So, I wanted some rats.  But not just any old rats, oh no!

I wanted fancy rats.

So I drove 230 miles to the Los Angeles chapter of the American Fancy Rat & Mouse Association All Breeders Show and bought a pair of six-week-old females.

Their names are Mathilda and Guinevere.

Matty is fawn and somewhat timid.  Gwen is a Russian Blue and acts like she's ready to go out and direct traffic.  Between the two of them, I figure I have an average pet.

And, of course, they needed a place to stay.  But not just any old place, oh no!

They needed a fancy place.

They needed Ratville.
 

Following are the pictures and plans for Ratville, in case you'd like to do something similar.  It's 28" square (about  the size of a card table), and about 7" high.  Non-U.S. readers will have to make their own conversions to metric.

The bottom half is made out of 3" Plexiglas walls.  A fourth of it is a maze, there's a bedroom (made out of dark Plexi) in one corner, an "arena" where there aren't any shavings (so they can chase balls and skitter around on the shiny plastic floor) in another corner, and a "jungle gym" with small chains strung horizontally to clamber around on.  They didn't take much to the jungle gym at first, but they had a mock fight in there this morning that was absolutely hysterical.

The top half is a 4" high wooden frame with 1/2" chicken wire strung across the top.  It's hinged in the back, tightened with two wing nuts for easy removal during cleaning.

Let's look at the pictures before getting to the actual construction:
 

First, the official crude sketch!
 

Onto the graph paper!
 

Assemble the pieces…
 

Okay, I admit one of these helps…
 

Nice and carefully…
 

Got the snowy arm!
 

Ready to glue!
 

Use books to weigh things down while the silicone sets up
 

Use lots of books
  

Glue a few pieces at a time…
 

and voilà!
 

Add a few accessories…
 

Mix in a few essential ingredients…
 

And welcome to Ratville!
 

With the lid down
 

"I wike my new home!"
 

Construction consists of sawing, gluing, and drilling a few holes.  There are special drill bits made for plastic, but a regular one will work as long as you go slow.  If using regular bits, drill a smaller hole first, then the larger, going easy all the while.  Make some test holes first.

As far as cutting the Plexi, you'll need a carbide-tipped saw blade, assuming you want to have the blade for future use.  Otherwise, you could just sacrifice a cheapie blade to the project.  Either way, it should have lots of teeth, at least 42 on a 10" blade.  Obviously, a table saw would be preferred, but a hand-held circular saw will do.  A hacksaw would barely work, but it'd be a hassle.  Table and circular saws are available to rent, so if you had all the cuts laid out ahead of time, you could just rent the saw for the minimum 4-hour rental period and cut like crazy.

I gave the glue matter some thought.  Glues that are designed for plastic, like Superglue, are seriously toxic, but they bond much stronger than the non-toxic silicone sealant used for aquariums.  Still, for safety's sake, I decided the non-toxic sealant was the way to go.  The main thing about sealants, as compared to glue, is that they "cure", rather than harden.  So they need much more time to form a good bond, at least 24 hours.

Update Note:  The corner seams seemed a little weak, so I took some epoxy and used it on the outside of the seams.

Now for the bad news.  Plexiglas-type plastic is seriously expensive.  Mine set me back $75.  That sounds expensive (and it was), but it was really the only main expense, and it'll last for a number of years and provide me (not to mention the rats) with lots of entertainment value, so what the hell.  Most places that sell Plexiglas (plastic distributors, lumber yards, glass shops) have a scrap pile, so you might save a few bucks there.  And, since many of the scraps will probably be different colors, you might end up with a very colorful Ratville.

I used 1/4" Plexi everywhere, but if I were doing it again, I'd probably use thicker stuff (5/16") for the base, as the 1/4" feels a bit flimsy, and thinner stuff (3/16") for the interior walls.  I would also make it a bit higher, as (with shavings), the maze walls are kind of short, and, just to note, also kind of narrow for adults.  If it's really going to be used as a maze, it needs to be higher or they'll cheat and crawl out.

