what size hardware cloth for food hoppers?

hey there, i was using ceramic bowls for my new colony of ASF's, but as many of you know they just kick out food and pee in them. so i decided to build some food hoppers. the only hardware cloth my hardware store had was 1/4" and they said they don't plan on bringing in any 1/2" any time soon.

do you think they will be able to get enough food through a 1/4" hole? the 1/4" hoppers are in there right now but i could go into the city this weekend to get some 1/2" if needed.

I'm not sure how large your breeding operation is going to be but I have two breeding tubs and a grow out tub and I just toss in food. As Mike C. has said, they are rats, they are used to scaveging on the ground.

So I'd go with no hopper and save yourself the time and money.

As said earlier, you can easily spare yourself the time and effort of making a hopper by simply tossing the food in the tub... I do that for the grow ups and have 1/2" food hoppers in the breeders.

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Originally Posted by katia

hey there, i was using ceramic bowls for my new colony of ASF's, but as many of you know they just kick out food and pee in them. so i decided to build some food hoppers. the only hardware cloth my hardware store had was 1/4" and they said they don't plan on bringing in any 1/2" any time soon.

do you think they will be able to get enough food through a 1/4" hole? the 1/4" hoppers are in there right now but i could go into the city this weekend to get some 1/2" if needed.

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1/4" is fine...

my racks have 1/4" tops and they eat through it just fine

thanks guys, it's been about 4 days since i installed the hoppers and they do indeed seem to work well. the only reason i want to use food hoppers as opposed to just putting the food on the ground is because we keep the rat bins inside and after about a week or so i end up having to replace ALL the substrate, and there is lots of food mixed in that i would just have to throw away if i didn't use hoppers. the 1/4" hoppers i made are probably going to last a litter of fifteen 30ish gram rats about a week. and i have a 1.1 pair in a separate tank that i'm going to retire as soon as these little ones are growed up enough to start producing. i'm thinking of keeping a 1.3 ratio in a 64 quart sterilite latch box. so we shall see how that works out. i'm very new to this

Yea the hoppers rock. I was wasting so much food throwing it on the ground.
Do you have a gravity fed watering system installed or are you using bottles?

right now, i'm just using bottles. plastic bottles, at that. so not the best. they're mounted with all-metal bottle holders. i have 1 all-glass/metal bottle that i will be installing as soon as i find a matching one. here are the holders, and the bottle:

http://s3.amazonaws.com/tc-photos/11...ard/505221.jpg

Bottle

the 1st all-glass bottle was given to me with the rats, and i haven't been able to find another close by, so it looks like i'm gonna have to order it online pretty soon. i will post pictures of my set-up pretty quick here.

You should check out the gravity fed watering systems, it is a lot less of a hassle.
Here is a link i found useful to build you own: http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...t=plumbing+rat

Quote:

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Originally Posted by katia

right now, i'm just using bottles. plastic bottles, at that. so not the best. they're mounted with all-metal bottle holders. i have 1 all-glass/metal bottle that i will be installing as soon as i find a matching one. here are the holders, and the bottle:

http://s3.amazonaws.com/tc-photos/11...ard/505221.jpg

Bottle

the 1st all-glass bottle was given to me with the rats, and i haven't been able to find another close by, so it looks like i'm gonna have to order it online pretty soon. i will post pictures of my set-up pretty quick here.

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Those and glass bottles are what I use now (one for each breeder set up plus two for my grow up tub) and I've had no problems with them. I am thinking of expanding my operation soon though and will probably go with some sort of gravity feed system for that.

I got a friend that may even build some racks for me if I am lucky, I just need to decide how many females I want producing. At the moment 7 doesn't seem like enough, but I am not sure, I may just go up to 10 or 12.

yippee!! momma just had another litter! last night i THOUGHT i heard those little squeaks the babies make, looked in the little cave, and nothing! this morning, again, cute little squeaks! so i look, and momma decided to give birth in a different corner. i placed some more food in the hopper and she scampered over there, allowing me to have a quick look at the babes, looks to be 14+ rat pinks. you know what else is great? i saw some of the grow-ups trying to make whoopie with each other last night. looks like my colony is finally growing. i will post pictures of my set-up in another thread, and link it back here.