Critter/Ferret Nation Scatter Guard Review: For Rats, or Just Ferrets?

The critter nation and the ferret nation can make a HUGE mess of your home. This is at its worst when you have no scatter guards and use bedding in the cage. Within the hour, you will have so much of a mess that it could fill your dust pan twice! How do we solve that problem? Scatter guards! But… are these PARTICULAR scatter guards good for rats? They are found on Amazon, as is the rat approved critter nation, but do they live up to the price like the cage itself does? Depending on your preferences, they might just!

Introducing the Scatter Guards: Meet the Contenders!

This first image is of the upper scatter guard, while the bottom image is of the lower scatter guard. As I said, both of these are found on Amazon. You can visit them safely & directly if you haven’t come across them yet.  For some odd reason, they decided to ensure that both of the pieces were different prices. This makes absolutely no sense to me… but, let’s get to the quick details about them so you can get the run down!

 

Both of these trays insert into the cage, just like the pans that come with the cages do. They are replacement pans. They add 4″ of depth to the pan (which we all know the BAKING SHEET pans that they send us are ridiculous), allowing the pan to catch waste and bedding. This is one thing you will need with the ferret and critter nations. It also eliminates urine drips and seepage from the rats’ cage. Since these pans are built for these cages, there is the convenience of not having to measure it, cut it,  and zip tie it. It pulls out easily for cleaning, something we all treasure very dearly. However, it may not perform QUITE as well as your own scatter guards might. Every method will yield different results for different people; but this is perfect for those who have a little extra money, who are very busy, and who are not fond of DIY projects. This is definitely the easy way to take care of the issue.

My Opinion of These Items: Is There a Better Scatter Guard or Litter Catcher for Rats & the Critter Nation? Perhaps!

I decided to take an alternative route to my messy floor problem. As the rats continued to launch sunflower seeds, Carefresh bedding, shredded toys & ropes, and of course small tokens of their affection (poop) into the floor, I was quickly losing my mind. Once I got the mess cleaned up, it was right back down on the floor! It’s like they knew- and they weren’t going to let me off that easy.

So, what did I do? I broke down and bought some coroplast. Yes- coroplast is my favorite rat cage scatter guard! This stuff simply ROCKS. I was able to easily cut it, poke holes in it, and… well… mounting it to the cage was definitely a task. Especially since I left all of the rats in the cage while I did it (bad idea, for sure!). My first tip is to make sure they are not in there! #2 is to buy zip ties; lots of them. They will occasionally chew them off and will need replacing. Third tip is to make sure you have a nice quality X-Acto knife! My blade decided to keep pulling out of the handle when it hung up on the coroplast during cutting. That was not fun at all.

My cost for this was $4, and I had an impressive retention rate with bedding. Don’t get me wrong- I still have messes to clean up. However, they are not as big. The plastic wipes right off- I don’t have to remove it from the cage. However, there is going to be even a small gap somewhere, in different places, that bedding will get shoved out or urine may drip from. This is one thing that these deep pans are good for. They have sealed joints; you can’t join the coroplast to the basic litter pan that comes in the double critter nation or ferret nation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6qOoTZwGsc