The Life of Rats

So I thought I should show you how the cage looks, what the girls have to play with, what they eat, etc.

 So here's their mansion of a cage, where they spend most of their time. Up on top half there are three hammocks, all purchased from Booth Seventeen (which has since stopped producing them, since the owner has some severe health problems). There is also a litter box, which they're still figuring out, and the green food dish (behind which is a water bottle). The rope is basic cotton rope, two braided pieces twisted together and pulled as tightly as I could get it. They don't use it often. The wheel is a new acquisition - a Senior Wodent Wheel that Moe and Anise use decently frequently, and the other two mostly ignore.

On the lower half there's a nesting box, food dish, water bottle - and the newest thing in the cage, a cloth-stripfilled digging box that has some as of yet undiscovered treat puzzles.

Then of course there are the girls themselves - Moe down on the bottom, hoping I'll let her out, Ai nibbling on something from the food dish, and Anise and Absinthe sleeping up together in a hammock.
 

The food I feed them is a mixture of Kaytee food blocks (which have full nutrition for the girls), and Suebee's Rat Diet - a new batch I made just last Friday.

Suebee's Diet doesn't have full nutrition (according to The Rat Lady ... that's why I've added the lab blocks, which I may switch out for something else) but it does satisfy much of what they need - and, most important to me, it uses human-grade food and doesn't have anything in it I wouldn't eat myself. It's also cheaper than buying traditional food.

The big problem with rat food sold in most pet stores is that it's formulated for rats and mice - usually taking mouse diet into consideration more than rat diet, which leaves much to be desired for the rats - and gives them a lot of junk they don't need (peanuts, which can cause allergic reactions; corn, which if eaten in large quantities can cause illness or even death ...). That's the biggest reason I decided to make my own food for my girls.

So there's a bit more information about the little fuzzbutts!