need a little help and guidance

i finally got my asf rats all set up l had 4-1.4 groups and life was good the sankes will finally eat good after two escapes and fears of more i now have only found 1.3 and they are all mixed up
i built a 6 bin rack with 6 1/2 tall bins and drilled a hole in the sides to install water bottles
i put my two hooded rats in the top bins they havent even chewed a little but they are alone
the asf's - one day i forgot to put one watter bottle back after feeding and paid for it two hours later there they were running around (outside their cage) like a kid on sugar coatd sugar puffs (their best day ever) entirely my fault i only managed to get three back and split them between the other cages this morning i woke up and seen one running around on the rack quickly grabed it and put it in a bin when i went to put my boots on there was another one i thought great i got em all NOT!! when i got home i found another one running around on the rack upon inspection i found they chewed the top edge of the bin enough to escape i rounded up all of them and put them in a new tall bin

now to my question

should i - scrap the rack and go back to tanks ,get heavier bins(like bus boxes i found at sams), reduce my male to female ratio (less rats less chewing?), or get taller bins (my current plan of action)

Did you use hardware cloth for the top of the tubs on the rack like in this DIY?

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?t=38830

http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...rackplumb8.jpg

If so, just get new tubs, and put the ASF's back in. Cut a hole in the hardware cloth to stick the bottle nozzle thru.

i do i have 1/4 hardware cloth

i had the bottles in the top but some of the rats were a little small and couldnt reach them verry well but as long as the bottles were in they werent chewing at the hole just that one time i got busy and forgot to put it back:tears:

its the chewing around the top edge that they are escaping from and they are all chewing at almost the same place (they must communicate with their minds):O

How about gluing a metal washer around the hole on the inside so they cannot chew a hole even if the waterbottle is missing?


And they do learn when other rats do the chewing. Best thing you can do is make sure there are no gaps for them to get one tooth around.

I use the washer on the water bottle set up and it works for me. Do not give up on the rack system so fast. I'm sure you can make adjustments to fix the problem. Good Luck to you. PEACE:gj:

thanks ill put washers on some new tubs and make sure there arent any gaps
im pretty sure that was my prob the tubs i have now have a 1/4" gap where the handels would snap on