Building & Plumbing a Rodent Rack

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Originally Posted by jordy1380

How does the 1/4" wire mesh work for the mice? Are they able to get at the food, or are the holes too small? I always thought that the holes were too small for them to get at their food unless it was 3/8" or 1/2"?

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3/8" is ideal but good luck finding it. 1/2" Hoppers escape with ease unless your dealing with rats. ASF and Mice WILL escape.

Has anyone made one of these and had problems with chew outs? I have recently made one with the exact specifications and there is about an 1/8" gap between the tub edges and the wire/ wood. Some of the mice figured out that they could fit their mouths in there and chew out of the container. Many of them just chew a hole and don't do anything, but there are a lot of tubs that are getting chewed and at 3$ a tub it is kind of getting irritating. Anyone got any solutions to this? I could put 1x4's under all of the tubs to make them tighter but that would cost a lot more. Any help?

Hi,

Is there any way to narrow down the gap so they cannot get a tooth hold?

If the tub slides on rails could you, for example, put some plastic on the bottom of it to raise the tub closer to the wire?


dr del

You simply messure your gap tighter...

As for chewing/ I had a few of these and had one rat chew a bit. but she stopped. I do believe you have to worry more about mice. they are smaller with smaller teeth

ig you are simply feeding balls. why not switch to rats? :)

The gap is already supposed to be at 1/2" and if you use plywood that is 3/8" won't that just fall apart? If you begin to use lumber then you will have to have a planer and plane the wood down several times before you get the desired width because I don't know if a lot of table saws will cut less than 1/2 inch and still be precise. It would be a pain to go through and change a lot of the spacers for me, so I am just hoping that the ones that have a hole will stay in their bins basically.

What are the differences between using PVC or the rubber tubing?

How does the flow of water differ in each?

Thanks

Wat is the vanilla put in the water for? Is it to reduce the smell of the mice urine?

I saw it said to reduce smell but smell of what :-)

Thanks!

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Originally Posted by reptilegirl07

Wat is the vanilla put in the water for? Is it to reduce the smell of the mice urine?

I saw it said to reduce smell but smell of what :-)

Thanks!

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yes to reduce the smell of the urine

Do you know how the vanilla acts to reduce the odor? Does it just pass through their digestive systems and act as sort of a built-in air freshener? Or does it somehow chemically alter the urine so that the urine itself does not smell as potent?

I was also curious about the vanilla thing. How much are you supposed to add to the water per gallon of water? Do you just dump some in?

Hey mark was wondering if you made a new rack setup with the bigger tubs yet?

An if so can you post it like you did 1st one an what sizes an material would need i would like to build one with 4 tubs like that.

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Originally Posted by twisted007

Hey mark was wondering if you made a new rack setup with the bigger tubs yet?

An if so can you post it like you did 1st one an what sizes an material would need i would like to build one with 4 tubs like that.

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No, I just don't have the room in my rodent room to use the longer tubs. (it's REALLY tight in there. However I am replacing my 3 X 6 rat rack (3 tubs across by 6 tubs high) with three 1 X 7 racks which should take up the same room as the old rack but add 3 more tubs. Of course I probably won't finish them until spring, it's getting too cold to work out in the garage.

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Originally Posted by nofinga911

What are the differences between using PVC or the rubber tubing?

How does the flow of water differ in each?

Thanks

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The PVC tubing never gets plugged up. It's just too wide for that. I've only ever had one tub get a clogged up sipper and I just replaced the sipper valve and it worked great again. Also, if you ever do have a mouse escape the escapee is going to get thirsty and will chew right through the rubber tubing. That doesn't happen with the harder and thicker PVC tubing.

Important note::: I had someone contact me recently to let me know that the 3/8" holes in the ends of the PVC caps don't work anymore, you need to drill a 1/4" hole now. It looks like Ag Select has changed the style of their screw in sippers so that they're smaller in diameter. So PLEASE make sure that the sippers screw in tightly to the end caps BEFORE you cement everything together.

When did they change their design? I ordered screw in sippers from them maybe a month ago and I got the 3/8" style. does the 1/4" allow as much water to flow through?

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Originally Posted by MarkS

The PVC tubing never gets plugged up. It's just too wide for that. I've only ever had one tub get a clogged up sipper and I just replaced the sipper valve and it worked great again. Also, if you ever do have a mouse escape the escapee is going to get thirsty and will chew right through the rubber tubing. That doesn't happen with the harder and thicker PVC tubing.

Important note::: I had someone contact me recently to let me know that the 3/8" holes in the ends of the PVC caps don't work anymore, you need to drill a 1/4" hole now. It looks like Ag Select has changed the style of their screw in sippers so that they're smaller in diameter. So PLEASE make sure that the sippers screw in tightly to the end caps BEFORE you cement everything together.

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agselect is way too expensive

http://www.klubertanz.com/ is much cheaper

so mark what you going to do with your old racks like the one in the 1st post ?

i would take some how many you got an do you have any now you not using thanks.

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Originally Posted by Camel413

When did they change their design? I ordered screw in sippers from them maybe a month ago and I got the 3/8" style. does the 1/4" allow as much water to flow through?

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I'm really not sure how they work as opposed to the larger diameter size since I only have that one size. Just looking at the picture on agselects website, the 'Edstrom Original Drinking Valve, 1/8"mpt connection, all brass' does look like the screw end is smaller in diameter then the ones that I have

Look at this -
http://www.agselect.com/ED/showdetl....D=174&CATID=12

Compared to -
http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g2...rackplumb1.jpg

I haven't bought any though so I don't know for sure, I was just told about it through a PM. I guess the main reason for my post was to warn people to double check the sizes before they drill all the holes and cement it all together. The old carpenters adage, 'measure twice, cut once' works for more then just lumber.

