Quick build rat rack

[pigfat]

Finished my rat rack today. Did it yesterday in a couple hours. Not the nicest BUT it will work for my needs. No screws visible on the outside either lol.

[Coleslaw007]

Nice! Can I ask why you used the Sterlite tubs instead of the usual mortar tubs?

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[Sita]

Wow, for something you just threw together in a few hours it looks great!

Are there any inner edges in those containers to chew on? I use the concrete tubs, and have never really examined those kind of tubs with rodent housing in mind. Those are prettier and see-through.

[pigfat]

The nearest Home Depot is 45 minutes away from me, and these are readily handy and about half the price so I chose these. They are a larger version of what I had them in and I've had no troubles with chew throughs at all. The good is they are the same dimensions as some of the concrete tubs. I've found as long as they have food and water they don't chew on the tubs.

[Coleslaw007]

Makes sense, makes sense. Nice!

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[pigfat]

Well thanks Slaw!

[SaintTawny]

I like the leaf. It's a nice touch

Anyway, it looks great! I'm thinking about putting together a similar setup for my rats. I have them in large chinchilla cages right now, which is a major pain to keep clean, and one of my colonies has this really weird habit of pushing 2-3 day old pinkies out of their cage through the bars x.x My only concern with your setup would be that I've heard a lot about how loosely scattered food on top of grating can be difficult for the rodents to grab hold of and eat, and thickly scattered food can restrict air flow. I think when I do it I'll put a small cross-bar about 1/4 to 1/3rd the way across the screen so I can pack just that section with food, so the weight of food on top holds the pieces on the bottom still against the mesh.

[pigfat]

Saint: the leaf was to get the natural, rustic feel lol. Mine haven't had any problems eating, that's for sure. A lot falls through and I'll even put some in the tub itself. I guess I could put a 1x2 about a 1/3 way down to stack food more compactly.

[MrLang]

Nice rack! I wish I had left more room in mine for clearance on the water bottles so I don't have to take them out to slide the middle tubs.


My rats haven't tried to chew out but when they get excited or want to come out they come to the front and kind of click on the rounded lip of the tub. They would try to chew but the rounded edge on the concrete tubs prevent it. Based on this behavior and how quickly they all learned to do it from one another, I'd be really, really nervous about using anything with an edge they can get their mouth on.

GL

[tonkatoyman]

We use those same tubs to transport rats to customers. Unfortunately there is a weakness you need to be aware of. They will chew the protrusion on each side of the handle once they figure out they can chew. Nice job though on the rack.