CritterNation Double Unit

I've had this cage for 8 months and have put it through moderate to heavy use, but I don't see it giving out anytime soon. Mine came with all the pieces intact, though one of the trays was cracked along the edge (it didn't affect the functionality so I didn't ask for a replacement.) I assembled it mostly without issue in about two hours. It is huge. I'm about 5'3 and I'm head-to-head with this cage. It's very large inside as well, and most of the room comes from the vertical space, which makes it great for animals that climb. It is a bit cumbersome and has a large footprint, but aesthetically it's not an eyesore. The durability has been great, the whole cage is sturdy and seems very well built. Nothing has bent or broken. There is some rusting beginning in the corners where the cage connects, though. Portability has been a hit and miss issue for me; the wheels are uncooperative and frequently stick or freeze up when I want to take it across the room (note: the locks on the wheels work very well and the cage doesn't budge when they are engaged), but on the other hand I have had to move it up two floors and it was extremely easy to pull apart the two levels and carry them up separately. The cage is surprisingly lightweight without sacrificing that sturdy feeling. Cleaning is fairly easy; the two largest trays are a bit difficult to remove and need to be tilted at a 45 degree angle before they will fit through the cage opening, but once you get them out they are as easy to clean as any piece of hard plastic. The bars are easy to clean as well. I've noticed that anything in the corners of the top level (food, bedding, waste, etc) will fall easily to the bottom level, which can make things messy if you're housing animals separately. The bars are horizontal which makes them easy to climb, whether that is a pro or con depends on what kind of animal you're housing. The spacing of the bars is very small and I don't think even the smallest rodent could squeeze through, but buying accessories that lock onto the cage wall becomes difficult because only certain types will fit. The latches for the doors stick frequently and can be noisy (some WD-40 might fix this but I'm too afraid of the toxicity to try it, I may try vegetable oil in the future), but they require a fair amount of pressure on the top and bottom to open, so even if your pet could figure out how they would most likely not be physically able to. Tips - When you're assembling the cage you'll need to attach the sides to the bottom by placing the round pegs at the corners into the corresponding slots. There are small, black, plastic placeholders in all of the slots, presumably meant to help them keep their shape during shipping, and the pegs will not fit into the slots until you remove these placeholders. They have small holes in the middle which makes it look like they're supposed to be there, so it took me forever to figure this out. - If you can't get the pegs to go in the slots, place a folded towel over part of the cage to avoid damage and use a hammer over the towel. - The ramps will have a slight bend in the middle, this is intentional and makes them easier for your pets to descend. Don't try to unbend them. - The Amazon price for this cage (by Midwest Homes for Pets) fluctuates wildly. I've seen it for >$300 USD and as low as $219 USD. If the price is over $219 when you're considering buying, and you can afford to wait a while, it will come down. I would definitely recommend this cage!

Awesome cage for my rats. The gaps between the bars are perfect for my young boys. They're 6 weeks old and unable to fit through to escape. Putting it together was doable by myself. The only thing I needed was something to cut the zip ties. It took me less than an hour to put together. I need to put in more things for rats to play with and explore but they just stay in the bottom half for now. It's a really sturdy cage and definitely worth it to get such a good quality. I'm 5'6 and the cage is only a few inches shorter than me, so it's plenty tall for rats. The metal is thick and well made too. The doors all open for easy cleaning and the shelf at the bottom is a nice little space for storage. Each level has a thick cover that would hold up to chewing. Its got a ton of space for adding toys and things for exploration. I would definitely get this if you have the money to buy it.

