Shipaton gave me the deadline and motivation to release Rattitude Care, an app I had been building for rat owners. I started after a late-July discovery of the event, worked nights and weekends around my full-time job, and shipped Android and iOS versions while learning what real users needed.
The project I kept postponing
I am Oleksii, a mobile developer and rat owner. Before this project, I had never brought one of my apps all the way to a public release. I had ideas and unfinished work, but no external reason to choose a launch date.
During a road trip across Canada in late July 2026, I saw Shipaton mentioned on LinkedIn. After returning home in early August, I decided to treat the event as a commitment rather than another idea to save for later. I joined the BuildInPublic conversation and began working mostly in the evenings, at night and on weekends while keeping my full-time job.
“Before this, I had never brought any of my projects to a release, and Shipaton gave me the motivation I was missing.”
Windows Errors? Fix Them Before They Spread
Repair common Windows errors and clear accumulated junk for a smoother, more stable PC - no reinstall needed.Free scan · no reinstallOutdated Drivers Are Slowing You Down
One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware match#1 Best Overall
- Two Story Double Unit Design: Spacious and durable cage with full middle floor and 1/2-inch wire spacing, allowing access between floors with ladder and featuring durable wrought iron construction that is easy to assemble
- Tight Wire Spacing and Chew-Free Construction: Features 1/2-inch wire spacing suitable for a wide variety of small animal critters to prevent escape and getting stuck, with all-metal construction that is chew-free
- Durable Double Front Doors with Safety Features: Two large hinged front doors measuring 21-inch x 15-inch high with improved safety lock, includes 2 metal wire platforms with paw safe fabric cover and 2 metal wire ramps with paw safe fabric cover
- Large Double Unit Dimensions: Measures 20.5-inch long, 20-inch wide, and 45-inch high when placed on the rolling stand
- Complete Accessories Included: Comes with 1 hammock with cage hook, 1 water bottle, and 1 food bowl for your pet's comfort and convenience
That deadline changed the work from an open-ended side project into a sequence of decisions: define the smallest useful product, keep testing, and submit it even when it was not perfect.
What Rattitude Care is meant to do
The app is made for rat owners who want to keep their rats’ health in one place. I designed it as an organizational and health-tracking tool rather than as a replacement for a veterinarian.
Organizing rats and cages
Owners can organize information about individual rats and cages, plan introductions and calculate cage capacity. Keeping those details together is useful when a household has several animals or is preparing to add another rat.
Weight charts and reminders
You can track each rat’s weight on a chart and notice weight loss early. The app also supports reminders for medication doses. These features help an owner record observations and follow a schedule; they do not diagnose illness or determine a treatment plan.
Do these 3 things before closing this tab:
1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesRank #2
- Two Story Double Unit Design: Features 4-tiers durable frame cage with full middle floor and 1/2-inch wire spacing, allowing pets to access between floors with ladder and durable wrought iron construction that is easy to assemble
- Tight Horizontal Wire Spacing: Narrow 1/2-inch wire spacing recommended for a wide variety of small animal critters to prevent escape and getting stuck, while allowing pets to fulfill their instinct to climb and explore in a secure environment
- Durable Front Access Doors: Features double large hinged front doors measuring 15 inches by 18 inches with improved safety lock, top hook door for easy access from the top measuring 8 inches by 9 inches, and includes 2 easy adjustable washable solid platforms and 2 anti-slip solid ramps safe for small animals
- Large Spacious Dimensions: Measures 24-inches long, 17.5-inches wide, and 53.5-inches high when placed on the rolling stand, providing ample space for small animals to move and play
- Complete Accessories Package: Includes 1 hammock, 1 water bottle, and 1 food bowl to provide everything needed for your small pet's comfort and care
Food-safety information
Rattitude Care includes information describing foods as safe or toxic. That content should be checked against current, qualified veterinary guidance, especially when a rat is ill, pregnant or taking medication.
