Finally built my rat racks!!

The watering systems don't cost any more than the bottles you would need to replace them, unless your getting your bottles really cheap somewhere. And if your that worried about leaks, just pull the valves and clean them once a month, or use purified water. Been using the same valves for 3 yrs now, never had an issue so far except when an escapee chewed through a line. You can also use a smaller reservoir, mine holds 4 gallons and will keep 6 tubs watered for 2 weeks, so a 1 or 2 gallon would cut the spill issues.

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Originally Posted by Darkbird

The watering systems don't cost any more than the bottles you would need to replace them, unless your getting your bottles really cheap somewhere. And if your that worried about leaks, just pull the valves and clean them once a month, or use purified water. Been using the same valves for 3 yrs now, never had an issue so far except when an escapee chewed through a line. You can also use a smaller reservoir, mine holds 4 gallons and will keep 6 tubs watered for 2 weeks, so a 1 or 2 gallon would cut the spill issues.

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This too. 1-2 gallons wouldn't even drown weanlings in tubs that size.

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I finally switched to auto waterer and I had to wean out two mommies that played with the nipples and flooded their bins.....that being said all that happened was their bedding was wet. Lost no babies or anything. I just check the bins every am and make sure everyone is ok. I agree with the whole cost thing too....way cheaper! And I only fill the buckets once every 10 days on cleaning day. I used the white buckets from Home depot in the paint department. I think they are 2 gallon size because my husband gets deployed a lot and I have to lift the water buckets up that high!

I have kept rats and snakes in the same room with no problem but the snakes couldn't SEE the rats running around like I think they can in your shot :P and I cleaned a little mor eoften to keep the smell down in the house. But we are up to 40 + balls so they got moved to the garage, 2 6 black tub racks and a maternity rack with 16 cat litter sized pans.

Sorry it took so long to get this up. The cuts you'll nee are as follows and this is for the black concrete mixing tubs from home depot...

The following are cuts made from 2x3"

4@ 64", this was the height I had to work with, you can go taller and add another tub or shorter and do less tubs.

these are to make the squares that the tubs sit flat against

10@ 20.25
10@ 25

And for the rails you'll need the following cut from 2x2s

10@ 28"

You'll use 2 of the 20.25" and 2 of the 25" pieces to make your frames that will go over each tub with a piece of hardware cloth between the frame and tub. The 2 20.5 pieces will cap off the 25" pieces, and you'll make as many squares as tubs you plan to use. Hopefully this picture can explain what I'm saying...


http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w...ps7451d191.jpg

Once you've made your frames you'll begin to screw the frames to the legs of the rack, in this case the legs are 64" tall. If you want to make it easy and build them to my specs at 64" tall your frames will be 10" apart from the bottom of each frame to the top of the frame below. At this height you can still see what's going on in the top tub and the tub on the bottom won't be super close to the ground.

Once you get all of the frames attached to the legs you'll flip it over just to make it a little easier. As far as installing the rails that hold the tubs and let them slide in and out the way I did it was to place a tub face down facing the hardware cloth. I set the rails on each side of the tubs and attached them accordingly, I didn't measure. That said, I just measured the space between each frame and the drawer guides and they were a consistent .75" apart.

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w...psfff62f5a.jpg



here's another view, and again there's 10" between each square frame and there's a .75 gap between the rail and the frame above it.

http://i176.photobucket.com/albums/w...ps39836b0a.jpg


I suck at explaining this stuff, if something I said doesn't make sense feel free to ask and hopefully I can provide a response that helps...

One recommendation for your racks. The hardware cloth (screen) is not supported in the center. The rats can, and do, push up on the screen when the tub is partly opened. A piece of wood up the middle would eliminate the chance that one will squeeze out the back of the tub when you're not paying attention.

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Originally Posted by JohnNJ

One recommendation for your racks. The hardware cloth (screen) is not supported in the center. The rats can, and do, push up on the screen when the tub is partly opened. A piece of wood up the middle would eliminate the chance that one will squeeze out the back of the tub when you're not paying attention.

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This. It also keeps the screen from sagging with the weight of food or playful rats climbing upside down.



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