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Originally Posted by nixer

agselect is way too expensive

http://www.klubertanz.com/ is much cheaper

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That is a LOT cheaper, especially when you're buying in quantities. Thanks for the link

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Originally Posted by twisted007

so mark what you going to do with your old racks like the one in the 1st post ?

i would take some how many you got an do you have any now you not using thanks.

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I suppose I will eventually sell the old rat rack when I get the new rat rack finished. I'll have to disassemble it to get it out of my basement, though it shouldn't be hard to reassemble with a cordless drill. The current rat rack also doesn't have automatic watering like the mouse rack does (another reason I'm building a new one) rather it uses a bunch of recycled whiskey bottles with sipper tubes for water so it looks kind of ghetto :D Works pretty well though. I wouldn't want to sell it outside of the Minneapolis/St Paul area either because it would be more expensive then it's worth to ship. It would pretty much be a 'you buy it, you haul it' type of deal. But like I said, that probably won't be happening until spring time anyway. If you want more info on it please PM me because I don't want to clutter up this thread with sales talk.

Great thread, I just finished building a larger version of this using the equivalent of the CP3 Tubs 22" x 16 " x 6 ½". Learned the hard way, don't try and use 2x1's for a spacer, not quite thin enough, i've got to go back and glue in some plywood strips now :(, other than that turned out great. Now the real test is if it stands up to the 300 ASF's I just tossed in it.

http://i717.photobucket.com/albums/w...g?t=1262578106

http://i717.photobucket.com/albums/w...g?t=1262578173

That looks great Kevin. How are those tubs working out for you? I use that size tub for maternity racks for my rats. They'd be too deep for mice to be able to drink but I don't have any of the ASF's so I don't know how they'd work for them, are they able to drink okay? I've also heard that the ASF's are bigger chewers then either mice or rats so I've always wondered if that kind of plastic tub would hold up well for them.

this is a great rack setup i was tring to make it but having a real hard time tring to find the bins. they don't make them all flat anymore they are all wavy an the rodents can get out this sucks. i hear you did a new style rack is it with same bins or new ones an we see pics an info. thanks

I find that the ASF's 20 grams or less are to small to reach it, but anything larger than that are fine. (the smaller ones I just put more bedding). As for the chewing, I haven't had any issues yet.

Twisted, try searching for Petmate brand tubs, they seem to be easier to find.

great looking post but I do have one question does the sipper piece prevern you from removing the tub completly ?? looking at I I be afaird i end up ripping the piece off and possible end up with some drowned rodents.( it would happen with my luck) that why I liked my glass stnaks or even consider finding those lab tubs( sicne i don't know what they are called) that has the clear tub and the wirre tops I can just set them on a shelf unit and pull them out ot do maintanc every day. I love the rack design since it takes up a lot less room than my current 4-5 tanks of rodents.

If you are installing tanks and fitting pipes to them be sure to cover the ends of the pipes with tape to stop pieces of plastic and swarf from dropping down them, the bits and pieces will block taps later on and cause all kinds of problems.

man that is one seriously nice rack!!!
a couple of questions.
how often do that size tubs need to be cleaned?
what are your production estimates?
how much food do you use per week?

i only breed rats right now but have been thinking of doing mice since there is a shortage in this area and are always in demand. i tried the mice for awhile but after i got rid of the majority of my corns i really dont need mice anymore. but the potential for profit is their which could pay for my other food and bedding bills.
adam jeffery

You definitely have some major engineering skills

Nicely done !

Great ! thanks for posting it :) looks kinda complicated but awesome ..

Thanks for your post! Its saved me bunch of money so far :gj: thought I'd show off my version modified to work with rats aswell. Great for a smaller breeder... Cost me just under $350 CAD

[IMG]https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3849/...b09e3811_z.jpg20140806_141627 by Aereadnos[/IMG]

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Originally Posted by Aereadnos

Thanks for your post! Its saved me bunch of money so far :gj: thought I'd show off my version modified to work with rats aswell. Great for a smaller breeder... Cost me just under $350 CAD

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That's great, I'm glad people are still finding this post useful.

Curiosity is getting at me.. I don't plan on breeding rats for a long time until I make sure I'm getting used to taking care of my bps and my husbandry is perfect. But...couldn't you attach a garden house or something similar to this setup instead of a low flow gravity feed system?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Originally Posted by BBotteron

Curiosity is getting at me... I don't plan on breeding rats for a long time until I make sure I'm getting used to taking care of my bps and my husbandry is perfect. But...couldn't you attach a garden house or something similar to this setup instead of a low flow gravity feed system?

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Water nipples work under low pressure (5 psi or less). If you are attaching nipples to poly hose the water needs to be gravity fed. If you are wanting to connect it directly to a garden hose (house pressure), you will need a pressure regulator to regulate the pressure down. House pressure can be 30 to 70 pounds of pressure, so you would need to regulate it down to 5 or less. Otherwise, your rats will get a shower rather than a drink and it can cause damage to the nipple.

For my set up, I use a garden hose attached to a float valve inside a bucket. No refilling, but also gravity fed. I may consider simplifying to a pressure regulator in the future.

If I ever needed 1000 mice a month I would not be married, just sayin'! Great thread though. Learning alot!