I want a rat but their cages are so exspensive. Do you know any place that sales rat cages 4 cheap?

Question

i want a rat but my mom said that they are too exspensive and that i could get one if they were cheaper. I was trying to find a place that sold rat cages for cheaper in california. they have to have a website where you buy stuff online. so thats it and thank you very much . THANKS :)

Answer 1

craigslist.com or clickhere http://losangeles.craigslist.org/sgv/for...

Answer 2

i had rats and used a aquarium... i think we had one laying around the house.. but they only cost 15 dollars at the store or go to a place like goodwill that sells old furniture and nick nacks. you should be able to get one cheap there... the expensive part is the lid... we used chicken wire lol... my mom molded it to fit the tank and folded the sides in so it wouldnt be pokey ... rats are really fun animals.. there much better than hamsters because they dont really bite.. we used to set up mazes.. lots of fun .. good luck

Answer 3

Maybe u can ask around 4 an used one. Pet shops, Goodwill, friends, neighbors?

Answer 4

don't use a aquarium unless you can find a really huge one!  The best bet you have is looking for used cages.  It will take much longer, but you'll find a nice one eventually.

I found this one site that showed you how to build a really cheap one...

http://www.dapper.com.au/articles.htm

but it looks pretty small to me, it might work as a temporary cage while they are babies and you are looking around for a good used on though

Answer 5

I'm sorry to have to say this, but if you can't afford a cage, what makes you think you can afford rats? Rats need to go to the vet just like cats and dogs - in some countries it's illegal (and animal cruelty) to deny an animal the vet care it requires (and deserves). When you buy the animal, you commit yourself financially as well as emotionally - what kind of person do you think you look like if you deny a small, helpless rodent vet care? (Sorry, pet peeve. Please relay this to your parents.)

Almost ALL rats outside of a lab carry a bacterium called mycoplasma http://ratguide.com/health/bacteria/myco... , which stays dormant until triggered by something (stress - like from a move, drafts - wrong cage placement: never near a window, on the floor during colder months, or near a door that leads outside, chemicals - chlorine, ammonia (which is what rat urine turns into when you leave it for too long) etc., strong scents - scented candles, incense, air fresheners, PERFUME, etc., cigarette smoke - NO smoking around the rats!, and various and sundry other things.) Once activated and left untreated, myco can lead to lung scarring, followed by pneumonia, followed by a slow, PAINFUL death.

My vet bills for myco alone (for two rats) in the last three years have been around 600 euros - convert that to your choice of currency. Each trip to the vet has cost me 50 or so euros, not including petrol costs. I've had to go to the vet at least once every three months since my girls were five months old. YOU might even have to go to the vet even more often than that.

And that's another thing. You CANNOT take rats to your average cat-and-dog vet. The average veterinary general practitioner won't have a CLUE about the dosage of ANYTHING for rats, and will probably either under-medicate or overdose and KILL your rats. You MUST take your rats to either a rat-savvy exotics vet, or a very experienced GP who's had a LOT of contact with rats and knows _exactly_ what she's doing - not very many of THOSE around. Do you have such a vet within reasonable distance of your home? You have to find them NOW, BEFORE you have rats - NOT when one of your rats is hacking up a lung and needs vet care STAT.

The Case Against Single Rats:

http://www.ratfanclub.org/single.html

Why Rats Need Company:

http://www.rmca.org/Resources/apair.txt

http://www.curiosityrats.com/infolone.ht...

Actually, call this entire topic one of my pet peeves. I HATE reading about cases where someone buys a pet thinking it's cheap and won't ever get sick, and when it DOES get sick (and WILL cost an arm and a leg) they either dump it outside or leave it in its cage to suffer. Pet peeves put me in a bit of a confrontational mood and pretty much make me jump up on a soapbox to preach about it, but what I said is all true.

Please think about getting rats from the FINANCIAL side - my girls cost me over a thousand (yes, 1,000) euros in the last three years. None of this was for frivolous reasons: 50 euros for worm treatment + meds for about 20 € (I think they snacked on a beetle or something), 100 € for dental trips (2 two trips, each costing 50 €), a spay at six months (both rats, and it cost 161 €), three or four ear infection-related trips (50 € each), Smokey's euthanasia (and the trip before it, due to first trying to convince the local vet GP that she HAD a pituitary tumour - unsuccessfully -  and then actually having her put to sleep - not a pleasant experience for anybody involved!) 50 € each, plus all those myco-related trips. And that's just the highlights of the medical stuff. I also had to buy three (yes, 3!) cages for my girls, since Fudge was a very destructive little girl and chewed her way through one cage, followed by an attempt to chew through two more, before I put both girls in a glass tank for the winter (which is NOT recommended! My vet trips doubled in intensity while they were in the tank). 150 € times 3, + 99 € for the tank. That's 549 €. And this is NOT including monthly staples like food and treats, or cage accessories like rat-safe wheels, food bowls, water bottles, etc. PM me for tips on the correct supplies - most things in the pet shop that are marketed toward rats are NOT appropriate!

Rats are NOT cheap (or "low-maintenance") pets, regardless of what pet shop employees and some truly clueless owners would have you believe.

Answer 6

Try Craigslist  www.craigslist.com , I've found many things there for cheap!