PawHut Metal Small Animal Cage With Hammock

**Edited Dec 16th to add a photo of the base I had to make myself, out of sheet metal

Background: bought this for my rats! The bar width is perfect and it’s big enough to house two adult rats comfortably (maybe 3, but that might get a bit cozy). The only thing that is an issue is the tray at the bottom that my rats will certainly chew through/escape out of (more about that later).

Assembly: Based on prior reviews, I knew that this could be a challenge to assemble, so I was prepared for that – and I recommend others kind of anticipate that as well. Even with two professors of technical communication working on this, the instructions were NOT the easiest. We ultimately figured it out, though, and it came together surprisingly well. The instructions totally forgot to mention two bars that go at the bottom to not only secure the tray but also to further secure the screw holding the wheels in place. Luckily, that part of the assembly was pretty intuitive, but it still included myself and my friend going “Yaaaay we’re done!” then “Wait, what are those two pieces for?” and looking through the instructions again in vain before just figuring it out on our own.

Status of all the pieces: I know that others who’ve purchased this product have complained of missing or bent pieces, but I think we had one small lip that was a bit bent, but it wasn’t anything that affected the overall cage (and we tapped it back into shape anyway with a mallet). Some of the holes for the screws also had a bit of flack inside, but scraping that out didn’t take much effort (we just used the little screwing tool… whatever it’s called… that was included).

Accessories: It comes with three shelves and 3 ramps, and the instructions for those are pretty specific, actually! The shelves and ramps were still a particular challenge. I definitely recommend putting in the shelves BEFORE putting on the top of the case, no matter what the instructions say, because then you get a lot more arm room. That way can also put on the ramps BEFORE putting the shelves into place. Good lord, we just about screamed as those shelves, and if I ever have to put them back in I might cry. Not really an accessory, but the doors are really nice, in my opinion.

Biggest issue: the bottom tray is SO DREADFULLY INSECURE. Like, mine falls out. One wiggle and it slips free and falls to the floor. We thought we just had it in wrong, but if we turned it around, then it doesn’t fit at all. The cage is square (19 3/8 x 19 3/8 on the inside)… but the tray is not. It’s also plastic and even when it fits, there’s a gap, and since I’m aiming to put rats in here, I already planned to make my own base tray out of sheet-metal. If you get one where the tray fits better, the natural gap isn’t big enough for a rat to squeeze through, but they will definitely be eager to start chewing right there. So I hate the tray, but I knew before I bought it that I’d be replacing/augmenting that.
**Edit: I bought some sheet metal, bent it to fit, took the top back off and removed ALL of the levels+ramps, and lowered my handmade tray down in. It’s not removable (not without me gutting the cage again and probably crying), but it’s massively more stable and my rats will NOT be escaping. So even though the bottom tray for mine didn’t fit, it is fixable with a few hours work and $15 worth of sheet metal.

Overall: pretty happy with it, having come into this with low expectations. It’s sturdy and looks really nice with the dark-grey coated metal, big enough for 2 rats, and my only real complaint is the base tray being so incredibly badly fitting. Could this be because I put something together wrong? Absolutely. Like I said, the instructions were more like general suggestions with photo evidence. I’ll try to update once I get the bottom tray re-made and rats in it to give it a real “test drive.”

Sturdy, easy to assemble, and huge considering the price! I have rats and only used 2 of the shelves and none of the ramps, so my guys had extra climbing space. Lots of room for hanging toys and climbing structures. The tray is great – holds a good amount of bedding and has no gaps along the track for escape artists. Would definitely recommend.

So first impressions upon pulling it out of the box. It’s not too bad. It’s about this perfect size for a few rats, has plenty of vertical space for them to hang around and cheap enough that when I inevitably expand, it’s not a dent in my pocket.

upon assembly and getting my rats moved in, it is sufficient. It’s a cheap cage. Very cheap in fact. The kaytee small cage I have is 45 dollars less at PetSmart. So it’s definitely a good value.
So I have five rats, I have two males and three females and I currently have the three females housed in this cage.

Assembly was interesting. The instructions provided are absolutely worthless you might as well just look at the picture on the front of the box. It’s in terribly broken english, and they just don’t really instruct you it’s just kind of weird.

But anybody with half a brain cell should be able to figure it out. Some of the threaded holes are a little wonky, one in fact would only screw in Cross threaded and it ended up destroying one of the bolts that were provided though it did come with one extra so I was able to use the now created threads from the previous bolt and get the next one in though it did not bottom out all the way.
A little tip that I found out while working at, as you’re putting it together do not screw the screws in all the way. Leave a good half inch sticking out so that it’s able to move and adjust a little bit otherwise you will never get it all together.
When you are putting the sides together that connect, ensure that you do it right the first time because if you have to pull it out, there’s a good chance you’ll bend a little tabs and then have to use a screwdriver to straighten them back out.
At the end when you tighten it all up, it does seem to sturdy up quite a bit.
The provided panels that go inside are really annoying to put in. In the picture it looks as if they do not go quite all the way over to the side but they go side to side. They have little plastic clips on the sides that if you don’t get it right the first time it is a bear to get undone. You essentially just have to flex out the bars of the cage.
The provided ramps are pretty slick and it took my rats a little bit in order to figure out how to go up and down them. It might not be a terrible idea for some animals to put some sort of grit or to sand it a little bit in order to rough it up.
All In all, I’m happy with my purchase and I don’t know if I would buy another one. We will see. I do plan on having more rats, and part of me is thinking about buying another one so that I can eventually take one of the panels out and essentially connect them together and have an extra wide.
Though another part of me is just thinking that I will get one of the nicer critter Nation type cages with the front doors
Which leads me to my biggest complaint I think. The doors are too small for the cage. In order to get in and move stuff around you have to constantly switch between the two doors and hold stuff between each door, and it is just kind of a pain in the butt. It’s sufficient for rats, I don’t feel like I would have any worries about it being opened by them because of the type of doors they are, but I just wish they were actual doors and not just openings.

All In all, if you need a cheap cage to house some small animals this is a decent choice for the money

This is a great cage for the price! Instructions are a bit complicated but I was able to put it together easy. The only issue is there is a gap between the last bar and the tray. To make sure my son’s rat did not escape we attached a bunji cord around the base to make the tray snug with the cage. It worked perfectly!

 De buen material, los espacios son pequeños por lo que no se sale ni mi rata bebé, no es pesada, se mueve fácil por las llantas, solo les recomiendo tapar el espacio de abajo entra la charola y la jaula, yo utilicé los mismos cartones que vienen en la jaula para cubrir esa parte