# New Roommates



## TwistedHeritage (Oct 26, 2012)

Greetings and Salutations to all

I'm new to this forum, but not new to rats, having had them as a companion through most of my childhood. I took an extended break from the rat world to deal with life and studies after my last pair passed on, but have recently taken up the interest again, having not realized how much I missed their companionship over the last couple years. So let me introduce you to them.

They've been a part of the family for just over 3 weeks now, and I have yet to find names for them. I just can't seem to find the right match for their personalities. They're both females, but I say that with a bit of doubt remembering the last pair of males I had, named Tom ad Jerry, that mated and ended with Jerry birthing a litter much to our surprise.









The brown one's personality is curious and adventurous. She loves running around nibbling, sniffing and exploring her environment. She will actually bounce in the cage when she sees me and knows it's time to play. After about the second week of having her, she had already picked up on a game of chasing my hand and wrestling it. I am rather concerned for her now as she's developed a sneeze that has been persistent for about the last. I'm taking her in to see the vet tomorrow to get a diagnosis. I'm hoping it's just an environmental issue that's aggravating her breathing and not an underlining illness.









The hooded rat is far more shy and skittish. She darts through the pipes when you near the cage and only comes out to investigate when you've remained still for a while. It takes a while to persuade her to leave the cage. Once she's out though, she'll run around exploring, but always be ready to dart back up my arm and behind my neck. tucking under the collar of my shirt, at the first sign of movement or something new and foreign. I firmly believe that her exploring is less out of a sense of adventurous, as is with the brown one, as it is a hunt for the perfect hiding spot.









Their home is a wire cage with a deep plastic base, a single shelf and piping leading through three access holes. I plan to use those holes to expand their environment with other habitats, connecting them through the use of pipes. My goal is to eventually have the habitats and piping span the one wall of my room, to allow my little girls lots of rooms to roam and the ability to move around my bedroom, specifically between my bed and my desk area, with me or as they chose. I am also hoping to rat-proof the room at some stage, to allow them to have free access to leave their cage and explore or spend time with me when I'm in the room, without risk to them getting hurt or into tight situations.

Well I suppose that's it for an introduction. I apologize for the long post, but I have been known to write a lot and express detail where I can. I plan to hopefully be more active on the forum, posting updates on my girls and the progress to build their home. In the mean time, thank you for having me, and for the time you may have taken to read this through. Feel free to post comments or suggestions.

Best Regards,
TH


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## CrazyRatLady (Oct 20, 2012)

Cute little ratties  Hopefully you'll find a name for them soon!


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## IOVERATS (Aug 25, 2012)

Welcome to the forum and I hope you find it useful  I have, I am yet to get rats but I have found it extremely useful and has helped me to build up my knowledge .

It's okay that you wrote a lot, I enjoyed reading it and I look forward to reading about them in the future  

They are really sweet and I'm sure as their personalities develop some names will come to you  

Good luck with them and good luck with building in the cage bigger I'm sure it will be an adventurous project  


A wise t-shirt once said 'my rats think your gross too!' directed at all you rat haters out there!


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## TwistedHeritage (Oct 26, 2012)

Well ironically enough, after writing the above post i was struck my a moment of insight I guess, and was able to come up with two names I'm happy with and that I feel suit them. I've decided to call them:

Levis (loose latin for nimble, naughty) for the brown one, &
Timens (loose latin for shy, timid) for the hooded one

Now that I've finally found names, I need to work on getting them to recognize them, that's if they like them, although Timens might end up surprising me and growing out of her name knowing my luck


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## LightningWolf (Jun 8, 2012)

They are adorable. Love the names.

Quick thing. Those tubes are too small for adult rats. If you want to use tubes you need to get Ferretrail tubes which are about 3 inches in diamamter. Adult rats can get stuck in those. Also I would suggest getting a much bigger cage for them and either using that cage as a travel cage Or connecting it to their bigger cage as a lounge as that is going to be too small for adults.

Timens will probably outgrow her name though. Though if she does you can change it to something like Tantalus, which sounds cool but he was a guy in greek mythology who got punished for upsetting the gods and is always hunger and thirsty. he sits chin high in water, but everytime he looks down the water disappears, and fruit hangs above his head, but when he tried to reach it the wind blows it just out of reach. That's how we got the word Tantalize. Random fact you will probably never need to go (Sorry I'm reading the Odyssey in English)

Or better Themis, the greek god who basically was Justice. she wore a blind fold and held the weights, so that's how we got Justice is blind (I'm guessing).


