Question on space per rat

Hey all. I've recently started a small rat breeding set-up. I got them a Rat Manor cage from Petco, which is about 16"x22"x32" iirc. Now, a bit of research tells me that this is enough space for just 3 rats. But then I see people with tubs with 4 or 5 rats? This makes me wonder, how many rats do you think I could actually keep in this thing?

http://www.petco.com/product/106171/...escription-tab

depends on u .. i keep my rats in totes i useually keep 2 or 3 females in each tote cant rmeber the size of the tote but its only like 10 bucks at walmart if that helps any .. but the more rats the more cleaning this is y i do it the way i do i can get away with letting my tubs go for 5 -7 days b4 they need to be cleaned

I'd say at most 4. Cages aren't good to use for breeding though. I keep my two rats in a critter nation cage, but they are not breeders.

I'm just thinking it's not much floor space and I wouldn't want a rat moving her babies up the levels and risking them falling off.

That is what I would call a "pet" rat cage. Which to me means it's not really practical for breeding feeders due to the space it takes up. I use the mortar tub type racks and only keep 2 females per tub, and rotate males. Mostly so I can go longer between cleanings.

You can keep 3 rats in there, maybe 4 if only one was male.

But once a female is pregnant, move her into a tub or tank, babies can escape that cage and she might make her nest on one of the levels, endangering the babies.


You'll find you're going to want more enclosures.
1 for currently breeding rats(your rat manor)
1 for female grow outs/resting breeders
1 for male grow outs
1 for each/a group of pregnant does(optional, but I've found it works better for me to keep the moms separate because I can keep track of the babies and let the moms take a break when they need to)

So if you have 1.3 you'll need at least 4-6 enclosures.

I actually have that cage and it is currently housing my 2 "pet" boys. I'd say at most 3 adult males or females. It will work to house them when not breeding, but I'd agree, make a bin cage or use tubs for pregnant females... The pups I have now (got them when 4 weeks old) could easily escape the bar spacing in the rat manor.

It's an ok cage for pets though, but though to clean.