I’m sure anyone who has rats knows what a Sputnik is. They are fantastic plastic beds, by Savic, and have been hugely popular with many of my rats. I got my first one when I bought a Savic ‘Freddy’ cage, it came with the cage, and I recently bought a second one when I got the Furet XL. These simple little beds have proved so popular with my girls I’ve had to confiscate them – twice.
When I first got the agouti girls – now lovingly known as the Twiglets – they had a sputnik and they never left it. They were quite a shy bunch anyway, and combined with a bed they wouldn’t leave I wasn’t getting to see much of them. The bed was also getting very smelly, with shed fur, food crumbs and goodness knows what else not making for a healthy sleeping environment. Seeing as they had lots of other beds and tunnells to sleep in I took the Sputnik away from them. This had a positive effect on the girls, I got to see more of them and they made better use of their other beds, which was more hygienic for them.
While in their quarantine cage, Maple and Kiki also had a Sputnik. Though they weren’t permanently stuck in theirs, they liked to sleep in other beds and readily came out to play. When Maple and Kiki decided to move in with the Twiglets, I let them take their Sputnik with them, so they would have something familiar.
'You don't all fit in there!' Rattie heads and feet hanging out of the 'Sputnik'
BIG MISTAKE!
The instant result was all five rats piling in that little plastic bed. I don’t know how they managed to breath squished in like that. The Sputnik soon got stinky and messy leaving me with no choice but to take it off them, again. I did replace it with an extra bed – not that they need anymore – which was simply an old jeans leg.
No one really seems to miss the Sputnik and all the girls tend to sleep a bit more split up, which is no bad thing. Sometimes I still find them all piled into one bed together, but mostly they are in two groups in different beds. It’s nice to see them making better use of their home, and I’m sure it will be healthier for them in the long term.
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A new palace for my princesses
Like many rat lovers, I’ve always loved the Ferplast range of ferret cages. I bought a Furet Plus several years ago for my little girl, Petal, it has housed many rats since and I’m pleased to say that it is still going strong today. I really wanted to treat my new trio of girls to a nice new shiny home, and what better cage for three gorgeous little girls, who I intend to spoil rotten than a Furet XL.
Derek wasn’t sure at first, mainly because we have two cats, and it’s important that we can keep our cages up off the floor, away from their reach. Fortunately I tracked down a table that wasn’t too expensive, well not when you compared it to the price of the cage. So once we’d got the table, I ordered the cage from Zooplus, who dispatched it really quickly and we took delivery of a huge box a few days later.
Putting the cage together, as it comes flat pack, was really simple, but goodness me, filling it with all the hammocks and toys I’d got for the girls was hard work. We were quite tired by the end, but the girls were bouncing with energy and ready to check out their new home. Although they’d only been with us a week, the girls took really well to the move and seem to be enjoying all the extra space.
I’m delighted with the cage, though I’m not so sure about all the work at cleaning out time, I can only hope it will get easier with more practice. Seeing the girls climbing and playing about in the cage makes all the effort worth while. It’s the biggest cage I’ve ever had, and I’m really looking forward to watching the girls grow up in it.
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The girls, or at least one of them, has chewed their way out of their cage. It’s a Furplast Furret Plus that originally belonged to Petal. I was concerned when I first got the cage that it had a lip inside the base, and sure enough Petal had a go a chewing it, but fortunately she didn’t do too much damage. These girls, however, are destructive little madams.
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We decided to get the bunny cage for Pickle. His welfare is more important to us than anything and I’d be heart broken if he had another fall and really hurt himself. The last fall I was so scared he’d broken his leg, it was such a relief when he started using it again. Hopefully now he’ll be safe now.
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Our Pickle is obviously an old chap. Well, I’m assuming he is because although we don’t know his age he certainly looks like a big old fellow.
Anyway he has never been very good at climbing. As I mentioned before I don’t think Pickle or his brother Tomato could’ve had much of an opportunity to climb before they joined our family, because Pickle has always managed to climb up the bars ok, its just getting back down or into a hammock that causes him problems.
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One of the corners Petal has chewed in her new cage
Oh that rat! She has decided to start nibbling the base of her new cage. There is a lip that runs around the bottom of the cage and it is obviously a nice chewing height, and Petal has had a good nibble of of all the corners. While she hasn’t broken through the base yet, we are going to have to keep an eye on what she gets up to, because we don’t want any midnight escape attempts!
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Now Petal has recovered from her operation, we thought it only right that we should get on and sort our a new home for her. We chose the Ferplast Furet Plus, after reading rat cage reviews on the Fancy Rat website. It was a little bigger than we had room for in our living room, which is where we wanted Petal to live as she was on her own, but when it comes to rats you can’t scrimp on space, so rather than get her a home that was too small, we made room for her large new home.
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The four boys have settled in so well together that we have treated them to a fancy new rat cage. It is an Imac cage and the same as the one our other rattie boys live in, except this one has a tunnel that comes out of the top.
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Pipsie and Chockie were our first girl rats. We had always had little boy rats before, so we thought it would be fun to have a pair of girls. We had read about how girls were more active than boys, little did we know.
Pipsie and Chockie were tiny when we got them. They had just arrived at the pet shop as we turned up. At first we just thought they were over excitable being such tiny babies in a new home, but no. We soon realised that the homes our little boy rats had been happy living in were not big enough. A trip down the pet shop and we returned with a parrot cage that only just fitted in our car!
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