Will this work?

[Kinra]

So I have decided that I need a few more rats. I love the two that I have an it's only been a day. Here are my thoughts and I'm wondering if they will work.

I plan on picking up 3 more cages, 2 like the one I currently have and 1 that is a little bit bigger. From there I plan on picking up another hooded female, 1.2 blues and 1.2 siamese. I plan on caging the females in pairs and the males all together in the larger one. My male is currently about 80-90g and I don't know how old. If I get the other two males around the same size will they be fine to finish growing up together? I know males can fight if they don't grow up with each other.

From there, once my females are big enough to breed I plan on putting the male in with them over night when it looks like they are in heat. This way I can better space out my litters and not breed my females back to back. I also plan on trying to litter train my rats to help with cleaning and keeping the smell down.

Does this sound reasonable? I'm not trying to feed my entire collection with their babies, I know that is unrealistic with so few. I just want to be able to feed the 2-3 ball pythons that feed much better on/only take live.

[Adam Chandler]

Have you given any thought to building a rat rack?

[Kinra]

I have thought about it and I might change my mind soon, but I really like the multi-level cages. It makes them feel more like pets in my mind. I'm also not that good at building things.

[John1982]

I'd wait and see how your current rats do in that setup as adults before taking the plunge. I had a cage like that on my desk and the inhabitants favorite game was seeing who could nail my computer(about 2 feet away) with urine.. It ended up becoming a recreational cage and I moved my rats to a tub.

[Kinra]

I'd wait and see how your current rats do in that setup as adults before taking the plunge. I had a cage like that on my desk and the inhabitants favorite game was seeing who could nail my computer(about 2 feet away) with urine.. It ended up becoming a recreational cage and I moved my rats to a tub.

Hmm... I hadn't thought of that. I may wait until my brother comes to visit in March and have him help me build a rack then. I don't want to be cleaning rat pee out of my carpets.

A rat rack would probably be cheaper than cages too. If I do a rack could I still rotate the males in with the females like I had planned or should I just setup 1.2 or 1.3 colonies and leave the male in?