Critter Nation Small Animal Habitat

I have owned a Ferret Nation for years (over 10), in fact I owned two at one point. Given how well those cages held up (the second was given to a friend, and is still in like-new condition), I was ecstatic when I found the Critter Nation at a local PetsMart, and did more research online. The Ferret Nation and Critter Nation are essentially the same, except that the bars on the Critter Nation run horizontal and are not spaced as far apart as the Ferret Nation. The Critter Nation bars are even suitable for sugar gliders (they are only about the size of a chipmunk). In fact, I'm thinking about buying a second Critter Nation to upgrade my sugar gliders' housing, as the first one is in use by my more numerous pet rats currently. At this point, the Critter Nation is comfortably housing 8 pet rats, and is split into separate units by locking the ladder in an "up" position (standard function for the cage). My 5 wonderful boys live on the lower level, and my 3 beautiful girls live on the upper level. I'm looking at buying the scatter guard accessory trays, but for now I'm just using the normal trays that come with the cage. While it's inconvenient to sweep up their bedding so often, it's still worth it to provide them with the extra space, and I have options to consider to help prevent this issue in the future. Pros: * The Critter Nation is SOLID. Rats are really intelligent and I always have to consider if they can escape a cage by operating whatever locking mechanism it has -- that's not a concern at all with the doors on the Critter Nation, yet they are still easy for me to open despite having tendonitis in my dominate hand. My Ferret Nation is now 10+ years old and does not have any rust on it, the door locks still work perfectly, and the cage is like new. I expect my Critter Nation will hold up just as well over time. * LOTS of room. The cage is huge and leaves plenty of room to accessorize -- the underside of the shelves even have bars on them, despite the shelves being solid, so you can hang light-weight items like hammocks or small bird toys on the underside of the shelves to entertain your pet! * The shelves have solid plastic covers. This is a huge issue for me as I once had a special needs rat that had foot injuries, wire shelves, bottoms and ramps were just not an option with him, and since then, I don't consider them an option with my other rats either. The solid shelves eliminate the potential for foot injury as there's really no way for your rat to get its feet caught in the shelf. * They make washable covers for the wire ramps -- Again, I don't like wire ramps, floors or shelves due to the potential for foot-injury with rats, but there is an option to buy ramp covers as accessories, which makes them solid and can prevent injury in the long run. I was even lucky even to receive ramp covers with my order, free of charge. The best part is that I can toss them in the washer and dryer, so I'm not scrubbing them by hand. * You can add to this cage. I bought the single unit and the add-on unit at the same time, so my cage only needs one stand. I've separated it into two cages by using the feature that allows you to lock the ramp between units in an up position against the underside of the top unit, this closes the hole and prevents pets from going up or down into the other unit. What I realized when I added my second unit onto the original is that it had the potential for even more units if I so desired. I think this is a great feature, though I'm sure I would need a step-stool to clean the third unit as it would be quite a bit taller than me at that point. * The stand has wheels. This is great when you need to relocate the cage on the same floor of a home, or if you just need to move it a bit for cleaning. The wheels have locking features for safety as well. Cons: * The doors are really big, it's sort of a pro and con all at the same time. It's easier to clean, but the size of the doors are the only thing that makes me think twice about putting Sugar Gliders in this cage -- if you have a pet that's sneaky and prone to attempt escape, and there's more than one animal in the unit, the chances of them being able to get past you are increased due to how large the doors are. * The cage is kind of expensive. This is only a con at the start, and you have the option to buy it one unit at a time. I have not found a comparable cage for a better price, however. * The cage is very heavy, but I only really noticed this when I had to move the boxes it arrived in before assembly. This is something to consider when you order it if you have to go up or down a lot of stairs -- you may be moving it a few pieces at a time before assembly. I have only moved my Ferret Nation once when I bought a home and moved out of the place I had been renting, and over all, it's not nearly as bad as moving large appliances. Ultimately, for housing rats and similar pets, I think this cage is excellent. I'd love to give my gliders the space of the Critter Nation, but I'm reluctant at this point only because of the size of the doors, the quickness of a sugar glider, and the gliders' ability to climb and fly short distances. My rats will more than get my money's worth out of this cage and I believe that for them, it was an excellent investment. The Ferret Nation is also wonderful for Ferrets and Chinchillas as I have previously housed both of those kinds of animals in my old Ferret Nation unit -- you can even buy an external ramp for it to allow your ferret or chinchilla to free-range at their leisure. I would highly recommend these cages to anyone looking to give their pets a lot of space, particularly if you know you will continue to have those kinds of animals in your life, as this cage will generally long out-last the life span of the animals it can comfortably house. It is definitely a worth-while investment.

Fairly easy to assemble- and I'm not much of a handy man so that says a lot. I did need a rubber mallet once to make it all fit together right. Big doors, easy for cleaning inside. Wheels make it great for moving around my apartment if I chose to. Really love this cage!

