rat calculators give a good idea, but of course, they don't (well, most don't) take things like usable space vs. unusable space into consideration. Also, the dimensions for most cages are measured on the *outside*, which is NOT equal to the actual space the rat can use.

What kind of cage is it? We'd be able to help more if we knew.


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## lina (May 28, 2007)

Kimmiekins said:


> Figure at least 2 cubic feet *per* rat. The rat calculators give a good idea, but of course, they don't (well, most don't) take things like usable space vs. unusable space into consideration. Also, the dimensions for most cages are measured on the *outside*, which is NOT equal to the actual space the rat can use.
> 
> What kind of cage is it? We'd be able to help more if we knew.


That is so true. You are right about the cage being measured on the outside. I put in Savic Freddy and it said it could hold 4. I don't think I would put any more than 3 in there. But if you put the base size in and not the measurement of the widest part it says it can hold 3.

I think If you change the measurements on the rat calculator from inches to centimeters it works better.


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## glindella (Sep 9, 2007)

lina said:


> I think If you change the measurements on the rat calculator from inches to centimeters it works better.



That depends on how you measure, one inch is around 2.2 centimeters I think, its a difference standard v metric (being in a science school I should be good with metrics.. unfortunately I was a seamstress first and I think in yards/inches)


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## lina (May 28, 2007)

Hi glindella, I had some trouble with the rat calculator before. I put in the size of my cage and it came up with 4 rats but my cage is huge so I changed the measurements from inches to centimeters and it came up with 14 rats which does sound more like it. 

I'm no good at maths so I have to use the rat calculator to work out the size. I'm one of those people how carry my phone with me at all times to use the calculator on it lol.


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## Forensic (Apr 12, 2007)

Make sure the calculator is set to inches if you're measuring in inches. I was somewhat surprised when I saw that the first cage I had was too small for two rats (when I'd planned on putting three in it) but now that they've grown up, I can definitely see that it was farrrrrr too small.


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## magickat (Oct 19, 2007)

http://health.ratzrus.co.uk/cagecalc/index.htm
I found this calculator to be more helpful since you can enter the shelves too. I also had to buy a different cage. I thought the one I had was going to be big enough for my girls, but it was not even big enough for 1 (it was 11 inches deep.) They are babies and could fit now, but I can see how they would have outgrown it really fast.


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## CaptainFlow (May 16, 2007)

Do hammocks count as shelf space? Because if I have just shelves and base, it says one rat. If I add one hammock, it's "two comfortably, max three," and I have three different hammocks. That also doesn't count ramps, do those count as usable space?

And make sure you're using inches if you're measuring in inches, cm if in metric. It's not really fair to measure in inches and then compute it in cm, you're obviously not going to get an accurate count.


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## lina (May 28, 2007)

Hi all, Was you replying to my message when you mentioned measuring in inches or cm. If so I am not stupid lol I didn't just changed it from inches to cm. I'm sorry if I give you the impression I did.

My cage is Size: 48" L x 30" W x 32" H or 122 x 76 x 81cm.

As you can tell from the measurements my cage can hold more than 4 rats that's is why I said I had to change it. It might of been an error on the rat cal. Or it might of just remembered the cage I'd put in before. I don't know but when I changed the measurements it give me the correct number of rats for this cage.


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## BlueSkyy (Sep 27, 2007)

i had a problem like that happen once, it said my cage couldn't even hold one rat but it's a 3 story 30" l x 30" h x 16" d


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## lina (May 28, 2007)

BlueSkyy, I'm glad you said that  . I thought I was going nuts or just stupid when no one else had the same problem as me. :lol:


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## Kimmiekins (Apr 14, 2007)

I don't believe ramps actually count. Although a few silly rats do laze around on them, generally, it's not thought of as actual usable space. At least, not in ramp form. If you took a ramp and made it into a shelf, that's different.


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