I have two rats who are both about 6 months old. When I got them, I paid around $80 at Petco for a cage that looked big in comparison to Petco's other cages…but really it only had room for one hammock, food bowl, and an igloo. The rats were very inactive - they slept all day, cuddling each other. I thought they just had low energy level. Even when I let them out to play, they didn't run around that much. Fast forward to last week, I began researching for pet supplies and came across this cage. It looked "too big" for my two little ratties, to be honest. But then I thought, who doesn't like a bigger space to live in? This would be like upgrading the rats to a mansion, and I'm all about spoiling my babies. So I pulled the trigger…and…I am SO GLAD that I did. Their old cage looks like a shoebox next to this cage. I set this cage up with five hammocks, an igloo, a hideaway box, hanging chew toys, food bowls, and everything that the rats could ever need. I used old pillow cases to cover up all the plastic trays and plastic levels, to make them warm and cozy. On the bottom tray, I put a layer of paper pulp bedding (best for rodents…never use pine or wood shavings!), and their litter box. My rats are litter trained, so they know not to go potty on any of the fabric parts of the cage. So far they have been making a great effort to go potty only in their litter box. No accidents. I am very proud of them. They have lived in this rat mansion for a week now, and already I have noticed great improvement in their moods, activity level, and general well being. They are much more affectionate toward me (always wanting to climb on me when I let them out to play), and they are much more inquisitive. Now they have room to chase each other up and down the levels, wrestle and play. Before this, they could only play like that when I let them out of their tiny cage. They play SO much more now. They also have the option of claiming each of their own spaces, so that they don't have to be together all the time like before. Often I will find Miley in her little corner where she can spy on me, while the more reclusive Britnee will be in the igloo. This must be very important to the rats' mental health, to have time apart. Just like humans, really. I saved their Petco cage for traveling use. It fits perfectly into my car, so I can take the rats on roadtrips. Midwest Critter Nation Double cage for rats: Pros: -Space, space, space. You can have two rats, and this will be perfect. Or you can have 5 rats, and there will still be plenty of space. If you are a serious rat owner, and plan on having generations of rats, get this cage ASAP so that all of your rats can enjoy their mansion :) -Sturdy material: I am no material expert, but I can tell this cage is a hundred times sturdier than any of the cages I could buy at a pet store. My old rat cage was so flimsy that I could bend the wiring easily with my fingers. This cage feels like pure metal. -The spacing between the wire is designed so that even a smaller female adult rat cannot fit her face in between. No chewing. -Your pet rats will now be on eye level with you: this sounds weird, but I find it to be a great way to build your relationship with the rats. With a big cage like this, the rats can see you easily, and you no longer have to look down at them. My rat Miley likes to watch me all the time, as I go about my daily chores around the apartment. -Because the rats can be on eye-level with you, it is also much easier to play with them. I could open up the double doors, and lean my whole upper body into the cage and have them hop on my shoulders and hide in my hair and stuff. You can visit them in their house now, instead of always taking them out to play with you in your house! Cons: Well, the only thing I found difficult about this cage was the assembly. You need two people, especially if you're short like me (5'3). You need a rubber mallet. It's going to take a while, but be patient - it's worth it! One of the pieces in my box was slightly dent so that the peg did not fit. I contacted customer service, and they offered a replacement right away. Great people, great service. So really, there's nothing to worry about with this cage. I thought it was a luxury when I bought it, but now I consider it essential to my rats health and happiness. I would never ever subject them to living in that cramped, flimsy cage from Petco again. Please get this if you are a rat mommy who is in love with her ratties! :) Have a good day, hope this helped!

I'm not an official Amazon product reviewer, I'm just paying back the favor to all those who wrote reviews on products they bought. I base every product I buy off of the reviews I read and I feel as though this product needs more reviews that aren't just complaints about having to put together something that takes longer than five minutes. I had been searching for a cage on the Internet for a week before I sucked it up and spent the couple hundred on this one, WITH the added suspense of some of the terrible reviews this cage had gotten. I have three, four-week old Guinea pigs, and let me just say that this cage is the perfect size for all three. Please refer to pictures to see cage in all its glory. The hooplah about the difficulty of putting the cage together and parts of the cage being bent/faulty: I live in Hawaii, and my cage came with no dents in the box, and every part of the cage looked like it wasn't beaten up during the shipping process. I am a 20 year-old woman, and so I enlisted the help of my boyfriend to put this thing together. I had read every single review about this cage and knew before hand that we were going to need a rubber mallet (and I might recommend a power drill, just to make the process a little faster). First off, the cage is shipped so that the only part that you need to screw together is the base shelf (where I stashed my pigs' food). Once you put that together, the rest of the cage is just fitting the metal studs at the bottom of every side of the cage into holes. Pretty much it's like a gigantic lego cage is the best way I can put it. As far as having to use a rubber mallet.... The only time we used it was to shimmy the cage square-enough to put the metal studs into the holes for the top cage, and even then it was not like we were pounding it into misery to get it to fit. All together, it took us 30 minutes to erect my pigs' cage, and it is sturdier and nicer than any cage I could have built on my own. The only reason why I am giving this cage four stars is to give an accurate review for others, because despite this cage being awesome and all I can understand why some might be unhappy with it. The manufacturer labels that you don't need any tools to assemble the cage, which might be true, if you want to make it an arduous ordeal and crack a couple fingernails. Honestly though, it doesn't require a whole toolbox to put together. I'm lucky that my boyfriend is a construction worker so he already has the tools, but asking to borrow/rent these for an hour tops is not a big deal. Also, the top cage's gates aren't square, which aesthetically isn't all that bad and the gate still works perfectly fine being a little off, but I can see others being upset about that. The big surprise with this cage purchase is that mine came with the sleeves for the ladders! I can't remember if the product stated it came with those, but I'm glad I didn't have to buy those separately. All in all, I absolutely love the cage, and so do my pigs. I have my girl and two boys separated (bottom cage's ladder folds up so make two separate cages). The doors on this cage are HUGE which makes feeding/cleaning/catching very easy as manageable. The bottom shelf is great for my pigs' food. Only things I recommend buying at the same time (if your budget allows) are the higher splatter guards. Ten minutes after being in there one of my pigs pee'd off the side that is up against a wall and ended up peeing on the wall ._____. That's why I have the pareu on the back, cheap and fast fix to that.

