Starting to Breed

Hello
im starting to breed rats
right now i have 100 rates
i subdivided them into 6 cages
1 cage consists of 15 female and 1 male

my cage is similar to a square birdcage

i will post pics soon
:cool:

May want to make the females in smaller groups. as most females will have their litter in the same pile in the cage which in turn causes many to not get fed and they die. I learned my lesson when 5 females had a litter over night in same tub and well i found 6 dead on the bottom of the pile


I keep 3 females per tub and put a male in with them for 1 week then take them out after the week is over to go to the other females. Once females are pregnant my males go back to thier main tub in the rack and rest till their needed again.

flamethrower can you post a pic of you set up ?
:)

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y14...k/100_2293.jpg
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y14...k/100_2294.jpg

do you just pile the food on top?

Yes put the food on top of the screen and they will eat through it. It saves you money and food compared of it inside the cages.

Keep In mind in a rack like this on carpet be prepared to vaccum daily as they make a mess. I keep the rodents in my bedroom away from snakes.

Brilliant idea. I always saw people with little screen dishes like built into their racks but your design makes it 10x easier.

Its a lifesaver. Took me a few days to get used to the rodent noises at night time. But i try to keep them out of view in house from guest so they dont freak out. Their worth the money to build if you never want to buy rodents again.

Well I have a female and a male right now and I think she may be pregnant. Mind these are pet store rats and I only bothered getting them since one of my BPs will now only take live, even after a month and a half of not eating so I could get her on f/t. Weird thing was she was fine on f/t and then one day stopped eating them and didnt eat for like 3 weeks so I got a buttload of mice and fed them off to her over a couple weeks, and since then I've been trying to get her back on f/t but she wont have any of it (she will strike if I move it rapidly across her field of view, but then she leaves them there. Kinda irritating, but she will take live no problem ~_~ This weekend I'm gunna pick up some more mice and feed her those until my rat gives birth and she can move on to rats. She's still too small to eat pet store sized "smalls."

But yeah I love your rack and it seems like an amazing idea for the future (I would probably only go with one or two tub tiers) and it will probably take up less floorspace than the big tub I have them in now.

I wouldnt suggest a rack like mine unless ur wanting to breed heavly. Im producing over 400 mice monthly and 300rats a month in this rack. what i dont use gets sold to local reptile owners and or shipped frozen

As I said I was only thinking of doing a couple tubs a tier, and probably just enough tiers for a few rats total. It would be handy to always have feeders available for my snakes and would save me a lot of money on dry ice.

Like a 1 tub for the females, 2 for moms and pups, one for the male, and 2 for the future feeders. So only a couple tiers with either 1 or 2 tubs depending on what the tier is for.

if its just for rats then this is what you want to build.

http://i46.tinypic.com/n54fbo.jpg

flamethrower - thank you very much for the pictures
it reallly gave me a whole lot of idea for my rats!

thanks thanks thanks!
kudos!

Rich what are the little square cubes for?

my guess... cheap chew toys?

Thats is a neat idea

yea it was left over 2x2s from the build and cut them into chew blocks for them