As far as the room layout goes, I figured they'd want a back corner for their bedroom, so I started there.  I gave them a "bathroom", but that's just my nimble mind at work.  Maybe I should change it to "study" or "workshop".

For the hinges, I first drilled bolt holes through the wood frame, one for each hinge, then "overdrilled" a larger hole on the side next to the hinge.  Then I slipped a bolt through the hole and tightened a nut over it.  The nut slipped down into the larger hole (see picture) so that the hinge wouldn't hit it.  This way the two bolts are firmly attached to the wood so that the wingnuts just slip over the ends of the bolts and the bolt heads don't turn while tightening the wingnuts.  The hinges are permanently attached to the Plexi using two bolts each.

To keep the lid propped up, I just used a spare slat of Plexi.  You can see it on the left side in two of the above pictures.  A bolt through the frame keeps it at the ready.  I lift up the lid and it drops right into place.  I also added a smaller prop, so the lid stays open about 6 inches, which is "normal running mode" for Ratville.  The larger prop is for maintenance.

The wooden frame pieces are held together with both glue and screws.  I glued first, let the glue dry for a few hours, then drilled the pilot holes.  It's more tedious that way, but if you want the corners to line up exactly, that's the way to do it.  They always shift a tiny bit during the drilling process as the drill bit encounters the grain and seeks the easiest path, so you need to glue things first if you want the edges to be dead square.  If you have wood clamps, you can do both at once.

The chicken wire was nailed down with a staple gun.  You might have noticed in one of the pictures up above that the sharp ends of the chicken wire are exposed.  This was more of a danger to myself, than to the rats, heh.  This was remedied by nailing down thin lath around the four edges of the top over the wire.

By the way, the table saw in the picture is an outstanding deal.  Only $179 at Sears or Orchard Supply.  These things usually start around four hundred clams.  The reason it's so inexpensive is because it doesn't come with a heavy stand, and the base is hard plastic, not cast iron.  What that means is that the thing only weighs 40 pounds so you can easily carry it around.  You could even hang it on a nail when you're not using it.  In my case, I drilled four holes through the top of my Workmate to line up with the holes in the base of the saw, dropped four bolts down through the holes and the whole thing is solid as a rock.

All of the gluing will take a while if you're using the slow-drying non-toxic silicone sealant.  You'll want to glue a few pieces, hold them in place with some books, then let things sit for a few hours while the sealant starts to cure.  Then glue a few more pieces.  When I was finished with the walls, I used another half-tube of sealant and went around every edge, then let the whole thing cure for a day.  Additional tools included a ruler and plastic triangle with a 90 degree angle for keeping the walls in alignment while settings things in place.

When it was completely cured, I went around and picked off any loose pieces of sealant I could find.  Then I vacuumed the whole thing and put in the shavings.

Update Note:  The water bottle ended up being (1) too small and (2) too noisy, so I glued a piece of Plexi about 8" high to one of the walls, then cut out an opening above it for a larger bottle to slip through.  I then made a 'box' out of the 1/2" wire mesh to cover the part of the bottle sticking out through the top and attached it to the chicken wire top of Ratville so the little rascals can't escape.

Cleaning is pretty easy.  I lay out four pieces of overlapping newspaper on the garage floor, then tip Ratville over until all the shavings fall out.  Then I carefully lift each piece of newspaper and deposit it in the garbage can, taking about a quarter of the old shavings with each one.

I then take Ratville out to the back yard, hose it down, spray the heck out of it with 409, wipe it all down with the coarse side of a scrub sponge, then rinse it real well.  Dab it dry with a few paper towels, toss in some fresh litter, screw the lid back on with the two wingnuts and it's back in business.

The future:  A one-rat teeter-totter?  I'll weigh one of them on a delicate electronic scale, then put that exact weight on one end of a teeter-totter.  The rat will walk u-u-u-p the teeter-totter until it slowly starts to tilt back d-o-w-n.  Should be lots of fun for all parties involved.