It seems the bulk of your rats are pet rats, and its much better to house pet rats in large cages. However I despise the all wire cages that often are the only available commercial rat cage. Sure the rats can climb all over the cage, have plenty of room etc..but its messy, hard to clean and you end up having urine sprayed all over the areas surrounding the cage. Its icky.

I keep a small breeding colony of rats to feed my collection of snakes. I keep a trio (two female, one male) in a large 'roughneck' rubbermaid container that is 42"x21"x17" roughly. I don't use rat wheels as most rats don't use them...and you need to buy at least a 12" diameter or more sized wheel. I did have one about that size in with weaned rats and they completely ignored it...in fact they more often than not just buried the wheel in bedding.

I use aspen for bedding, lined with newspaper underneath, or parcel paper. The rats spend a fair bit of time tearing up the paper which they seem to enjoy. I use large PVC (4" diameter) pipe sections (T junctions, elbows short straight sections) as these provide plenty of hides and tunnels for the rats to run and play in, also they nest in the T-junctions or Y junctions sections nicely. Another benefit is the pipes are easy to clean and the rats don't chew them. I toss in small cardboard boxes, toilet paper, paper towel tubes and other items to give the rats something to chew on and amuse them.

The rats you currently have, if they are over 18 months, they are pretty much too old to breed. The males could breed true but better to start off with a young duo or trio. It can take about 1-3 months for the trio to start producing young, as it takes them a bit of time to settle, unlike mice who seem willing to breed within a few weeks of going into a new home. (assuming they are fully weaned when purchased..some petstores get barely weaned mice or rats, which often fail to thrive as they are still needing mother's milk...or are just very slow to catch up to babies who stayed another week with their mother).
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PHLdyPayne

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