My rat/mouse factory (pics)

Here's the rat corner. Seven tubs right now.. will be getting a freedom breeder level within a few weeks to bring that to ten.

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...8/dscn1334.JPG

Breeder male seal point siamese velveteen rex:
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...8/DSCN1338.JPG

Bouncing baby rats:
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...8/DSCN1337.JPG

Disgusting mice:
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...8/dscn1339.JPG

Nice setup, April. I'm not sure how many rat tanks Smulkin has in the basement right now. I just go down to retreive feeders when I need them. In general, I'm not crazy about rats, but oddly enough I've found there are few things cuter than hopper rats - fuzzy roundness with long legs.

My mom falls in love with every hopper rat she sees. It's kind of sad really.. because most live ones she sees are headed to a sand boa tub.

Yeah, I'm kinda glad none of my snakes eat that size rat. I either feed them off as pinkies or wait until they're juvies or small adults. Smulkin's snakes (the Afrock, the bloods, and a couple supersized BPs) eat the adults.

Very neat setup. I was surprised about your water bottles; they don't leak at that angle?
I still use 10g tanks; got them cheap from my friend's pet store.

Nice shots!

Same here on the glass tanks - got about 8 10's, 3 30's and the "meet'n'greet" 55 gal tank. Its nice not having to buy rats - live at the store of frozen via mail - but man i tell you what they are easily 10x the maintenance demands of snakes - sometimes I think given the time to care for them and clean cages it is almost cheaper (if you ascribe to "time is money") to get them outsourced. Thawing was always a pain though, and locally medium rats are at the $5/6 level each. No way I could afford rats AND gas.

No bottle leaks. Most of them are sipper tubes - no rolling ball - the opening is small and the air pressure actually keeps the water in. The ones with the rolling ball don't leak either.