An AI assistant and free guides
The in-app assistant, Bulochka, answers care questions. The project also includes a website with free rat-care guides. I present both as convenience and education features, not as independent veterinary review.
The architecture decision: shared logic, separate interfaces
I began with Kotlin Compose on Android. Some Android-specific functionality was already written, and I was concerned that moving the whole implementation to Compose Multiplatform could break working code. Instead, I moved the business logic into Kotlin Multiplatform and wrote platform-specific user interfaces.
That gave me a middle path: shared rules and data handling where reuse was valuable, while preserving the Android implementation and allowing each platform’s interface to evolve independently.
Recommended Free Tools
Rank #3
- Easy Portable Design: Cage dimensions measure 24 inches length by 16 inches width by 24 inches height, featuring all-metal construction with 3 levels, wire shelves, and ladders with tight 3/8-inch cross bar spacing
- Narrow 3/8-Inch Wire Spacing: Prevents escape and stuck incidents for baby to adult size small animals including chinchillas, ferrets, rats, dwarf hamsters, guinea pigs, rabbits, mice, gerbils, sugar gliders and other small critters
- Two Front Access Doors: Features doors measuring 6.5 inches by 11.5 inches with locking door clips for extra security, includes 1/2-inch wire spacing, metal grated floor, platforms and ladders with chew-proof construction
- Easy To Clean Design: Includes removable raised 3/8-inch bar spacing bottom grate and pull-out washable tray with animal safe epoxy coated finish for convenient maintenance
- Easy Foldable and Setup: Collapsible design folds for storage with two top side carrier handles for travel convenience, requires no tools for assembly and setup
| Approach | What it would mean for this project | Why I chose or rejected it |
|---|---|---|
| Shared business logic with Kotlin Multiplatform and separate UIs | Common application behavior, with Android and iOS interfaces maintained separately | I chose this to reduce the risk of breaking existing Android-specific work |
| Wholesale migration to Compose Multiplatform | A more unified UI implementation across platforms | I did not make this migration because protecting the existing Android implementation mattered more for this release |
This was a project-specific trade-off, not a recommendation that every team should use one architecture. The right balance depends on how much platform-specific code already exists, how quickly the app must ship and how much UI duplication the team can maintain.
The hardest migration task
The most difficult piece was porting a mascot animation from Android Canvas. An agent helping with the work became more effective after I created a separate skill that explained a general approach to the problem. Turning an isolated, difficult task into a reusable set of instructions made the implementation easier to reason about.
Manual testing changed the product
My wife tested every screen manually for several days. That was not a formal test laboratory; it was repeated, practical use by someone willing to question every confusing step.
Her feedback exposed settings that I would otherwise have left hard-coded. I moved many of them into Firebase Remote Config, so I could adjust behavior without producing a new build for every small change. That reduced the cost of responding to early feedback and let me tune the release after it was already in users’ hands.
Quick wins for a faster PC:
Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Rank #4
- SPACIOUS 2-STORY HABITAT: Measures 36 x 24 x 63 inches with two full levels of living space. The 1/2" horizontal wire spacing safely contains rats, chinchillas, ferrets, sugar gliders and degus while allowing natural climbing behavior.
- DURABLE CONSTRUCTION: Sturdy metal wire design with a gray quartz hammertone finish, Critter Nation resists everyday wear. Complete with 2 removable base pans, 3 textured ramps with covers, and 2 full-width resting shelves.
- CUSTOMIZE YOUR HABITAT: Height-adjustable design lets you customize the perfect setup for your pet, with 2 wide expanse shelves and 2 full-width plastic pan floors to maximize play space. Compatible with a wide range of accessories.
- BUILT FOR DAILY LIFE: Full-width double doors provide maximum accessibility, with a swing-up locking ramp that lets you separate pets or section off areas during cleaning and feeding. Bottom level shelf provides storage area for pet accessories.
- BECAUSE LIFE GOES BETTER WITH PETS: A family-owned business based in Indiana, MidWest Homes for Pets brings over 100 years of pet product expertise and a commitment to quality, rigorous safety testing, and excellent US-based customer service.
