# Martin's Cages (or other recommendations?)



## mrfiddlescruffs (Sep 8, 2017)

Hey everybody,

I got an expensive cage for my rats at the pet store last week at time time I bought my first rat. The other day I was shown firsthand that they are actually small enough to slip right out of the bars. I've been doing some research and it looks like a Martin's cage is what people are recommending. I was wondering if you all had experience with these cages and could recommend one for two rats (and if so, which one from their website). Or if you have any suggestions on ways to modify my cage to keep them in that would be rad!


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## Lara (May 15, 2017)

I'm not sure about personal experience with Martins, but have you looked at critter nations? With the shipping cost of Martin's, you can usually get a SCN for a bit more. I love those cages. We just got two SFNs for our bunnies that we are planning on attaching for a long cage, and they look really nice.


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## CorbinDallasMyMan (Feb 24, 2017)

I love Martin's cages. I have the Lodge with the flip-top lid as a back-up cage and I love it. They're lightweight and easy to clean. They can easily be carried outside or to the bathroom to be hosed down. They have a deep, chew-proof plastic base that will hold a couple inches worth of a loose substrate bedding or they can be used with some sort of fleece/absorbent liner on the bottom. The doors are larger than many commercially available small animal cages. The doors on some cages are so small that you basically have to take them apart to get litter boxes and larger huts/boxes in and out. Martin's cages can sit on the floor or they can be put on a dresser, desk, or tabletop so they don't take up any floor space. Here's a huge cage pic thread of just Martin's cages for ideas/inspiration. Unfortunately Photobucket zapped many of the pictures but there's still tons to look at.

My favorite cages of theirs would be the Rat Lodge (R-680, $105), Rat Retreat (R-685, $126), and the Rat Skyscraper (R-695, $140). The Rat Lodge and the Retreat would be great for a pair of rats. Three rats would start to get pretty crowded. If you want them to have more room or if you might get a third in the future, the Skyscraper is awesome.

A couple things to note if you're considering a Martin's cage. First, ordering it powder coated is a must. Uncoated galvanized steel will absorb urine over time and the smell will become impossible to wash off. Also, the black powder coating looks much better than the flat gray steel color. Martin's cages have wire mesh floors on the levels. Running around on wire mesh flooring can be hard on little rat feet and can potentially cause injury if a foot slips or gets stuck. You'll want to cover them with something. This can be a simple as sheets of cardboard. Some people cut sheets of vinyl flooring to size. Martin's sells plastic covers for the flooring or you could buy some plastic canvas at your local craft shop. I make fleece/absorbent layer mats to go on the shelves. Another reason to cover the shelves with something is that urine can eat away at the powder coat over time.

The other really good cage option would be a Critter Nation cage. These cages are larger and much, much heavier than Martin's cages. They're basically bulky steel pieces of furniture. The advantages these cages have over Martin's cages is the larger size and the full doors that open on the front. These giant doors make access incredibly easy. The single unit Critter Nation ($105) would be a mansion for a pair of rats. I've housed up to four rats comfortably in a single unit. The double unit Critter Nation ($168 ) would be a castle for 2 rats. It can actually comfortably house up to 8-10 rats.

There are a few drawbacks to Critter Nation cages. First, they're so large and heavy. They take up a lot of floor space and they pretty much have to be cleaned where they sit. The plastic pans come out so they can be washed outside or in the tub but the cage itself is generally just wiped down where it is. The plastic pans that come with the cage are too shallow to use any type of loose bedding. Most people use some sort of fleece/absorbent liners for these pans. You can purchase or diy some deeper pans for bedding if that's a route you'd prefer. These cages are really, really big. The inside is actually pretty cavernous and, in my opinion, there's a lot of wasted space unless you totally fill it up with hammocks and baskets and levels and stuff. Utilizing all of the open space requires a lot of extra stuff and takes a little longer to clean every week. Because of the materials and how these cages are constructed, they can rust over time if not carefully taken care of. Critter Nations are made up of a bunch of hollow metal components with lots of tiny connection points that can trap water if the cage is just hosed down. This can cause rust. Instead of dousing these cages with water, I think it might be better to just finely mist them with a cleaning agent and then wipe them down. Avoiding getting them too wet can extend their lifespan. I would take the whole cage apart a couple times a year and bring all of the pieces outside for a really deep clean. I would then everything bake in the sun for a couple hours to make sure all of the moisture had evaporated before bringing it all back inside to reassemble it.

I had a double Critter Nation but, while it _is_ a wonderful cage, I ended up switching to a "Martin's style" cage and I've been much happier and I spend less time cleaning every week. I also have more room in my bedroom now because the giant cage isn't taking up so much floor space.


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## charlypie (May 15, 2017)

I wouldn't consider it a permanent solution but I know a lot of people will cover their cage with hardware cloth if the bar spacing is too big, i've done it in the past when I brought home the younger boys in my group and my spare cage for them until intros were complete had too big of bar spacing for such little guys. You could try that, especially if the bar spacing is small enough that they will grow into it and you can take the mesh off when they are bigger. Or to just keep them contained until a new cage comes if they won't grow into the bar spacing. I'm not a fan of the look personally and I imagine long term the mesh would absorb pee smells and/or rust depending on the metal, like CorbinDallasMyMan talked about with making sure you get a powder coated cage.


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## Coffeebean (Jan 6, 2017)

I love the Martins R685 (powder-coated only), I got one for 60$ off craigslist. 

It's big enough for the rats to have lots of room and levels, but small enough that it fits in my shower for an easy cleaning. It's very spacious. The R680 has the same dimensions except that it has a couple features like the flip top door missing, but they aren't necessary features by any means, with the R685 being more expensive because of it. So the R680 and R685 is probably the best for a couple of rats. I know if I had the RUUD I wouldn't be able to get it in my shower and that's important for me, that it is easy to clean.

That's the thing about Martins that I like vs Critter Nation. I have a DCN and a Martins and they both serve different needs, I think. The DCN isn't hard to clean but it's harder to get that deep clean because there are lots of nooks and crannies that can rust after a bit. It is also very heavy despite the wheels, and I live upstairs so I can't just roll it outside to hose it off, it's really a big piece of furniture. Of course, it's very beautiful and I love it for my fleece-trained rats. 

But for my rats who won't use the litter box? With a Critter Nation you'll be doing extra work. The pans they come with need to be replaced (either through BASS equipment, coroplast or with a cement mixing tub modification) if you plan to use bedding. Also while they are huge with lots of space, that means you need to be ready to get the most out of all that air space or else you're wasting a lot of room in the cage. That can mean a lot to people who don't have a dollar store nearby or just don't have a lot of money to buy and often replace lots of cage furniture.

I got my Martins because I have a couple guys who refuse to use the litter box, and because I wanted an easy to clean durable option. It's lightweight (R685) and it collapses easily if I want to put it away and store it for an emergency/quarantine cage. It's big. It's actually a bit easier for me to decorate than my DCN too, because the bar arrangement allows for my shower hooks to be placed pretty much anywhere (vs my DCN where they slide along the bars if not placed perfectly, so corner space was often wasted). And the pans are deep, so I can use aspen bedding. They do seem to get a kick out of all the vertical space too. 

That's the case for Martins. I love both Critter Nation and Martins and they both have their plus/minus. I thought since Critter Nation gets all the glory that I'd tell ya what's good about Martins. For just a couple rats again I'd recommend the R685 or R680 because they have a bigger footprint and aren't as narrow as, say, R690. The R695 is good as well but it is heavier and wouldn't fit in my shower as easily. ;D


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