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?