Need Rat Rack advice

[ChrisNCT]

I am really close to having my 55 gallon glass cage overloaded with all my rats.

I have these rats as feeders........so I need many of them....

I would like to build one of those wooden racks with the tubs, some kind of system that a waterbottle sits on top and they eat through the screen.

Can any of you share some advice?

I have check Kingsnake.com and some other forums with no success.

 

[spiDERanged]

i know a local dealer who sells those plastic tub/ wire top enclosures but they are very spendy! you would need many to house all the rats if your 55g is overflowing. prolly better off building something... ill see if i can find the card of those folks as i seem to have misplaced it.

 

[kahoy]

searching..................
















none.

 

[ChrisNCT]

WOW...thanks..that was sooo helpful! :wall:

searching..................

none.

 

[Scylla]

Do you separate your males and females? Breed on a time schedule that will allow you to maintain a steady population and food source. I've seen those cages you're thinking of. I remember they were VERY expensive. Your best bet might be aquariums.

 

[P-Rice]

Try this website out. It may help you. http://www.arbreptiles.com/cages/rat_rack/ratrack.shtml

Peace Out,
Price

 

[GQ.]

Thanks for posting that link P-rice.

I built a rat rack very similar to that awhile back. It did become a bit wobbly after a couple years of use. I did move it around a lot for cleaning though. I'm going to build another with 2x4s for the side supports. I might also add some wheels so I can roll it around easily while cleaning. Those mortar tubs work out great! They are easy to spray out and don't have any cracks or crevices for fecal matter to hide out in. I can't remember how much they are, but they are fairly cheap at Home Depot or Lowe's. I have a friend that said he had a problem with younger rats being able to chew through the mortar tubs. He would put the younger rats in a different type of tub until they reached a certain size. I have not noticed that problem at all. I have never had a rat chew through a mortar tub.

I would say to go for more racks rather than less. You always seem to need more tubs anyway. I like to have a couple extras on my racks as a holding bin while I'm cleaning a tub. I will typically have a nice colony over the winter. I then feed my snakes off of the freezer supply during the summer months when there is very low breeding activity. Good luck!

 

[ChrisNCT]

Nope..they all reside together right now.......I get rat pups every 5 weeks or so.

I would like to get 3 females for 1 male per bin when I build a setup.


That's the plan anyways......

Do you separate your males and females? Breed on a time schedule that will allow you to maintain a steady population and food source. I've seen those cages you're thinking of. I remember they were VERY expensive. Your best bet might be aquariums.

 

[ChrisNCT]

Thats a excellent webpage...thanks for the link....I will check it out in details consider the build.

 

[atavuss]

how many adult feeder rats do you keep?
I have bred rats for years using 66 quart Sterilite opaque bins (available at Target, etc. for around 7.00 each) and never had a rat chew out of one yet. I used to use 10 gallon aquariums with the store bought screen tops but after dropping one once I changed to the Sterilite containers. I cut the center of the top out and pop rivet 1/4" galvanized hardware mesh to cover the hole. I mount small eye bolts using fender washers so they won't pull through the screening. food and water bottles are hung from the eye bolts using bent paper clips or the clips that come with the bottles. I also hang a 32 oz. water bottle on the outside with a appropiate sized hole to place the drinking nozzle inside. the top of the bottle is supported with a wire bail clipped to the top. I use one male to three females per bin. there are enough food and water bottles per bin so I can service them weekly and not have to worry about the rats running out of food or water till the next week. my problem with the rack systems is that you can get rats escaping and running all over while you sevice the enclosure. the 66 quart bins are tall enough so that the rats will not jump out easily, I don't recall ever having a rat jump out while I was cleaning the bins. I usually keep 3 or 4 bins going at the same time and end up with up to 50 pups per week when the adults are fresh and pumping out babies. usually around 6 to 8 months is when the adults start slowing down so I hold back enough pups to start a new colony. my adults are probably 10 generations inbreed by now if not more and I don't see any health problems with them. I use nothing but aspen for bedding. I used to get lab block food but it was a real pain to order it before I would run out so I took the lab block label to the pet store and looked through all the dog food labels and found the one that was a close match for fiber, fat, etc. I have been using this same dog food for years. I used to keep the bins in the unheated/uncooled garage year round but we adopted a Jack Russell Terrier so I had to move the rats to an outside shed. the rats are not bothered by temps in the 40's, they do stress when it gets over 95/100 degrees and production will slow down. I used to have to keep a 36" fan blowing on them in the garage but the shed has no electricity so I can't use the fan there, they did ok last summer with no fan, just make sure they have plenty of water at all times. I stack the bins on the floor where it might be a wee bit cooler also. hope this gives you an alternative to think about, sure is a lot easier than making or buying a rack system.

 

[jwmeeker]

If you have the space, you might consider using a metal stock tank. That's what we currently use to raise all of our rats. We used the racks for a while, but found that the stock tanks are much easier to clean (use a flat shovel and can clean the entire tank in about five minutes). You can get them at any farm/ranch store (you can get your sawdust there as well if you aren't getting it very cheap) and we've never had any problems with the rats jumping out.

 

[P-Rice]

I built a rat rack a couple of years ago. It held twelve of the mortar tubs and I was always needing more room. The only time I had rats chew out of them was if I bent in a corner on accident. I would use 1 male to 3 females per bin and that would produce 30 babies per month per bin.