Rats do like plenty of room to move around in. It is important to keep them stimulated with toys to play with and places to explore. On this page you'll find details of our experiences of different cages.

If you're planning on keeping rats you should also think about toys to keep them entertained and healthy and bedding

Expect to pay from about £100 for a Jenny (pictured).

The Mary cage is almost identical except if is half the height (and usually comes with a single shelf).

They come with a short length of suspended tunnel and two levels attached to the wire frame. The Ferplast levels are the best of any I've seen - robust and easy to clean. Note that you can buy these seperately from most good retaillers.

The wire part of the cage tends to rust and becomes difficult to clean. The two hatches (top and front) are well positioned but rather small.

This is the Rolls Royce of rat cages. It is big - but it's also very solid, well designed and built. Cost is approx £140. By far our favourite cage.

The whole front of the cage is make up of 4 doors providing very easy access. The finish on the metal is hard-wearing. It can be set up as two stacked cages or with a hatchway between.

The 2 liners for the upper and lower compartments have very low sides which means that the rats throw rather a lot of the bedding out onto the floor(you can get special trays made but their is not a hole for them to get through so your ratties don't get to see each other).

Liberta also make a smaller cage - the abode - which we have not tried ourselves.

We've just acquired one - it's still in bits awaiting assembly. Like the Explorer its built to withstand large explosions :) but has a large hatch instead of the front opening up :(

More details when I get round to deploying it (we currently need the space of the Furet Tower, but we've just got too many rats just now).

Approx £50

Like the other Liberta cacges - this one is well-built though not as heavily engineered as the Explorer/Abode. However its relatively small for 2 rats. We've got one as a hospital cage. Nice features are that it folds flat, and the 2 trays in the base can be removed to clean while the rat(s) are still in the cage.

This is a huge cage. Fortunately it does fold flat quite easily.

Unlike the (much smaller) Jenny cage by the same makers, the sides of the cages are powder coated making it easier to keep them clean, they also feature much larger doors. Comes with lots of levels and tunnel pieces (the ferplast ones are very good).

Its just **too* big. I'm 6 foot 2, and can't reach across to the other side of the cage from the hatch! Although the hatches are larger than most, they are not as big as the ones on the explorer.

Expect to pay from about £50 for one of these.

Usually have a very big hatch at the top and a lrge one at the front giving easy access.

Really only suitable for adult rats (10 weeks plus) due to the wide spacing of the bars

Usually these can be acquired for slightly less that the Ferplast Jenny. These cages are slightly smaller though.

The whole cage can be lifted using the handles attached to the wire frame part. The woreframe part itself is painted or powder coated which makes it easy to keep clean and looking good - we've never had a problem with the rats biting off the coating.

Usually comes with a level and a hammock.

The plastic levels are not as well made as the ferplast ones.

(see [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Options-Luna-Small-Animal-Cage/dp/B00426DH08|here]] for a picture).

The cage has think powder coating (easy to keep clean) and narrow spaced bars.

A bit small - not suitable for more than 2 rats.