How much water per rat per day

[chilliscale]

So im leaving on a family trip for 12 days and by family I mean all of them, including my regular per sitters so I have to find a way to keep the rats watered the whole time. I do not have time to get my auto water system suppliea before we go so the question at hand is how much water per rat? I am thinning the herd to 3 or 4 females per tub. Does anyone know from experience how much I should expect thenlm to consume. The rat room right now is sitting at 60 degrees and rarely gets much warmer

[BCS]

In 12 days, no matter what you do, someone is going to have to be there to water your rats. I am kind of assuming you have a bunch... but I know from experience that one glass bottle of water lasts my mice a day... we are speaking rats here. You don't have any friends that can do it for you? Maybe a local breeder in your area you can hire... or just someone you can hire to check on them every couple of days?

[erich_7719]

My $0.02 I don't know exactly how much per rat, since I have a auto top off already set up. I would be more concerned with the water becoming stagnant, the rats running out of food, and 12 days of... lets just say bathroom duty. These can lead to a bigger issue when you get back.

For assumptions sake... Do you have younger like teenage children, that may have friends that may be willing to check on the water every now and again? Or a neighbor child that could do the same?

[Stewart_Reptiles]

If you have 4 to 5 females per tubs count over 5 gallons of water for 6 tubs.

Not manageable with water bottles.



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[Caspian]

I just have one female and each one's pups per tub, and I need to refill water bottles every day, even for the tubs with pups that are still nursing rather than drinking the water. Twelve days is way too long to leave them unsupervised. I gave up on vacations when I got horses - I can't even leave them alone for one night, without someone I have absolute trust in to feed, water and check in on them. Rats are living creatures, as well - regardless of whether they're food, they deserve the consideration of clean cages, ample food and water, and being regularly checked on. I just don't see any way to leave them for twelve days without someone checking in and doing maintenance at least every three days.

There's the snakes to consider, as well - if something went wrong with a thermostat or something like that, twelve days is a long, long time.

[chilliscale]

I'm going to have to rethink this one. I have a good friend I am dropping the snakes off at a couple hours away but I have nooone to do rats. I guess I better think long and hard about this one. Maybe feed everyone off and start over, I am only a couple months out from retiring the tubs. I know my food hoppers can handle 2 weeks of feed but I didn't consider stagment water. Thanks for the bigger picture.

[artgecko]

Maybe see if the friend taking care of your snakes is willing to do some rats... make some travel bin cages and pick your best females / males and put them in bin cages and take to the friend's house? That would be the only thing I can think of. My rats go through at least half a large water bottle a day... More in the heat (like 1 large water bottle a day) so I change water daily, and that is with only 3 adult rats per bottle.

Maybe offer to compensate the friend more if he is willing to watch the rats and bring your own food /bedding / etc. for him to use while you are gone.

[chilliscale]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm going to feed off the majority and send 2 colony worth to my in-laws house in my old rack where my nephew will be able to check on them. Thanks again for giving me every angle to look at

[Darkbird]

You seem to already have a handle on it, but I can tell you that 4gal of water will sustain 12-18 rats for 2 weeks. Of course that's in a watering system setup, not doable with bottles really. Ant that consumption rate goes up a bunch if you have any litters show up while your gone.

[chilliscale]

Thanks. I have about 20 adult rats and 20 so grow ups and 100 or more pinks and fuzzies. When we started planning this trip I got sitter lined up for dog, snakes, and kids pets but spaced offthe rats til last minute