Well I've taken the wire bottom out and she's got aspen substrate straight on the solid bottom of the cage, and it has a solid little wall thing going up about 3 inches before the mesh of the cage starts, so I figured that was okay and better than the 10gal I had her in originally; lets her climb if she wants and has better ventilation so no stinky. It's easier to clean, too. Really it's the same as those rodent cages except that I can add a grate bottom if I want.

As for the seed diet, yeah, it's mostly a matter of getting my mom to stop going "ZOMG BUT THE PET STORE SAYS SO!" and let me feed what I want...but I've been sneaking her a lot of our healthy cereal and some of what we eat to supplement the seeds...I chose the particular mix because it had more dried fruit and nuts than seeds, and I hoped that would help even it out.

Regarding getting another rat...at the moment I have it where my cat (he can't hurt her or anything and he's more scared of her than she is of him!) can poke his nose to the cage and they sniff noses so she hopefully won't get lonely...I'm waiting until I can find a friendly, female rat from a place I trust. I don't want to keep buying feeders from the place I have been, since I don't think they're healthy.

I want a healthy, friendly, non-disease carrying friend for her. (And, y'know, also one that won't impregnate her...>.>;; I'm not ready for that yet!)