Habitat
My rats are kept in good-sized cages such as the Furplast Jenny, Furet Excel and Critter 3. Additional Photographs can be supplied upon request. The Fancy Rats Forum has a section devoted to cages.
My general setup is illustrated below:
My Girls:
Currently my girl group is in one cage, an Explorer. It is a wonderful cage, 100% metal and very easy to access and clean. I plan to hopefully expand to another as and when my girl group expands beyond what is reasonable.
My Stud Bucks:
At the moment I have two separate groups of bucks, the bucks who form part of my breeding plans, my "stud" bucks, and my pet-only bucks. The stud lads live in a Furet XL cage, which I hope to upgrade to a Tower next year. It is more than big enough for the 6 boys who live in there currently, but I am a big believer in space, so an XL Tower is next on my list. This type of cage is generally big enough for 6-8 bucks or 9-10 does.
My Pet-Only Boys:
This little group is a mix of my bucks from other breeders, and the two rescue lads I obtained from my local Pets at Home (yes I know!) "Rescue Centre". They live quite comfortably in a Furplast Jenny cage. This type of cage is generally big enough for 4 bucks or 5-6 does.
Babies:
Generally I allow my girls to birth in a nursing tank, similar to a Zoo Zone. Once they have their eyes opened, and are beginning to bimble about on their own and wean I move the group to a Mary. Once they reach splitting age, they girls and mum move into a separate Mary or Critter 1 from their brothers.
Please remember that the numbers quoted as being suitable are average only and depends on the sizes and temperaments of the rats in question. Some rats are happier in larger groups, some in smaller, so the type of cages that work can differ even if the group sizes are similar to mine.
Bedding:
There is a debate within the Fancy as a whole over the merit of wood shavings. I personally do not use them, and would prefer that rats bred by me were kept on similar bedding to what they are used to.
I use newspaper as a base, with shredded paper, normally TV magazines or their equivalent as bedding. It is cheap, cheerful and fairly eco-friendly.
Toys:
Rats are easily bored. This is part of the reason they need company. But toys do not have to break the bank.
Food can double as a toy. Whole fruits, such as apples, spears of broccoli, meat bones or boiled eggs make fantastic toys. Walnuts and hazelnuts in their shells are great too, if a trifle noisy!
Cardboard boxes, such as tissue boxes, egg cartons etc are good as beds and toys.
Hammocks and Play Tunnels. Rats love places to hide and snooze, and these great toys can easily be found in most pet stores. You can make your own though with a couple of old tea towels and some cheap fleece, although that is optional - most rats are just as happy with a simple tea towel. I prefer to order mine on-line, and one of my favorite places to get mine is Betty's Beds. Other, equally fantastic makers can be found with stalls at shows, or on-line.
Any pet shop can provide you with good wooden chew toys, but they need to be big enough for rats.
I do not recommend exercise balls, as my rats have always hated them, and they do not tend to have enough space for them.