# Built a wire rat cage



## inod3 (Jun 13, 2014)

The cage is basically the same as a Martin's R-695 with one big difference.










It splits into two for easier cleaning. Each part is only 18" tall so is easier to carry. The inspiration came from QualityCage's RT-24 expansion.










The middle floor is made slightly larger and has the edges bent up to support the top half. Extra latch-spring hold it together.

And the actual build process,


















16-gauge galvanized after weld wire from Klubertanz. 22' of 1" x 1/2" and 6' of 1/2" x 1/2". The 1" x 1/2" is 18" width, the 1/2" x 1/2" 24" width.










It was then cut to size. I used wire cutters, the dremel cut off wheel, and the sanding drum to smooth the edges. The sanding drum worked amazingly, though I did go through a few of the tiny little sanding drum pieces.










The pieces that needed bends (shelves, ramps, the middle floor) were clamped down and bent with a 3lb hand sledgehammer.










It then got powdercoated. One cool side effect of the cage being split into two parts is all the parts will sit in the cage pan. 



































One door assembled.










Door attached to front panel.










The differences in wire vs. a Martin's R-695 are:

1. Middle floor is 1/2" larger all around, so is 19" by 31" instead of 18" by 30". The extra half inch is bent up to support the top half.
2. The hole in the middle floor for the ramp from the bottom to top is decreased from 10" x 5" to 10" x 4.5". So the hole starts 1/2" into the cage whereas on a Martin's R-695 the hole starts at the edge of the cage. I did this because the top half of the cage doesn't sit exactly on the edge of the cage, so it can flex inwards a half inch and still not be a problem. I think it also gives more structure to the bend.
3. The door in the lower half is 1" shorter - 11" tall instead of 12" tall. On a Martin's R-695 the top of the lower door actually overlaps the middle floor. Since the middle floor on mine extends beyond the cage to support the top half that wouldn't work.

Other things I did were to make door frames out of 9 gauge wire to make the doors more rigid. I then only use two latches per door since there's nearly no door flex. And the c-rings are stainless steel. Anyone who's owned a Martin's cage for any period of time knows that the lower C-rings tend to rust. The stainless weren't much more expensive. They are slightly more bulky, but worth it I think.

Wire and C-rings came from Klubertanz.
Pan, latches, door frames came from Martin's.
Powder coating done by a local company.


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## Hedgian (Aug 18, 2014)

It looks good I just suggest putting some sort of fleece or towels or something down so they don't hurt their feet.


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## PawsandClaws (Jul 22, 2014)

How cool! Let us know how it holds up. I love the colour choice for powder coating.


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## kksrats (Jul 25, 2014)

Oh the joys of grinding through all those panels; I've done more than my fair share of that, sure beats manual wire cutters though lol  It looks really nice! Way better than a lot of the "professional" ones that I see sell for $100+ here.


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## inod3 (Jun 13, 2014)

kksrats said:


> Oh the joys of grinding through all those panels; I've done more than my fair share of that, sure beats manual wire cutters though lol  It looks really nice! Way better than a lot of the "professional" ones that I see sell for $100+ here.


Yes, you'd be right on that one! Cutting the wire was by far the most time consuming part of the project. And I really only had to cut two edges on most panels - any of the 18" width ones were already at the right width. I did some with regular wire cutters, but most was the dremel cut off wheel. I was able to get a closer cut with the dremel which meant less cleanup work with the sanding drum attachment. It did however take longer per cut. On the plus side it didn't wear my hands out as much. Although, if I had to do it again I'd be tempted to buy some flush cut cutters and try that. Would be faster, but also would be harder on the hands.


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## inod3 (Jun 13, 2014)

Hedgian said:


> It looks good I just suggest putting some sort of fleece or towels or something down so they don't hurt their feet.


I actually considered some alternate ramp and shelf arrangements and decided to keep it the same as an R-695 so that I can order fleece liners online.

That said, I'm not worried at all about injured feet. 1/2" square mesh is really too small for them to get a foot stuck in.


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## Ratpax (Aug 24, 2014)

You did a really pro, excellent job on that. Love the color, too.


Lots of door latches are a thorn in my side, and one of those niggling daily annoyances I hate (my bunny condos have multiple door latches) so I like you took that down to only two per.


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## LittleBird (Jun 22, 2014)

Wow! I'm impressed! Great job! I bet you could contact someone to get some custom pans cut for you to cover the floors. Or maybe even use floor tiles and then cover with fleece. At least that way, they'd have a solid floor to walk on.


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## Zabora (Jun 8, 2014)

inod3 said:


> I actually considered some alternate ramp and shelf arrangements and decided to keep it the same as an R-695 so that I can order fleece liners online.That said, I'm not worried at all about injured feet. 1/2" square mesh is really too small for them to get a foot stuck in.


