Re: What you keep your breeder rats in
Ours are in cages likes Schaffer's. I've moved the younger does into a BIIIG cage that has the basin bottom set into a rack frame on wheels. They're all in R's bedroom right now. I'm breeding them for the 3-5 wk old pups, but the adults are all pets, and I don't have anywhere to grow out past weanling size.
Squeeky and her litter of 12 are currently in a 20g w/a screen lid. Once I get a rack, I'll be putting 1.2 in tubs with UTH on one end, in the garage. My garage isn't heated, and gets freezing cold in the winter, thus, the UTHs. But for right now, all the ratties are in the bedroom.
Our colony is: Scabbers, Stewie, Robin Hood & Butterscotch (males)
Breeding females: Peekaboo, Squeeky, Peachy, Snow
3.5 mo. females: Raven, Beauty, Creamy, Monkey and Dumbelina
Unfortuately, using Robin and Stewie will be inline breeding along Peekaboo's line, but if I just euthanize the babies I'll be okay.
I couldn't get the mice to raise their babies. They kept eating the litters and now, except for needing mice pinkies for the baby corn and LTR, they're all on either rats or mouse fuzzies.
Re: What you keep your breeder rats in
heres my small setup . just one colony of 1 . 4 so i dont need a very extensive setup .
the twenty gallon on top is the breeding cage .
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...r/IM000708.jpg
the 10 gallons are for the gravid and nursing females . also the new weened babies stay in the tens for a couple weeks .
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...r/IM000707.jpg
at 5 or 6 weeks i seperate any males that havent been fed off into the 20 high tank .
http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b3...r/IM000710.jpg
sorry the tanks look so bad , these were taken right before i did the monthly sanitizing .
Re: What you keep your breeder rats in
This is what I currently use, but this is a dated picture before I put in auto-watering system
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...ack_698435.jpg
Im moving some to a new cage/weird rack that Im building, will see how that works as well.
Re: What you keep your breeder rats in
Quote:
Originally Posted by SnakeySnakeSnake
Do you have a plan for that rack?
Re: What you keep your breeder rats in
Quote:
Originally Posted by Pork Chops N' Corn Bread
Do you have a plan for that rack?
I originally built that off of the plan Brian posted... it is in the caging section somewhere I think..
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...reederCage.JPG
This is what I think I am going to switch my breeders to. Those plastic tubs arent cheap, and Ive had quite a few chew-throughs that Ive had to patch.
I havn't complete my rack using these cages yet, but in the end it will be easily half as cheap as an equivalent amount of racks like the first picture.
Note: I just unloaded those rats from like 10 growout tubs, to hold them while I cleaned their tubs. I do not keep that many in together :)
Re: What you keep your breeder rats in
Here are the plans
http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...ght=rack+plans
Measure the tubs at your home depot / menards / lowest first, because mine were different and I had to adjust the cuts a bit.
Re: What you keep your breeder rats in
Would you be willing to sell a rack or two once you switch bryan?
Re: What you keep your breeder rats in
Well I use a bit of this and a bit of that LOL. I'll try to get some pics tomorrow if you want.
For my females with unweaned litters - 1 female and litter per 10 gallon tank
For my males - 40 gallon breeder tank - the males all live in there and are cycled in and out as needed so only 1 male is in there with a number of females during a breeding cycle...then the males all go back to hanging out in the big tank and being lazy male rats until it's one or the other males turn at bat - they will eventually be moved to a large Iris xmas tree box as soon as WalMart gets them in again.
For the feeders - 2 big plastic tubs with the tops meshed for ventilation - 1 for males, 1 for females
