New Rat Rack

http://www.madmarsh.com/pics/newRatRackFront.jpg
http://www.madmarsh.com/pics/newRatRackAngled.jpg
http://www.madmarsh.com/pics/newRatRackSider.jpg
http://www.madmarsh.com/pics/newRatRackFull.jpg

First rack of my own design.

Auto watering/feeding. Cage design with 1/2" hardware cloth and melamine for the bottom.

Dimensions: 4' wide 3' deep 6' tall
Puropse: Breeding only. Fat rats rotated out to individual or paired maternity tubs and new rats rotated in.

Chew points minimzed and escapability should be minimal, but will test this one out for a while to find out what the rats decide to exploit.

I can see a potintial problem. I keep my rats in the basement, they were near the heater. when the heat kicked on all the rat odor would be drawn into the house with the cold air return. I had to relocate the rats because of that. :)

Hope you do not run into the same problem. Good Luck.

Is the auto watering set up really as simple as it looks? Also, are their ball valve type ends from regular water bottles in the ends of the hoses or what?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ECLARK

I can see a potintial problem. I keep my rats in the basement, they were near the heater. when the heat kicked on all the rat odor would be drawn into the house with the cold air return. I had to relocate the rats because of that. :)

Hope you do not run into the same problem. Good Luck.

---

This is my garage aka Rat Central :)


I learned the same lesson you did in the house :(

Window into the madness

http://www.ball-pythons.net/gallery/.../8/ratRoom.jpg

I think it is a great idea!! I may try something like that (with the very little space I have left in the rodent shed.....) but one question. How do clean 'em? :confused: Maybe a shop vac? I think that's probably why tubs are used so commonly, just pull out and dump. Have you cleaned them out yet? If so how'd it go?

-Evan

Nice rack... how easy is it to clean, though? It looks like you have to scoop everything out.

BTW, when are you going to change your handle to RattyRatRat? :D

A shop vac works GREAT for cleaning these out, if you need you can attach a plastic putty scraper to the end of a 2x2 to reach back and scrape anything stuck to the bottom and then vaccuum out, the rats all run away, and are too big to be sucked up, and then you just dump in the bedding and spread it around.

That is a good question about the nickname, but the rats are a means to an ends :)

For smaller racks I like the tub setup and being able to dump out the bedding, but cleaning 8 breeder tubs vs cleaning these 2 cages with a shop vac, this rack I would say is a bit less work, and when the rats cooperate, it beats having to transfer them around.

but isnt there still some trouble when there's pinks involved? or do put the mothers with litters in separate tubs?