How do I protect a wire cage from a cat?
Don't put the cage up high, if anything put it directly on the floor. The cat will be able to reach anywhere he wants, if its up high he will be much more likely to knock it down and injure them. The cats should be fine otherwise, if you are worried about the rats getting stressed out with the cats around just close the door to the room they're in. If the rats have hiding places they should feel safe enough. For the floors, most good wire cage have solid plastic floors. Since rats have very similar caging requirements to ferrets, most people use ferret cages for them, and no ferret cage will have wire shelving, only solid floors. So look at those kind of cages first (like critter nation or one of many different super pet cage designs). But if you do end up getting one with wire floors, you can cover with many things, either put material over it, cover with pans, or some people get floor tiles attached permanently. Like you can use fleece like you would on the bottom of the cage, put linoleum on them, or make a shelf cover out of plastic (some people use wood or metal, but these are more likely to smell). If by how close should the wires be you are talking about bar spacing, then ideally you want 1/2 inch, but with adult rats, especially males, there is usually no issue with 1 inch. If you have very tiny females or baby rats they may be able to fit through one inch, but if you want to get a cage with that spacing you can put hardware cloth around it. Again most ferret type cages have 1 inch spacing so you will run into a lot of them, but you can get them.
How much would it cost to screen a 4ft x 1ft cage?
Are you looking for screen or a screen top. If a screen top it will be more expensive, if you're screening this yourself then go to home depot and get two rolls of screen for the whole cage and it would probably cost about 10 to 15 dollars, if you just want to screen the top yourself get one roll and it will work the same.
How far can mice/rats jump (horizontally)?
Hm.... thats a great idea. Fat pet rats can jump about four feet, and I know for a fact that rats can swim for 3 days straight, while mice arent quite that epic, they can swim really really really quickly. You'll have to build a big moat.... I'd try figuring out a way I could use some cheap wire mesh to attach to the inside of the hood or something. Mice can fit through bars half an inch wide, and rats can fit through 1 inch, so anything less will do. You can get a roll of wire mesh at any hardware store....
Working at a petstore how do you handle rodents and snakes?
I'm going to be getting my first Job, and I might get a job at Petsmart or Petco, or other petstore, and I'm wondering how do you handle rodents? Chances are they bite being in a petstore, how would you handle a rat? How would you wake a hamster up that is sleeping? mice, guinea pig, ferret, etc? While they are trying to bite you, etc?? How do you handle snakes, or spiders? Can you use gloves to handle them? I'm pretty sure that for birds go you use a net to get them in the stores, but in some stores instead of a huge cage they have parakeets that were in a huge cage they have then in smaller cages ( they put one big bird in there ) probably about 3-4 feet long, and 2 feet width, and 3-4 feet high, so I'm not sure how a net would work in there? and the fish are not a problem as you use a net :) I am just really not a fan of rodents Or Spiders or snakes( I know they are not rodents ) Any tips on how they let you handle these animals, and how you or anyone you know did would help. Thanks for your help.
Best bedding for sugar glider?
I live in a country where animals are sold on the street, and as a foreigner it always shocks me. I ended up seeing a baby sugar glider at one of these markets, and decided it was better i buy him and make him part of my family then to have some random guy take him and end up loosing him or even worse hurting him... I have had him a day and already noticed that the shavings that are in his cage smell terrible, and am hoping that when changing the bedding that the smell wont be as bad. The shavings are terrible. I was thinking of using cat litter, but decided against it, because I'm afraid he will try to eat it, and just wondering if anyone had any good suggestions. I am taking him to the vet on Friday for a checkup and to see if they can tell me an estimate on his age... he is tiny, and I just need to make sure he is ok. He was scared yesterday but today has been a little sweeter with me, and I think he might not have had as much contact as he should of... Any suggestions would be great. He is a sweetheart and already I am getting close. I just hope he soon starts to cuddle against me and trusts me more. Thanks again. x