Watering System w/o Rat Rack?

I am cutting down my breeding operations with the goal of having 3 males and 3 females. I know that's a bit male heavy, but I have certain colors I am breeding for right now. At most I will have three bins in use for rats.

I keep my rats in homemade bins as I like them to have more space than a typical breeding rack provides, and I just don't want to bother with building an entire rack.

The problem is, the water bottles make way too much noise. I spent a couple of hours trying to find a silent water bottle, with no success. From what I can tell, the valve-based watering systems people use for rodent racks appear to be pretty quiet.

Only question is, can I set up a watering system and just hook it up to three sterilite tubs somehow? Most of the watering systems I see are hooked up directly to the mesh in the racks, which is not connected to the actual tubs. Would connecting it to the tubs be too much of a hassle?

Seems like you could easily set up a watering system in individual tubs. Just cut a hole in the side of the tub and secure the tip.

I'd say it's possible, but I'm trying to visualize it and my major concerns would be the rats chewing on your tubs or the water lines or both...they don't need much to work with to be able to make a seemingly good idea go south in a hurry.

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Originally Posted by RobNJ

I'd say it's possible, but I'm trying to visualize it and my major concerns would be the rats chewing on your tubs or the water lines or both...they don't need much to work with to be able to make a seemingly good idea go south in a hurry.

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x2 to the bolded portion above. Those cute, dumbo-eared little balls o' fur become alligator-toothed demon spawn if they find a place to chew!

One idea might be to cut two pieces of metal (aluminum?) slightly larger than the hole you're drilling for your valve. You'd have a piece of metal on the exterior wall of the tub, the tub itself and then another metal piece riveted in place with the smooth sides of the rivets in the tub and then the valve secured through a hole in the two metal pieces and the tub; the holes would need to be aligned, obviously, between the three "pieces", with the tub wall being the filling of the metal "sandwich", lol! If you drill it correctly, you could secure the valve in place and just snake the tubing through the holes to it; larger diameter hole on the exterior plate/metal and a smaller hole on the inner piece to snake the valve stem through.

The metal would prevent the little snots pulling the valve off, which even if they did, they still couldn't chew out, as the metal piece would prevent them accessing the plastic wall of the tub. I'd stay away from stainless; it tends to heat up quickly when you try to drill it and it's TOUGH to get through, plus it would be heavy. Aluminum would be fine for weight as well as strength for the application needed and it's "soft", so to speak, and drills pretty easily, even with a hand electric drill. The only part of this I'm drawing a blank on is how to secure the valve to the wall of the tub, so the rats couldn't pull it off and in doing so flood their tub... I'd almost say substitute brass in place of the aluminum and then you could silver solder the valve to the metal inside the tub but that might make the valve spring lose it's temper and thus the spring tension...crap! I dunno, sorry! Over-thinking/over-engineering the obvious, maybe. I dunno, just a thought. Good luck and hope some of my ramblings make sense. :gj:

I would cut a hole in the tub side, maybe 6 inches from the floor depending on bedding choices and amounts, hole maybe 4 inch square, and attach a 6 inch square piece of hail screen on the inside of the square hole using weaved wire. That way they could not reach the plastic to chew, and you can attach a watering valve to the hailscreen, it will just be coming from the side and not the top. It would also afford a little more ventilation :) I am planning my rack to have several screen windows to attach my water system to as well. That way the babies can easily reach is, as well as the mice and Asfs :)
*Fila*

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Originally Posted by Fila

I would cut a hole in the tub side, maybe 6 inches from the floor depending on bedding choices and amounts, hole maybe 4 inch square, and attach a 6 inch square piece of hail screen on the inside of the square hole using weaved wire. That way they could not reach the plastic to chew, and you can attach a watering valve to the hailscreen, it will just be coming from the side and not the top. It would also afford a little more ventilation :) I am planning my rack to have several screen windows to attach my water system to as well. That way the babies can easily reach is, as well as the mice and Asfs :)
*Fila*

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K.I.S.S. Keep It Simple, Stupid! Hahahahaha! That's completely directed at me and not in the least at you, except to compliment you on your design; that'd work just fine and come to think of it, I saw a tub design similar to that that used flat lengths of aluminum to secure the hail screen to the tub so the rodents couldn't chew the exposed plastic or otherwise slip out between the seams of the plastic/screen. That, and depending on the size of screen (I use 1/4" squares in my rack) it would hold the valve in place without the need for the brackets to secure them. Nicely done, Fila. :gj:

Or use water dishes. LOL. That's what all my rats in tanks drink out of. I set them up on a "platform" to raise them above the bedding. They learn very quickly and seem to like the water dishes and it's silent. I hate the clack clack noise of water bottles.