I
bought the big cage (95x50x75) when I had six rats and realized that the
two small cages where too small for them. This cage was just a little more
expensive than my first cage, it was a parrot cage with no shelves but
I found some lose shelves in the store that i bought. If you give yourself
some time to look after cages you can get very cheep ones if you have a
little imagination and wants to build a little by yourself. I used wire
to fasten the shelves to the walls in the cage and I put some branches
in the cage so the rats have something to climb on. They like to gnaw on
them so I have to get new ones when the old one are gnawed in two pieces.
I didn't have any place to put my first cage after I bought the big one because I live in a small student room. So I put the small cage on top off the big one. The other small cage is foldable so I put it under my bed. The rats sleep mostly in the top cage because they like to sleep high up in the cage. I have a birdbath outside the cage were the rats like to sleep in a heap... =) In the bottom I have paper pellets as bedding and it works fine, it's easy to clean and the only odour problem I have is when they are too sleepy to climb into the plastic box I have as toilet on the big cage's roof and pee on the T-shirt I uses as floor on top of the wire. I spread out clean rags on all shelves when I clean their cage, partly because I think it's easier for the rats walking on the shelves if they are covered, but also because I don't want them to walk on the wire because they can get swollen feets.
I change rags two times a week and clean the whole cage every weekend. It takes about an hour to clean the two cages and put them back with new rags. First I take all used rags out of the cage and tries to keep my hands out of reach from Kajsa, she defend her cage and her rags because she is the one building nests with all rags she can get hold of. She gets very upset every time I take her rags away... =) But when they are gone she leave the cage and I can put her together with the rest in my transport cage. I wash the water bottles, the birdbath, all their bowls, their houses and the wire cage with the shelves and branches with hot water because I think it's get cleaner with hot water than just rinsing in cold water, I have a brush to scrub with if it's some peal or other stuff is stuck to the bottom. They hide a lot of food in the paper pellets because it's easy to dig and cover stuff with.
I have a plastic tube I have hung in the roof of the big cage and some of the rats have liked to sleep there in the summer. In the big cage I have two shelvs, one for food and the other for sleeping and hiding food. I have made a ladder of an self from the wall of the cage to the bottom and from the ladder they climb up to the first floor in the big cage. In the cage I have on the top they don't need any ladders they jump from floor with the walls as help. I have put a big bowl in the bottom of the cage and they go there and rinse themself because I have water in the bowl, and they like it a lot. Sometimes I put almonds in the bowl and they have to struggle a little to get hold of them.