This is an exceptionally well-built and sturdy cage. It may even be overkill depending on your use case but we cycle through regular small animal rescues and see this as being useful for years. Our current inhabitant is a young opossum who appreciates the room to roam during her nightly wanders when we can't let her out. The multilevel design is not only great for the animal but convenient for allowing different "rooms" for eating, sleeping, play and bathroom (if your animal is one that picks a dedicated spot). Along with the trays, it makes it much easier to keep clean as there's no need to clean the whole thing every day. One tip: I noticed reviews that mention needing a mallet to get the sides seated. You might, and I thought I would as well, but I found that holding the sides perpendicular to the cage, lining the posts up with the holes and keeping them so, then tilting the wall up and into position did the trick. It's tight tolerances for certain, and I appreciate that in the build.

I ordered the Deluxe Critter Nation for $250 and it arrived the next day. The box was not damaged at all. HOWEVER, there was, unfortunately, some damage to the cage from the factory itself. One side panel has a scratched up bar. I don't mind the damage and have it hidden by facing the panel toward the wall in the back. The top door panel has a lot of issues. The two doors are slightly offset. I believe there was a mess up in the factory since the door panel originally came with the doors slightly scratched and the tab blocking the doors shut. The bottom bar on the panel was also bent because of this, but thankfully it was not permanently disfigured. One of the doors also swings fully open on its own when unlatched. I will probably end up requesting a new door panel from the company. Not sure if they're going to replace it for free, though (will update!). This defect is the main reason my review is four stars instead of five. Assembly…Putting the first half of the cage together was a breeze! Then, while setting up the second cage on top, I ran into a problem and had a bit of a rough time. The pegs at the bottom of the top cage's panels were supposed to slide into the holes on top of the lower cage's panels. Unfortunately, one of the pegs was slightly bent and I was struggling trying to get it to fit. I was thinking I was going to have to return the entire cage since I couldn't get one of the side panels to secure. I ended up using a rubber mallet to hammer the bent peg straight and it worked. Basically, assembly would've and SHOULD'VE been simple if it weren't for that one defect. Customization…I didn't find much information about cage customization through reviews here, so I'll offer some myself. This information is true for the Deluxe Critter Nation only. Lower cage: the half-shelf has to be on the right side (facing the front of the cage). It has three different heights with pre-cut holes to slide the shelf hooks into. Upper cage: the half-shelf can be on either side of the cage. It also has three different heights with pre-cut holes to slide the shelf hooks into (on both sides). Shelves: if you didn’t notice in the product pictures, there are bars underneath the half-shelving to hang hammocks on, which is so awesome! Ramps: The ramps work for any of the shelf heights. They can be attached to the middle, far-left side, or far-right side of the shelf. (This does NOT apply for the ramp giving access from the lower cage to the upper cage. It cannot be moved.) Being able to adjust the ramps on the shelves is super convenient for working around large items in the cage such as wheels. The ramps also unhook very easily for cleaning/switching covers, which is awesome. Material…The metal material of the cage seems strong and durable. However, damage is very noticeable. Scratches appear white on the dark gray metal due to paint removal. The trays are black and made of regular plastic. They aren't too heavy nor too thin, they're just… plastic trays. They fit on top of the shelves securely, and rest on top of the main floors (but don't shift around at all). The ramps are made of metal with wide bars (please cover them to protect your pets’ feet!). The ramp covers are very soft and have a dark purple side and light blue side. They slide on easily and have a Velcro attachment at the top. Haven't washed them yet, so I'll update this once I see how well they hold up in the washing machine. Size…I kept noticing people online saying that the single Critter Nation was enough space for four rats. I looked at pictures online and thought “there is no way that is enough space for four rats.” I was very wrong. However large you think this cage is in-person, it's even larger. Due to the width and depth of the single Critter Nation, you could definitely keep four rats in it. I would do four at MAX, however. I have three girls currently and they definitely did not need the Deluxe (which could quite comfortably hold eight rats), but they seem to love having the extra space to play and run around so no regrets. Might have to adopt more rats to fill the space! 😉 Though assembly was frustrating and the door panel is somewhat defective, I'm still giving it four stars because that's just how awesome this cage is. I’ll up it to five stars if the company is willing to send a free replacement door panel. UPDATE: I contacted Midwest Homes through the form on their website. After emailing customer service and sending pictures of the damage, they contacted me and let me know that they are sending a replacement door panel! They responded quickly. Very thankful for Wendy! ---- UP. 2: New, non-defective door panel arrived not long after and all is good.