 I built ladders and levels for my frisky ferret cage using 1/2" wire. Dean got his foot snagged in a ladder and was limping for 3 days so its not small enough to not snag a foot...not sure how he did it but I watched it happen. He was coming down the ladder to see me and I saw him stop and tug his foot loose. He was ok after some ib prophan but it could still have been an issue. Looks great though. Did you make the doors larger? I see its a main complaint with a Martin's cage.


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## Kitterpuss (May 9, 2014)

And another thing to consider is risk of bumblefoot from walking on bare wire, but if you planning covering with fleece this shouldn't be an issue. Great looking cage - very professional!


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## mimsy (Jun 8, 2014)

That is a fantastic job!!! Very professional and functional.

Out of curiosity how much do you think you spent building the cage yourself? 

Something else that would be cool, taking from the ferret Quality cages-if you take the ramp that goes to the second part of the cage and did a bend right after it leaves the hole going into the top half and then add a hook to attach the ramp, you could also turn the cage into two if needed. I always appreciate that function. I think it could be easily done without having to alter what you already have much. If you have someone who had surgery or any other reason you have to separate a short time it's nice to not have to get another cage out. Very handy for those who don't have room to have several cages as well for those kinds of situations.

I don't think I could ever make such a nice cage. It's nice to see someone make one at home that is every bit as good if not better than one's you could buy at a pet store.


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## mimsy (Jun 8, 2014)

Kitterpuss said:


> And another thing to consider is risk of bumblefoot from walking on bare wire, but if you planning covering with fleece this shouldn't be an issue. Great looking cage - very professional!


I thought that standing on wire was no longer believed to be the cause and it was more of an issue of standing in urine and unsanitary conditions. I've always covered wire, for the rats and previously for my ferrets-but it was for sheer comfort for them and ease of cleaning for me reasons. 

My guess is it's caused from unsanitary conditions made worse from small cages where they are not moving much. Perhaps small defects in the foot itself exacerbates the issue as well. I would guess seen more in galvanized wire cages where yuck can be held in the cage easily-but any cage can be disgusting with lazy owners.


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## Kitterpuss (May 9, 2014)

mimsy said:


> I thought that standing on wire was no longer believed to be the cause and it was more of an issue of standing in urine and unsanitary conditions. I've always covered wire, for the rats and previously for my ferrets-but it was for sheer comfort for them and ease of cleaning for me reasons.
> 
> My guess is it's caused from unsanitary conditions made worse from small cages where they are not moving much. Perhaps small defects in the foot itself exacerbates the issue as well. I would guess seen more in galvanized wire cages where yuck can be held in the cage easily-but any cage can be disgusting with lazy owners.


Interesting! I didn't know this!


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## inod3 (Jun 13, 2014)

mimsy said:


> I thought that standing on wire was no longer believed to be the cause and it was more of an issue of standing in urine and unsanitary conditions. I've always covered wire, for the rats and previously for my ferrets-but it was for sheer comfort for them and ease of cleaning for me reasons.
> 
> My guess is it's caused from unsanitary conditions made worse from small cages where they are not moving much. Perhaps small defects in the foot itself exacerbates the issue as well. I would guess seen more in galvanized wire cages where yuck can be held in the cage easily-but any cage can be disgusting with lazy owners.


I've been keeping rats since 2006 and in that time have seen pretty much everything suggested as the cause for bumblefoot. Wire floors, solid floors, even fleece covered floors. And all the arguments make sense in their own ways, but can they all be right? I suppose they could all be right, to some degree, but obviously if we avoid all cage types we no longer can keep rats in cages and that would preclude me from having them as a pet at all. Perhaps the one thing that most agree on is bumblefoot affects obese rats much more and that a dirty unsanitary cage is a factor. Keep the rats a reasonable weight, clean the cage fairly often, and I don't think cage type really matters. 

It's one of those things that will never be completely agreed upon. Like what is the best food and whether a wheel should be provided.


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## Kitterpuss (May 9, 2014)

I have a wire floor on my cage with a catch tray underneath which I cover with fleece. I guess best to air on the side of caution! Plus I imagine poopy pee covered wire bars would be a pain to clean!


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## inod3 (Jun 13, 2014)

mimsy said:


> That is a fantastic job!!! Very professional and functional.
> 
> Out of curiosity how much do you think you spent building the cage yourself?


Building this cage wasn't really about saving money. The wire and c-rings were around $75 shipped as I recall. I already had the cage pan leftover from an older cage and bought some other stuff from Martin's. Ordering just the pan plus parts looks like it would have been $46.76 shipped. So that's roughly $120 before powder coating. The powder coating was about $150 so puts the whole thing at around $270. If I was trying to build it cheaper it would make sense to paint with Rustoleum instead pf powdercoating. A cheaper pan could be found as well - for example building it to fit a cement mixing tray from a hardware store. For cheapness, it's hard to beat something like a CN. The cage is the same dimensions as an R-695 which makes it roughly the same size as a SCN which can be found with free shipping deals at around $140.

