My little rat colony...

Becky, could you recommend anything to de-parasitize rats? I don't know if my rats have anything, but I always freeze them for a month or more before feeding to my snakes... I would be interested in deworming them just in case one should get out and get caught by my cat (yikes, that'd be ugly...)

If they are all together, then more than likely they all have the same thing. Take some poo to the vet, get one fecal done, and buy enough wormer for all of them. If it's coccidia, that may take 3 weeks or more to get rid of totally. But tapeworms, pinworms, and roundworms only take about a week or so to get rid of. I went to my school, did my own fecal, found out what the rat had, and went to my vet and told him what she had and what I needed. I got a tuberculin syringe (1cc) full of Albon for coccidia and 1/4 a tablet of Droncit for tapeworms for around $6 and that lasted more than 3 weeks, just for 1 rat. They only need one drop PO (by mouth) per day for however long the vet says. Freezing them for that amount of time will kill whatever is in them, so no worries there. It's like us eating sushi, sometimes the fish has tapeworms and the eggs are in the muscle for an amount of time until the turn into the worms and migrate. But we eat that meat and Voila! we get tapeworms too. Yummy... :) But anyway... For animals that are kept together, like Petco's nasty feeder mice, they will usually get pinworms. The vet will stick a piece of tape to their bum and put the tape on a slide, dye it and look to see if there are any worms/eggs stuck to the tape. If you have any other questions, just ask :-D

very similar to the setups I use if your going to breed rats and mice dont waste your time with aquariums I have to feed every 2 weeks water once a week cleaning 12 tubs takes me 20 mins max
http://www.chondrosunlimited.com/Pho.../rackwater.JPG
http://www.chondrosunlimited.com/Pho...at%20rack1.JPG
http://www.chondrosunlimited.com/Pho...s/ratrack3.JPG

Nice looking setup as well Robert.

Wow robert, I like your setup alot. Much more aesthetically pleasing than mine!

Nice rat racks! Either of you guys ever catch them chewing on the plastic?
I went with the monolithic cage motif myself, lol
https://ball-pythons.net/modules/cop...at%20Manor.jpg

Thats an awesome cage, i like it alot :)

steelsack definitely has the best rat condo i've ever seen. I love that thing, and i'd never keep rats :)

dang dude you really went all out! that looks more like something you would keep an iguana or several ferrets in!

Steel.. this is what I have come up with after a couple attempts The tubs I use are buss trays and are totally smooth inside so nothing really for themto chew on . In previouse attempts I tried to use off the shelf rubbermaids which have little edges which they were fine with for a long time .. but if the food runs out for 20 mins or they get bored they start chewing on the first thing they can get a hold of and has not been a problem with the buss tubs
Gin I am also getting quite a collection of Gray hoods in my colony they seem to be a dominant gene