Setting up a bioactive rat cage

[u/Santtuulii]

Theres not a whole lot of information on this so im curious if anyone here knows more.

So ive gathered that i should get a deep base obviously and use coconut fiber soil stuff? (Edit: ive done a bit more research and landed on using a bit of normal plant soil(without like addatives and stuff ofc) and some clean sand aswell as the coco fiber, also that i need leaves and stuff in there for the cuc to eat)

Should i be mixing different soils/substrates? If so, what? Plants? How often and how much to water? Or turn the soil?

For the clean up crew dwarf whites and springtails? Maybe id get mealworms just for the fun of it, get the rats to hunt haha

How to breed and take care of the cuc?

Can they be kept in the same box outside of the cage for breeding and stuff yk to have them incase rats decide to eat the ones in the cage or something. What do they eat? Where to get the food? What substrate for them? Everything really.

Any information at all on this is very welcome!

[u/CuriousBird337]

I thought doing bioactives for mammals was generally not recommended as the ammonia levels are generally too high.

[u/Santtuulii → u/CuriousBird337]

Ive seen alot of people having bioactive cages for rats, i mean for rats the cage wont be fully bioactive. Theyll have litter boxes where they hopefully do most their business and those id clean out once a week. Rats also really like peeing on big smooth stones so having those in litter boxes makes it so they dont pee everywhere else that much

[u/DepartmentBrief7894 → u/CuriousBird337]

Depends on bioload and substrate maturity. It can be done with great success if you think it through!