The aim of this page is to give you a little glimpse into life here in the Shunamite camp. We will endeavour to show you around our rattery, and give you a clear idea of how we care for our rats. You can meet the rats individually in Our Girls and Our Boys, and here we will show you around following the same cage groups as outlined on those pages.
Our rats are kept in a rat room mainly because my husband, David is allergic to them. They do come out individually into the rest of the house, but not their cages, or bedding. The rat room is a purposely designed bedroom, with its own sink, laminate floor and washable walls. All of the cages are off the floor so the rats can exercise freely within the room itself.
Our cages have changed over the years and we now have larger groups of rats in really big cages. We have owned most cages at some point, and now have a clear idea of what we (and the rats) like. We currently have 7 permanent groups, though we regularly have extra cages with kittens, rescues and/or holidaying rats in them. All of the rats are kept on Ecopetbed and we also use shredded paper for their beds (waste paper shredded at home). Nursing mums have Safe Bed (a soft, shredded tissue bedding) to help in the construction of their nests. Cages are cleaned out approximately once a week using a large, wide-necked bucket of hot water with a dash of washing up liquid in it. Everything is dismantled, washed, dried and re-assembled weekly. Fabric hammocks are also changed with every cage clean. The only things we use in our rats cages that are not washable are cardboard boxes and tubes. These are discarded when soiled.
When dressing our cages we try to utilise as much of the 'dead space' as possible, creating levels with perches, litter trays, hammocks, inverted igloos and the like. Many rats like to sleep high up in the cage and we always try to provide them with the opportunity to do this if they choose. Each cage has a number of potential sleeping places, so that the occupants can choose to sleep together or alone (sleeping arrangements seem to change with mood). All of our cage furniture that doesn't come with a suitable fixing is attached to the cage with either giant paper clips (hammocks) or dog leash clips (which we can buy individually at Wilkinsons). We choose these methods of fixing because they enable easy removal of items for cleaning.
Our colonies are kept in 6 groups in 3 duettos, plus one group of 4 in a superpet.
The duettos run along one wall:
And the Superpet is on the facing wall along with a shelving unit and sink:
We have a Mary, Ruffy, Duna and Freddy 2 which are all used at different times for litters. These sit at the top end of the room.
Individual cage groups/set ups:
The tabi girls
Joanne's girls
Joanne's boys
Flashy's gang
Jannah's gang