My reason for building this cage was nobody makes a commercial cage quite equivalent. My preference is towards all wire cages like Martin's over the CN so that the entire thing can be cleaned off thoroughly in the shower each week. However I wanted it to break into two parts as well. Probably the closest equivalent would be QualityCage's RT-1824 with an RT-24 expansion (or two). Not including shipping that'd run $88 for the RT-1824 (24"x"18"x18") and each expansion $60.25 (24"x18"x15"). Volume equivalent it would be roughly two of the expansions (that would be slightly larger, 12 sqft vs. 11.25). So basically $208.50 + shipping. However, I feel the extra 6" width / layout of the R-695 is better. I had considered all sorts of alternatives and eventually just decided not to compromise one feature for another that I wanted and to build the cage myself.



mimsy said:


> That is a fantastic job!!! Very professional and functional.Something else that would be cool, taking from the ferret Quality cages-if you take the ramp that goes to the second part of the cage and did a bend right after it leaves the hole going into the top half and then add a hook to attach the ramp, you could also turn the cage into two if needed. I always appreciate that function. I think it could be easily done without having to alter what you already have much. If you have someone who had surgery or any other reason you have to separate a short time it's nice to not have to get another cage out. Very handy for those who don't have room to have several cages as well for those kinds of situations.


I actually had them powder coat a small piece of 1/2" mesh for this purpose from the extra wire leftover after cutting the panels. I can then use a couple spring-latches to hold it in place. Should come in handy for cleaning, keep rats in one half while cleaning the other half. Using the ramp would work as well, like the FN/CN cages do.


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## inod3 (Jun 13, 2014)

Zabora said:


> Did you make the doors larger? I see its a main complaint with a Martin's cage.


The top door is the same size as the R-695, the bottom door is 1" shorter. So the top door is a 14" x 14" opening, the bottom 14" x 11". Comparing that to a CN with the huge doors that open the entire front of the cage they are small. Not really that small though. With this type of cage the front panel is part of the structure of the cage so you wouldn't really want the entire front to open like a CN unless you built a heavy duty frame like the CN has. Large doors can be both a blessing and a curse. The upside is obvious - easier access to the entire cage. The downside is it's easier to pinch a toe or a tail because you have to watch a much bigger area when closing the doors. It also gives less flexibility in hanging hammocks and such since you wouldn't want to hang them from the doors. Overall I prefer the door setup (especially the door latch) on a CN/FN, but not enough to make up for the cleaning aspect of the all wire cage type.

It's probably also worth mentioning that Martin's cages used to have smaller doors than they now do. If you go back to around 2006 (I think the change occured in 2007) a Martin's R-695 had 10" x 10" doors and those were quite small. You couldn't put a wheel in through them for example. Some of the other cages they sell might still have doors that size. They never did update the pictures on their website after increasing the door size.


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## mimsy (Jun 8, 2014)

I was pondering if you made the cage strictly for personal preference reasons. I was thinking in my head and not figuring there was anyway that it was less than purchasing an already made cage. Though I have had Quality in the past make cages specifically to my wants, and maybe in that case it would be a little less to do it yourself. It's really awesome you are able to make a cage that fits exactly what you want, at high quality yourself!


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## inod3 (Jun 13, 2014)

mimsy said:


> I was pondering if you made the cage strictly for personal preference reasons. I was thinking in my head and not figuring there was anyway that it was less than purchasing an already made cage. Though I have had Quality in the past make cages specifically to my wants, and maybe in that case it would be a little less to do it yourself. It's really awesome you are able to make a cage that fits exactly what you want, at high quality yourself!


Yup, personal preference reasons. You were exactly right. I had actually asked Martin's about doing it as a custom order initially but they had concerns over the bent floor supporting the upper half. I think the request might have just not been understood well. If I ever need another one I'll show them pictures of this one and ask about it. QualityCage I would expect not to have any issues with the bent edges on the floor, considering the idea came from their cages so they already do it on other cages. They also have a cage with the same dimensions as an R-695. The RT-3018. Getting that in the powder coated version not including shipping is $230. The customizations I'd have wanted would be a little more than just splitting it in two. It basically looks like the old R-695 with small doors and the ramp from the lower to upper level in the front. I like the larger doors and ramp position on the newer style R-695 so would have had them adjust those as well. I suspect they would have done the custom order the way I want it but it would have been several things and probably a bit more expensive.

Also, I kind of like doing my own projects from time to time.


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