Mini Rat Cage

The cage is miniature, not the rats. Yes, those exist.

So, I'm getting a new rat in about a month, and I needed a separate cage for her to live in for the first few weeks, before I start socializing her with my other two. There is a common method people use for making a spare cage (often referred to as a hospital tank, because it's also used when a rat is sick and needs to be separated from the colony.) It's also a great travel cage, because it's so light, has built-in handles, and it's spill-proof.

It's fairly simple. You start with a plastic bin. Cut out the top, and insert an appropriately-sized piece of chicken wire.


The chicken wire is kept in place with wire tied through holes I drilled in the top.



I drilled some small holes in the side for the water bottle. Two small holes for its wire hanger and one large one for the nozzle to go through. This part was a little trickier because the tub is made of a sturdier plastic than the lid, so there was a danger of it cracking. I did get one small crack, but it didn't go very far, so I'm not too concerned about it.


That's it! Now I have a spare cage for my new rat when she arrives in February. I'm very excited. I'll post pictures when I have the new rat and the cage is furnished.

More crafting news later in the week.

Catching Up: Personal Projects

Amanda, here. And I'm armed and ready with my official excuse for being so scarce around the ol' blog here. I've been crazy busy with personal projects lately. Luckily, I took lots of pictures so I could share with you guys.

Firstly, I had a chili sauce party a few weeks ago. I had a bunch of friends over and we spent the day making two big batches of homemade chili sauce. Here are the highlights:

It was like tomato-mania in my kitchen for a while. We had approximately 60 tomatoes and 20 onions. It was wild.

First, we had to blanch them (heat them up, then cool them down really fast)...

then peel them and chop them up...

then we strained them, and finally we threw them in the pot with the onions, vinegar and sugar.

I'm not sure how, but we never ended up getting any photos of the pots full of chili sauce. How disappointing. But I did get photos of the canning process:

You have to sterilize the jars before you fill them.

... and if you forget to bring a canning funnel, filling them can be kind of messy.

We ended up with a lot of jars. It was fantastic.

My other project was the new rat cage! Brandon assisted me as we built a new, improved rat complex based on Kelli's own design. I didn't get many 'in-progress' photos of this project, as it basically sat on our living room floor for 2 weeks and we would work on it whenever we got time. But I can show you a bit of it:

Brandon drew up a blueprint because, unlike me, he understands that carpentry requires planning.

We bought a bunch of 2x2s and I spent two mornings staining them all. Two coats, for extra water-proofing. Or, in the case of a rat cage, urine-proofing.

Brandon assembled the frame, then I took the chicken wire, cut it, bent it to fit, and tacked it in place. The finished product is amazing. The litter boxes slide underneath for easy cleaning.

They love to climb around and play in their new cage.


I also decided to put their food in the top hammock, to encourage them to climb. Otherwise they would just hang out on the bottom.

So now you know what I've been up to lately. And I'm sorry again for the hiatus. But I should have lots of projects to show you soon. Stay tuned!

Amanda's Been a Busy Bee!

Amanda, here. I've got a LOT of catching up to do! I've been very busy the past while. Aside from setting up the legal and financial side of Nimble Toad, I've had many other adventures the past couple weeks that I'd love to share with you! This will definitely be a photo-heavy post. My favorite kind.

First off, Brandon and I tried a new cooking experiment this weekend. We had four people to cook dinner for, some random odds and ends around the house, and we'd been watching the food network a lot lately. So we decided to try something new.

We sauteed some chicken in bacon fat, with the bacon still in the pan, then once they were mostly cooked, we added onions:

Then Brandon put some pineapple slices in the oven to give them a nice, grilled look:

This part was Brandon's idea, and they turned out great!

Then we put the whole thing over brown long grain rice and added okonomi sauce:

Super yummy. ^_^

So, that was our little cooking experiment this weekend. And you know it's a success when I'm eating pineapple, because I don't usually like pineapple.

Next up... Let's see... I'm working on making my own pin cushion. I took a scrap of fabric and some cotton balls and I'm just finishing sewing it up:

I have just one little bit of sewing left and it will be done.

For some reason, I felt compelled to make my own instead of buying one. It just seems like such a simple thing; it's just a tiny pillow, right? And it doesn't even have to be pretty. Something tells me i'm missing some super important detail and I'll be eating my words soon. But at least I got to pick a pretty fabric:

I think it will do the trick.

Once I'm done with the pin cushion, I can start the third bracelet in that series I showed you last week.

Okay now for the fun part. This weekend, I went on a garage sale adventure with my roommates and my boyfriend. My roommates are moving into an apartment together and need kitchen stuff, so we drove all over looking for garage sales, and we found a TON of them. I got a few choice pieces.

I can't explain why, but I love vintage luggage. I've been looking for an old suitcase for a long time. I want to rip out the lining and put in some funky, bright fabric on the inside. Well, I found a suitcase that's funky enough on its own, it definitely does not need my help:

How cool is that? check out that color! Screaming bright orange. Perfect for me. ^_^

It was marked for $8, but I was able to talk him down to $6. I'm so thrifty.

