Someone on another forum asked me to post plans for my maternity rat racks. These are racks that I move the pregnant mom rats into so they can give birth in peace. There is always a bit of a controvery about using maternity racks, whether or not they're actually useful. I find that it's impossible to use a seperate maternity rack for mice because the colony often won't accept the mother back when her babies are weaned. However I think it works well for rats and I end up with more and healthier babies when I move Mom to another quieter tub for raising her litter. When I move the female back into the breeding rotation I've found that she's quickly accepted by her new colony. In fact I find that rats actually breed better when you move the females around to different males. It seems to 'peak' the males interest a little more.... Anyway, here are my plans for maternity racks.
This design is based on the large van ness cat litter pans that measure about 14-1/2" wide by 18-3/4" long by 5" deep. I've built two of these that are 2 tubs across and 7 levels high. On one of them I used 2X4's for the uprights and the other one I used 1X4's I far prefer the 1X4's because it's just as sturdy and a LOT lighter. Both of them have casters on the bottom so I can roll them in and out of my rodent room easily for cleaning.
View from the front. Each level is made of 2X2's. Two pieces 31" long (front and back) and three pieces 16" long (both sides and the middle) The middle piece is attached at 15-1/2" on center. All are attached using finishing nails and wood glue. A piece of 1/2 hardware cloth is attached with staples over the entire bottom of the level, make sure that all the wood is covered so that rodents don't chew the wood. Each level is attached to the uprights starting at 4-1/2" from the top, and then every 10-1/4" down to the bottom. The uprights are each 72-1/2" long, so it looks like the tub for the bottom level will be hitting the ground but remember that you'll gain some additional height from the casters.
The spacers and slides were real easy, they're ready made pine stock from the millwork section at home depot. I only had to cut them to length. I used 1/2" X 3/4" stock cut to 18-3/4" lengths for the spacers in the middle and on each end. The middle slides are 1/4" X 2" stock cut to 15" nailed even with the back of the level, they're 3-3/4" short from the front to make room for the water bottle nozzles so that the tubs can drop out before hitting them. They are attached to the center of the middle spacer using wood glue and finishing nails so that you have an overhanging lip on each side of the spacer. Remember to predrill holes so you don't split the wood.
The side slides were 1-1/2" X 1/4" stock also cut to 15" long and attached to the spacers on either side so that they're even with the spacers on the outside and have an overhanging lip on the inside. These overhanging lips are what the lip of the tubs rest on so they can slide in and out easily.
Here is a side view of the rack. You'll notice that at the bottom I screwed in a couple of short 2X4's even with the inside and bottom of the upright supports for stability and to have some place to screw the casters into.
Here is a back view, I used 1"X3" boards across the back of each level as a stop for the tubs and for greater stability of the rack.
I use 1 quart water bottles for each tub. Nursing mothers with older pups can go through a surprising amount of water so they should be checked every day. I could have used a gravity feed automatic watering system but that would have made them top heavy and I'd have to remove the reservoir every time I took it out of my rodent room for cleaning. In this instance, water bottles were just easier. Each tub can hold 1-3 females with litters (2 is ideal) or about a dozen or so small rats that I'm growing up for feeding day.
Mark
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