I absolutely love this cage! I have gone through a variety of different animal cages in my life, and had some very nice ones, but this is my favorite. I guess I was lucky - my cage arrived & there was no damage, no broken pieces. I did need to use a rubber mallet to get the side panels fully seating in place, they went in about 90% by themselves, then needed a few strong taps with the mallet to get them completely inserted. Once they were tapped in, they fit very snugly, so no worries of the panels coming back apart. Other than that, it was a fairly straight-forward job for me to put this cage together by myself. It would have been easier, I'm sure, if I had had someone helping me, but it really wasn't a problem for me to do it by myself. IMO, the cage seems very sturdy & stable -- I've moved it around the room several times & it doesn't feel flimsy or 'wobbly' at all to me when I roll it around. I love the size (and so does my rat!) Instead of using shredded bedding, I've sewn fleece covers for the trays & shelves & change them out frequently for clean ones. He uses the bottom 'half-shelf' for his eating area, so I left that one bare & clean it off daily from whatever crumbs & tidbits of food he's gotten scattered around. My little guy is great about using his litter pan, so the fleece covers don't seem to get dirtied as often as I'd thought they would. (I made 7 sets, so that I could change them daily, but I haven't had to change them that often after all) I have additional loose fleece blankies in there for him & he seems to enjoy scrunching them around to his liking & nestling up in them to sleep. All in all, he seems happy & comfy with the fleece, and it does solve any issue of loose bedding falling out of the cage (and looks a lot neater too!) Midwest does have 'scatter guards' for the cage, both bottom & top trays, for those who do need them. The shelves are so much nicer than most other cages. So many cages have narrower shelves that only extend maybe 1/3 of the cage width, if that much - and the narrow shelves limit how useful they really are. The shelves in the Critter Nation are wonderful, since they extend to a full half-width of the cage, leaving plenty of room. I LOVE the doors on this cage! Other cage manufacturers need to take a clue from Midwest & make full-size doors like this. It makes everything so much easier, whether it's for cleaning, getting your baby in & out of the cage, or putting larger toys & objects into the cage. The "one-hand" latches are great too, again making it so much easier to deal with than the typical cage latch. I truly feel badly for those who had problems with their cage - again, I guess I was lucky as there was no damage at all to mine when it arrived. No mis-matched holes, no holes painted over or any of the other assembly issues that others have mentioned. I would highly recommend this cage to anyone with small animals. I couldn't be happier with it myself.

This is a great cage! Honestly one of the best cages you can buy for rats! The only thing I don't like is for the price it could be built a little better! Overall it's really good, the issue is the doors! Like everyone else has said, the doors are crooked and don't quite perfectly lock in the holes. They will shut and they will stay shut, but you've got to be careful and make sure you close them properly and push them in, otherwise you might end up coming in the room to see your rats have escaped and are sitting on top of the kitchen counter 🤦 So just make sure those doors are locked shut! Or perhaps could get some clips or ties to make sure the doors are even more secure! Other than the doors... It's a great size! Sturdy and look great! All doors open fully, so it makes cleaning easy! And lots of space and bars and hooks on the ledges to hang stuff. You can keep the ledges in or take them out. You can DIY wood or plastic guards around the bottoms to keep bedding in and so they don't kick it out all over the floor. And it has a fair amount of space underneath for you to store their food and toys and is easy to move around. Definitely happy with the purchase.

Der Käfig wirkt sehr robust, der Zusammenbau war relativ einfach (hab ihn alleine aufgebaut). Er ist extrem geräumig und man kann sehr viele Versteck- und Klettermöglichkeiten anbringen. Für den Preis Top! Meine 5 Köpfige Ratten Bande tobt schon den ganzen Tag darin. Der Abstand der horizontalen Gitterstäbe beträgt 1,3 cm und ist auch problemlos für weibliche Ratten geeignet. Einziges Manko bei mir war, das eines der vorgestanzten Löcher im Metall, welche die Halterungen des Zwischenbodens aufnehmen, nicht ausgestanzt war und ich musste mit der Bohrmaschine durchbohren, war aber relativ easy. Die Bezüge für die Halb- und Volletagen und auch ein Streuschutz für den untersten Boden gibt es separat zu diesem Käfig zu kaufen. Klare Kaufempfehlung meinerseits.

Perfect addition to our one storey Critter Nation! Assembly wasn’t too bad, but I’d still recommend two people just to save time. I love Critter Nation cages for how large the doors are, makes cage cleaning so much easier! A great add on if you’re looking to add more little ones to your mischief!

Easy set up, recommend at least a hammer to help but easily done by 1 person. Really lovely locking system on doors, doors are large and can easily get inside of cage to clean. Was amazed about the size, absolutely huge! Highly recommend for any rat owner as bar spacing is perfect and the horizontal bars make hanging hammocks and other toys and such super easy!

Fantastica