It's in great shape: not very worn, and the inside is clean.

Now I just need a vintage train case that I can re-line the inside with funky fabric. I want to use it for my sewing supplies. Then I'll be happy. Vintage luggage, who knew?

So, I also got some great crafting supplies. I found this old mirror for 75cents. I'm going to repaint the frame, and sell it:

Someone did an awful job of painting it, so I wanna do something funky (that's my go-to craft adjective, can you tell?)

I want to accentuate the little details, like do a bunch of different colors.

What color scheme do you think I should go with?

So, then I also got some crafting materials. I got this lacey cloth (it was someone's blinds, I got 4 panels for 4 bucks) at a garage sale near my house:

Dunno what I'm gonna do with it yet, but I figure it's always useful to keep collecting bits of cloth and thread and yarn, etc... especially when they're super cheap!

Then I got this at the thrift store... It's a bit of a mystery:

It's a brighter orange than it looks here. Kinda like the suitcase.

What is it? It's too thin to be embroidery floss, but it's on the wrong kind of spindle to be thread. I'm gonna use it as thread. Anyway, it was really cheap.

Okay so, I had one last project I wanted to show you. I've been having some problems with litter training the rats lately, so I decided to eliminate the top shelf of their cage and replace it with some tubes for them to crawl through. My goal here was to reduce the number of corners they could 'go' in. They like to go on the top shelf, so of course that was the first thing to go. But they love the new tubes! Let me show you:

Here is a side view of the cage. New litter tray is on the bottom-left, and the new tubes are on the top-right.

The two ends feed them to their two favorite spots:

This end takes them to the level with the nesting box.

This end feeds them almost right into the hammock.

I was really worried they wouldn't use it, but I was walking by the cage and I saw this:

I was much relieved. ^_^

Alright, that's it for now. See, I told you I'd been busy!

Time for a hilarity break. (Amanda's old blog)

I have only just barely seen my rats' tongues before today. They are tiny. They are adorable. They like gravy.

Behold:

I could not stop giggling.

Oh I posted too early. I managed to get Kashyyyk in on the action, as well:
Hilarious.

Rat Stuff! (Amanda's old blog)

Finally! I cleaned out the rat cage and took photos. The rats weren't too happy with me. I put them in their running ball while I cleaned the cage, and they kept running it up to me and bumping me in the side.

So, I made their cage more or less from scratch.


Here's the whole cage. Their water bottle is hanging off the side on the right. There are 2 access panels, one at the front and one on the top. The running wheel is on the right at the middle, the hammock is at the top left. Their food bowl is at the bottom left, their litter box is at the top right. Their nesting box is hard to see here, it's on the left in the middle.


You can see the levels a bit more clearly here. There are some cardboard toys on the bottom right. A paper towel tube and a macaroni and cheese box. The wad of paper towel hanging on the bottom left is a 'ratty pinata.' The tube leading from the bottom shelf to the second shelf is 3-inch PVC pipe.


I used the panels from an old collapsible shelving unit for the sides. It was Brandon's idea to connect them using zip-ties. The only problems were the corners, which had big escape-able holes. So I took some heavy wire and covered them.


Not all the corners are quite this tidy. I plan to fix up the messy corners some time.

The floors are linoleum tiles cut to fit

Isn't he a cutie? See the rope in the background? it's a doggie rope - they crawl up it to get from level 3 to 4.


Here they are hanging out in the hammock and nesting box:

Their nesting box is just an old tissue box. I change them periodically, when it gets too messy or too chewed up.

The hammock is SUPER ghetto, it's just a washcloth hung up by oversized paper clips:

I change it every couple weeks. It gets pretty messy. I have a couple that I cycle through. They LOVE the hammock. It's where they spend most of their time.


When I want to play with them outside their cage, I put up the 'play pen.' It's made from some cardboard boxes I cut apart and taped back together in a line - one of the boxes is from the espresso machine Brandon got me for Channukah!

On the right side is the 'box game' as I call it. It's just a cardboard box filled with crinkled papers and tissues, with different treats hidden amongst the mess. There are 2 exit holes for them to crawl out. When I close the top, it's nice and dark. They really like it. I got the idea here. Unfortunately, the play pen is too short. They can jump to the top if they try hard enough. So I need to make a taller one some time soon.

They normally like the box game, but I think they were overwhelmed by all the commotion today. They immediately tried to jump out, even before I could close it!



Another really cheap toy is the little hideaway box.

I call it that because the rats always need a safe hideaway when they're playing and exploring on the floor. They need somewhere they can feel safe.


That's everything I have photos of for now. I forgot to get pictures of the closures on the doors. It's not too exciting, I just wound some wire around the edge of the panel, then bent the other end so I could clip it into the mesh on the other side.

I hope you enjoyed this entry! The rats are having fun running around inside my hoodie. ^_^