Just a disclaimer with the first picture, I just set up the cage and was in the process of moving their stuff in and it looks so empty. It was filled with so many hammocks, toys, boxes, fleece, paper, tubes, snacks, climbs and hides about two hours later, and is rat heaven. I was nervous spending so much on a cage but I’m so glad I did. This is the best cage I think I could have purchased. It’s large, sturdy, and moves easily with the wheels. The bar width is the perfect size and my girls love to climb them. The locking method is great, I can open it with one hand and the doors open all the way which makes cleaning a BREEZE. The plastic trays are sturdy and super easy to clean and I like how customizable you can make the interior. I will say it was hard to put together alone, so it’s best to have someone help at least hold it while you put the pieces together. Also have some kind of rubber mallet, there were a couple bars I had to bang together to fit, but no big deal. The instructions were super easy and clear though. You can separate the top and bottom half if you need to separate or quarantine rats, which is a nice feature. Adding hammocks, hides and toys is super easy. There are even bars to hang stuff from the bottom of the half platforms. Overall, I’m so glad I splurged and got this cage. My 3 girls love it and they have so much room to play. I could probably have another rat comfortably live in there, too.

UPDATE - Bought the single level cage too. There was one bent bar, but it was not bad enough to affect the use of the cage. STILL highly recommend this cage. Well worth the money, especially since the first rats we had chewed through the sturdy plastic bottom of an $80 cage. This time we started with the best! OVERALL - Great, sturdy cage! (We got the double Critter Nation cage.) I was a little hesitant to buy it when I read about some of the pieces arrive bent; however, I that wasn't my experience. Yes, the ramps were a little bent in the middle, but easily corrected. One of the front panels was a tight fit, but two good whacks with the rubber mallet fixed it. If you want to have bedding or shavings in the cage, you will need something extra to keep that from getting all over your floor. We love the full length doors! cleaning and adjusting the cage is SO much easier. My daughters, our rats, and I would recommend it and buy it again! ASSEMBLY - The box is heavy! It was left on my doorstep and I managed to "walk it" inside the door. Then just took the pieces out out from there to my assembly location. Other comments mentioned that the cage was confusing to put together. I did a YouTube search and watched someone else put it together first. Some of the pieces do look a lot alike. Once we got going, my daughters and I put it together in about 1 1/2 hours. I would definitely recommend a rubber hammer. It comes with a Phillips head screw driver tool, if you have one of your own it might be more comfortable. Some of the protective pieces were hard to get off and the hammer helped with that too. HACKS - I read about using a large concrete mixing bin as the base for holding litter. Found the correct bin at Home Depot and a YouTube video for how to make minor cuts to make it fit. Took me about 10 minutes to complete the bin. My bin is 7 inches tall and I can put enough bedding for my rats to be able to dig and burrow. They love it! Another internet search let me find instructions/measurements to make extra ramp covers. Used an old fleece blanket from when my kids were little and it didn't cost me anything. If you aren't inclined to make your own, I saw that Etsy had some for sale too. Our favorite part was arranging the cage. We used bins, buckets, baskets, and shower curtain rings from the dollar store for cage accessories along with other toys made specifically for rats. We have 6 rats and they love all of the room they have!

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.

This is an amazing enclosure for our four dwarf rats. They have so much space to run around and play. Great quality too!

Facile à monter, très grande pour mes 3 bébés rats , espaces entre les barreaux assez serrés pour des bébés d1mois . Super cage en tout cas .

bought the triple cage for my chinchilla... expensive yes however well worth the money to make him soooo happy!! extremely spacious therefore lots more enrichment toys on the way!! easy for 2 people to assemble however a couple pieces came bent... nothing risking the integrity of the cage tho so leaving it as is