The lesson was less about a particular service than about separating changeable settings from code when a side project has limited testing time. A second person following real workflows found issues that my developer perspective had normalized.
What releasing actually looked like
| Platform | My reported experience | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| Android | Less than one day from applying for production to public availability | The app became public after the production application was approved |
| iOS | Nine-day review | Apple requested additional information and required a change to when the App Tracking Transparency prompt appeared |
These are my individual submission timelines, not typical review guarantees. Store outcomes depend on the submission, the account, the app’s behavior and the platform’s current policies.
Two release blockers that remained
- I delayed a Galaxy Store release because I did not have a DUNS number.
- Android subscriptions were not included because I could not register a Google merchant account under the restrictions I faced.
I have not described a later resolution for either issue, so they should be treated as unfinished parts of this launch rather than solved problems.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Building in public brought the first users
I shared progress while building instead of waiting for a polished marketing campaign. That build-in-public activity helped me find initial users without buying advertising. I reported reaching 1.7K Instagram followers in one month and earning a small amount from AdMob. Both figures are my own observations, not an independently audited audience or revenue report.
Best Value
- Deluxe Two Tiers and Durable Cage: Features durable wrought iron construction that is easy to assemble for long-lasting use
- Tight Wire Spacing for Safety: Narrow 1/2-Inch wire spacing prevents escape and keeps small animals secure, while horizontal wire spacing allows pets to fulfill their instinct to climb and explore
- Convenient Access Points: Large durable frame hinged front door (10.5" x 18.5"H) with improved safety lock, adjustable and washable paw safe solid platform with anti-slip ramp featuring soft fabric cover, and top hook door (8.5" x 9") for easy access from above
- Versatile Small Animal Housing: Suitable for a variety of small animals and critters including ferrets, hedgehogs, guinea pigs, rabbits, bunny, chinchillas, sugar gliders, Syrian hamsters, mouse, mice, rat, dagus, tortoises, lizards and more
- Complete Accessories Included: Comes with 1 hammock, 1 water bottle, and 1 food bowl to get you started right away
The value of public updates was not only reach. Comments and questions gave me signals about which features were understandable, which workflows needed explanation and what rat owners wanted to see next. For a small app, that feedback loop was more attainable than trying to compete for broad paid distribution.
What the Shipaton deadline changed
RevenueCat described Shipaton 2026 as a global app-building event running from August 1 through September 30, 2026. Its announcement referred to using the RevenueCat SDK for an in-app purchase or RevenueCat Ads, while the official event materials described published-store and eligibility requirements. The organizer’s page listed an October 1 submission deadline and an October 22 Demo Day, details that can change.
I am not using those event rules to claim that Rattitude Care entered, qualified or won. The concrete effect on me was simpler: a public challenge supplied a finish line. Without it, the app could have remained another project competing for spare hours.
A practical physical tool implied by the weight feature
The only physical item naturally connected to the app is a digital gram scale suitable for small animals. It could help an owner collect readings to enter into the weight chart. I have not named, tested or recommended a particular scale, and the app does not turn any scale into a medical device.
Rattitude Care does not provide a basis here for recommending a medication, food brand, cage model or care book. Those choices require their own product information and, for health decisions, qualified veterinary advice.
Quick Recap
What I would carry into the next side project
- Set an external date. A competition or public commitment can convert an indefinite idea into a release plan.
- Protect working code. Sharing business logic while retaining platform-specific UIs was safer for this project than rewriting the Android interface wholesale.
- Test every screen with another person. Several days of manual testing found usability problems I had stopped noticing.
- Move tunable settings out of the binary. Remote configuration made small adjustments possible without submitting a new build each time.
- Expect store-specific work. Android and iOS did not follow the same review path, and account requirements blocked two planned distribution or monetization pieces.
- Show the work before launch. Public progress created an initial audience and feedback channel without an advertising budget.
Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.