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## TwistedHeritage (Oct 26, 2012)

Yeah, I know the tubes will eventually became to small, as well as the cage. Unfortunately, it was literally the best choice in the store at the time and I needed something immediately. Originally I used to have a wide, three story cage for my previous furry friends. but that got cannibalized to make a bird cage a couple years ago 

I plan to build a larger multilevel cage for them that will occupy the one corner of my desk. The current cage will be turned into an extra room, or yeah possibly a travel cage, although normally my shoulders work well in that regards 

In regards to the pipes, I'll definitely need to get larger ones. I'm well aware of how large adults can get, as my one male, Tom, grew large enough to sit on and cover my foot. But luckily, these two are females and if I keep away from the junk food, they will hopefully stay a little on the sleek side  I will have to see if i can find any Ferretrail tubes here, else my next plan is to build the tunnels myself.


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## Rat-1- (Jul 22, 2012)

Yeah I bought one of my rats in that cage as a travel one. When he was 6 weeks he fit in the tubes easily. Now that he is 6 months old going to the vet is not much fun.


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## Smilebud (Jul 31, 2012)

Nawww!! They are soo cute! How are you planning on building the tubes?


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## TwistedHeritage (Oct 26, 2012)

Well I still need to do some research, but at the moment my idea is to either use perspex, the plastic sheets they use as computer case panels for those that don't know, and shape it appropriately or else a combination of wire frames with perspex floors.

However, if anyone has ideas or suggestions, I would gladly welcome and appreciate them


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## LightningWolf (Jun 8, 2012)

PVC pipes would be a good idea as well. A lot of people use them to make tunnels. The Perspex sounds like a good idea as well.


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## RockehRawr (Jul 18, 2012)

Aww, what cuties!


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## marcp1956 (Oct 12, 2012)

PVC is easy and cheap with lots of possibilities. They can also be bought in any hardware store. Welcome to the forum!


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## TwistedHeritage (Oct 26, 2012)

Hmm I never actually thought of PVC  thanks for the suggestion, I'll definitely look into it. I can already see ideas forming for using it, such as cutting U sections in the pipe to create wire windows/roofs to let light in and to both keep an eye on them and let them see out  I might actually use a combination of PVC, wire and perspex.

One question regarding using PVC though, what connector/joints are most preferable??


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## LightningWolf (Jun 8, 2012)

All would work just make sure that they are about 3 inches in diameter.


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## TachisMom (Oct 17, 2012)

I don't know about making pipes, but you're girls are beautiful!!!!


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## TwistedHeritage (Oct 26, 2012)

Just to update those interested, Levis seems to be getting over her sneezing. I changed their bedding after finding out, much to my irritation, that the pet store bought bedding was in fact Pine shavings. I'm now using Cherrywood shavings, and the girls seem to be happier 

In regards to the custom cage project, I've been doing some research and checking other cage designs, and I think I've come up with a design I'm comfortable with and that I think will provide an amazing home for my girls.

The design is still in a rough draft state, and I can lay no claim to being any good at drawing, so the sketch I made is not the best  I will try upload an image of the draft design once I can make it look less like chicken scratch  But the basic idea of it is as follows:

A three section stacked cage, with each section being detachable from the rest. The lower two sections will be approximately one and a half to two feet tall, although those are guess estimates, with the width and length undecided as of yet. The top section will be a slanted roof attic type with it's highest point being half the height of the lower sections.

The lowest section will have two balconies, one on each side with a gap in the middle for accessories, connected by a pipe running along the back wall; with a ladder from the left balcony to the base tray. The base tray itself will be removable by sliding to allow easier cleaning. I am thinking of making the connecting pipe into a T-bracket, leading outside the cage, to allow added pipe passageways around the main cage and possible links to other, smaller cages.

The second, or middle, section will have a stepped two part balcony, with a pipe inserted in the straight wall section of the step to allow access to the gap between the balcony and floor. This will be used for the main hammock. There will be a ladder from the lower part of the balcony to the floor.

The passageways between sections will be L-shaped piping, placed in the back left corner of the cage through the roof/floor of each section; and the floors will be solid or vented plastic/perspex with possibly felt carpeting. The carpeting will cover the balconies as well to provide padding.

I'm still trying to decide on the layout of the doors. I'm undecided between making a large portal on the front wall of each section, or just allowing the whole front wall to be hinged and swing down. Or possibly both 

Let me know what you guys, and girls, think  and any suggestions you might have. It's just a basic idea at the moment so it may change, but I'm really likely it's current layout.

Best Regards,
TH and his girls


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## LightningWolf (Jun 8, 2012)

Yeah get some pictures on up. That just confused me.

Don't know why but one day I had this vision of a whole room with a bunch of cages connected together with PVC pipe and the cages were lined along the wall. There was also a like walk in rat cage area. It would probably cost a lot of money and would need to have all pull out pan cages and probably a lot of room and if you ever got males you would have to neuter them But it was an idea I had.


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