Moving day!!! **Pic Heavy**

[Steven Raymer]

so after talking about it, budgeting it, planing it, and building my breeding rack is done. No more fish tanks for them now!!! So as always I have so many more questions: first a over view i have 7 females 1 had a small litter, 3 babies about to go off mothers milk, and 1 male about to get 2 more. so now the questions

1. How do you tell when a male/female reaches sexually maturity?
2. Is the gap on the rack too much? (see pic below)
3. How big do they have to be to eat food off the hardware cloth?
4. Can I color the tail with a sharpie to id the males faster?
5. Is the female in pic 4 & 5 sexually mature?

ps check out my other pics














Hope you enjoyed and thank you in advance for the answers

[decensored]

wow I really like your rack! Thanks for sharing.
I don't have answers to all your questions but here is what I do know..

1. After about 6-8 weeks your males and females can start re-producing. The litters are small but I've had a a 7 week old female become pregnant from one of her litter mates.. For males it's easy to see because their "balls" are visible after 6 weeks or so and they can reproduce no problem. Its the females you generally want bigger to produce larger and healthier litters.

2. Personally I wouldn't be comfortable with that gap but I don't have a lot of experience with racking systems, Rodents are very good at squeezing through narrow spaces. Hopefully someone with more experience can comment on this one.

5. I would say 100% that you can start breeding those two rats in the pictures. They look to be about 150grams + which is a good place to start IMO.

I'm just going off of the limited experience that I have so hopefully I have answered some questions, and all the information is correct. Good luck with your colony, and thanks for sharing with us!

Cheers.

[saber2th]

Nice rat rack! Do you use water bottles or are you going with gravity fed?
Some answers to your questions!

1. At about 6 weeks of age, rats can start reproducing!

2. I agree with the last post. That gap is a little to much for me. I would try and find some thin (1/4" or less thick) strips of wood or something and put it on top of the rails that the tub slides on.

3. When they are weaners (about 2 1/2-3 weeks) they should be able to reach it.

4. Not sure about coloring the tail. I can tell cause my males are usually bigger and you can plainly see their genitals.

5. That female is big enough to breed!

Love those mostly all black little ones!!

hope this helps,

Dave

[WtGreg]

Nice setup. What are you using for water though?

Look like most your questions were answered before my post, but wanted to throw my 2 cents in:

2: Personally, I wouldn't be comfortable with that gap, but I don't think you'll have a problem. I have seen rats do amazing things to get out and usually it isn't that it wasn't amazing, but rather that it was something that could have been prevented but wasn't. Also If a rat can get a good enough angle, they can chew on the bins.

3: I agree about the "when they are weaners" comment, but just in case for small ones I always have a secondary food source in the bin. I use a log, called Nut Munch, that is corn, nut, and what not processed into a hard, dense log. It gives both something to chew since it is so hard, and a food source until they can reach the food. I think you can get similar products , if not it exactly, at pet stores, but since I avoid major pet stores I don't know. Adults will chew it up in no time, but it is great for ensuring the weanlings have food until they are big enough, but won't get eaten up in half a second like normal formal.

4: I don't see why that would be a problem.

5: looks like she is just about there.

[Steven Raymer]

Nice rat rack! Do you use water bottles or are you going with gravity fed?
Some answers to your questions!

1. At about 6 weeks of age, rats can start reproducing!

2. I agree with the last post. That gap is a little to much for me. I would try and find some thin (1/4" or less thick) strips of wood or something and put it on top of the rails that the tub slides on.

3. When they are weaners (about 2 1/2-3 weeks) they should be able to reach it.

4. Not sure about coloring the tail. I can tell cause my males are usually bigger and you can plainly see their genitals.

5. That female is big enough to breed!

Love those mostly all black little ones!!

hope this helps,

Dave

I have them on water bottles/cups of water (that i have to clean twice a day) until my gravity fed water system get here hopefully today *crossed fingers**

No one has escaped yet *knock on the wood rack* but I am going to go to home depot today to find something to fill that space i love going there any way

Thanks for all your help and i will post pics up when i get the water system installed!!

Ninja Rat is watching you!

[CapeFearConstrictors]

One thing to keep in mind is after a while, the tubs sag, especially if you have a decent number of rats in each tub. Sagging brings the front and back of the tub down, so that gap may double in size.

I had this exact problem in my growout rack. I had to place support under the tubs to eliminate the sagging. I do not have this problem in my breeder tubs, where I never have more than 3 adult rats at a time (I separate pregnant moms).

Also, with a gap that size, you're almost guaranteed chewouts. If the rats can get their teeth on the curve of the tub, they will chew a hole. I had chewouts with a gap much smaller than that. I resorted to riviting 1/4" hardware cloth around the top of my bins, which has 100% eliminated chewouts.

[Steven Raymer]

Nice setup. What are you using for water though?

Look like most your questions were answered before my post, but wanted to throw my 2 cents in:

2: Personally, I wouldn't be comfortable with that gap, but I don't think you'll have a problem. I have seen rats do amazing things to get out and usually it isn't that it wasn't amazing, but rather that it was something that could have been prevented but wasn't. Also If a rat can get a good enough angle, they can chew on the bins.

3: I agree about the "when they are weaners" comment, but just in case for small ones I always have a secondary food source in the bin. I use a log, called Nut Munch, that is corn, nut, and what not processed into a hard, dense log. It gives both something to chew since it is so hard, and a food source until they can reach the food. I think you can get similar products , if not it exactly, at pet stores, but since I avoid major pet stores I don't know. Adults will chew it up in no time, but it is great for ensuring the weanlings have food until they are big enough, but won't get eaten up in half a second like normal formal.

4: I don't see why that would be a problem.

5: looks like she is just about there.

in regards to 3: That is not a bad idea i will look for it on my next trip to the pet store/online as of now i am using a small bowl of food in the bin.. i am going to be making a square box of the hardware cloth to put food in for the wenlings to get use to eating through the wire.

[SlitherinSisters]

You already have lots of great answers. It's hard to tell how big the gap is, but it looks fairly big. I made my racks with a bit of a gap and put locks on them so I could insure that the rats wouldn't open the tubs.

Here is a pic of mine that I just made. You can see the locks that I put on them, they are screwed on with one screw. I have it tight enough that it stays up when I turn it up.


The only thing I would change about your rack is to add a piece of wood across the top to make a smaller place for the food. I think you can just barely see how I did it on my rack -sorry it's a phone pic. The problem with leaving it in a big space like that is the rats will move it all around trying to get the food, but it will just keep rolling and they don't have anything to pin it against. It's not that they can't eat it, but they will get bloody noses trying to get the food since it moves around so much.

[jasbus]

The gaps will get bigger as time goes on. I'd address the problem now...
I build my racks with the support on the bottom instead of the rail type, just for this reason. My tubs actually rub on the screen, I like them that tight.
The other major problem you'll have with the gap is, it gives the rats a way to chew the top of the tub... Then you'll end up replacing chewed tubs all the time.
Even a weaned rat "can" get out of the small gaps. Most won't, but they can... Then, you're looking at chewed water lines and flooded bins...

Just my .02.

[Rhasputin]

For ID, just snip one of the ears on all of your males. They'll clean the sharpie right off.

Just take a pair of sharp CLEAN scissors, and clip off the top edge of their ear. They really don't even notice if you do it when they're juveniles.