Hiya, great to see another rat owner! (Well soon to be, rat owner!)
I have 7 girlies at the moment. Are yours going to be girls or boys? Girls are known to be a lot more active than boys, whilst boys tend to be much more laid back.
As I have 7 rats, they have a massive cage. I have this one for my girls, they love it!
Savic Royal Suite 95 Double Ferret Cage |Great deals at zooplus Its huge, takes up a lot of space, but its totally worth it! Many people often spoil their pair of rats and get this cage too, all that room just for two rats is really good. Rats do use all the space! Especially if you make it super interesting for them by absolutely filling it with toys and enrichment. Another good thing about the cage (there are so many reasons why!) is that it can be split into two cages by folding one of the ramps up that shuts off the hole between the two sections. This is good if you have one injured rattie, a new addition that slowly being introduced, or if you want two groups of rats! Lots of people have one half with girls in, and the other with boys in.
This is the cage I started off with when I just had 2 girlies.
Savic Royal Suite 95 Double Ferret Cage |Great deals at zooplus Its a nice size and can be used for up to 3 girls, though I would only house a pair of boys in there as they grow larger than girls and need that bit more space!
This is the larger version of the cage above:
Rat Cages
(Suited for up to 4 rats)
Common cages that are advertized as rat cages, but are NOT suitable are:
Savic Ruffy 2 Rat Cage | Pets At Home
Ferplast Cage Mary Grey
They are simply no where near tall enough. These are suited to hams! Not rats!
As well as those cages, tanks, vivariums and anything similar, are also not suitable for rats. Though you probably already know this!
Rats are prone to respiratory infections and tumours unfortuantely, so make sure you have a good exotic vet ready if needed! I cannot stress the words 'exotic vet' enough! So many people go to their local vets with their rats only to find that the treatment they are given, just doesn't do anything. Most vets specialise in cats and dogs. So get registered to a rat savvy vet!
Taming rats is a lot easier than hamsters I have found. I've had a total of 12?? rats over the years and none of them were ever aggressive or drew blood. Baby rats do nip, but its like a baby. Babies put things in their mouths to test the object out and get a feel for it. Its the same with young rats. Its easily sorted out with a little tap on the nose and a stern (not shouting!) 'no!' some people even make a squeak sound (the sound rats make to let the other rat know that they hurt them) as rats are very intelligent, its picked up on super quickly!
Any questions, let me know! I rushed this post, normally my posts are a bit more together than this! haha