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  1. #1
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    Rat Breeding Setup

    These tubs are rather sparse, and I need to add some more enrichment activities for the adults and older babies, but this is my current Rat setup:



    There are (2) males currently in QT in the other room. These rats live across the room from my snake rack and provide the majority of the rodents consumed by my snakes. My rats are descended from pet lines. They are all super friendly and seek human attention and love. Sometimes it's hard to do the CDs before the freezer, but I do what I have to.

    My rats range in variety. Am working on morphology projects with them as well, but those go faster than with snakes.

    Any questions, let me know.

    Paul

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    the_rotten1 (04-17-2019)

  3. #2
    Registered User Jellybeans's Avatar
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    Re: Rat Breeding Setup

    I couldn't....I have to use f/t.
    Its hard cuz I love rats.

    Sent from my LGMP260 using Tapatalk

  4. #3
    BPnet Veteran pretends2bnormal's Avatar
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    Re: Rat Breeding Setup

    Looks good!

    How big are those bins and how many rats do you keep per bin? I always like to hear how others are doing it for more perspective since I'm just starting out with rats.

    Is that a ping pong ball I spy in the bottom right tub?

    Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

  5. #4
    BPnet Senior Member Lord Sorril's Avatar
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    Re: Rat Breeding Setup

    I used the exact same design on my rats initially.

    I had running wheels, wood chew houses, and old clothes torn up into rags-for enrichment.

    Hopefully you have better luck than I did with that design: in a few months the rats had learned that they could chew through the plastic areas around the water bottle sipper tube. I tried to adjust the design by armoring the area around the sipper tube inside with hardware cloth. The rats responded by pushing/pulling at the hardware cloth constantly. Eventually the plastic in the bin weakened at the attachment points of the hardware cloth from the repeated push/pull stress and they were able to chew the plastic again.
    *.* TNTC

  6. #5
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    Re: Rat Breeding Setup

    Quote Originally Posted by Jellybeans View Post
    I couldn't....I have to use f/t.
    Its hard cuz I love rats.

    Sent from my LGMP260 using Tapatalk
    I kept finding very crap quality feeders around, I went this route to control food supply and to gut load before CD and freeze.

    Quote Originally Posted by pretends2bnormal View Post
    Looks good!

    How big are those bins and how many rats do you keep per bin? I always like to hear how others are doing it for more perspective since I'm just starting out with rats.

    Is that a ping pong ball I spy in the bottom right tub?

    Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
    I believe the large ones are the 110qt Sterlites from walmart (they're around $25 each) and the small ones are 30ish quart and are $10 each.

    And no, that's not a ping pong ball. That's my Himalayan girl Migoi curled into a ball. She's a 2nd generation hold back for future breeding.


    Quote Originally Posted by Lord Sorril View Post
    I used the exact same design on my rats initially.

    I had running wheels, wood chew houses, and old clothes torn up into rags-for enrichment.

    Hopefully you have better luck than I did with that design: in a few months the rats had learned that they could chew through the plastic areas around the water bottle sipper tube. I tried to adjust the design by armoring the area around the sipper tube inside with hardware cloth. The rats responded by pushing/pulling at the hardware cloth constantly. Eventually the plastic in the bin weakened at the attachment points of the hardware cloth from the repeated push/pull stress and they were able to chew the plastic again.
    Chewing is a learned behavior, not a natural one. If you start with rats that don't chew, you won't have this issue long term. You can cull it out too, but it can be expensive. It's much better to start with pet stock than pet store stock for this reason. I had one that did chew out of a hole that a previous chewer had started (she escaped and was recaptured) but she hasn't chewed anything since, so I haven't culled her. I want her genes too.

    I also didn't start with just a small hole around the spout, I drilled and cut a panel of hardware cloth in and I used machine screws and washers to hold it in place, so there isn't a lot of room to chew. The smaller ones can worry the plastic a bit, but as they grow up, they rapidly become too big.

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    pretends2bnormal (04-17-2019)

  8. #6
    BPnet Veteran pretends2bnormal's Avatar
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    Re: Rat Breeding Setup

    Quote Originally Posted by pbenner View Post
    I believe the large ones are the 110qt Sterlites from walmart (they're around $25 each) and the small ones are 30ish quart and are $10 each.

    And no, that's not a ping pong ball. That's my Himalayan girl Migoi curled into a ball. She's a 2nd generation hold back for future breeding.
    That's really funny, she looks so much like the ping pong balls I've tossed in for mine to play with at the distance the picture is at. Oops.. those will be some pretty babies from her, I'm sure.

    Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

  9. #7
    BPnet Veteran WhompingWillow's Avatar
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    Re: Rat Breeding Setup

    Quote Originally Posted by pbenner View Post
    I kept finding very crap quality feeders around, I went this route to control food supply and to gut load before CD and freeze.



    I believe the large ones are the 110qt Sterlites from walmart (they're around $25 each) and the small ones are 30ish quart and are $10 each.

    And no, that's not a ping pong ball. That's my Himalayan girl Migoi curled into a ball. She's a 2nd generation hold back for future breeding.




    Chewing is a learned behavior, not a natural one. If you start with rats that don't chew, you won't have this issue long term.
    ...I'm a bit confused by this statement. Chewing in rats is most definitely a natural behavior - they need to chew on items in order to wear down their incisors. If they are not offered appropriate items to chew, they will chew plastic. They are also incredibly intelligent, so they may chew plastic anyway as a means to try to escape or because they're bored.
    BALL PYTHONS: 1.0 Pied/Clark, 1.0 Pastel Vanilla Super Stripe/Sunny, 0.1 Dragon Fly/Buffy, 0.1 Pastel Vanilla Yellow Belly/Cher, 0.1 BEL (Mojave Lesser)/Arya, 0.0.1 Normal/Norm, 0.1 Cinnamon Enchi/Peaches, 1.0 Cinnamon Calico/Yoshi, 0.1 Pewter Het Dreamsicle/Ariel
    BOAS: 0.1 Dumeril's/Memphis, 0.1 BCL/Artemis, 1.0 BCO/Grimm, 0.1 Suriname BCC/Rhubarb
    CORN SNAKES: 0.0.1/Mushu
    MORELIA: 0.1 Bredli/Zelda, 0.1 Granite IJ/Bridget, 0.1 Caramel Diamond Jungle/Pixie

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  11. #8
    BPnet Veteran pretends2bnormal's Avatar
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    Re: Rat Breeding Setup

    Quote Originally Posted by WhompingWillow View Post
    ...I'm a bit confused by this statement. Chewing in rats is most definitely a natural behavior - they need to chew on items in order to wear down their incisors. If they are not offered appropriate items to chew, they will chew plastic. They are also incredibly intelligent, so they may chew plastic anyway as a means to try to escape or because they're bored.
    Chewing plastic specifically is a learned behavior from watching other rats do it. Chewing in general is natural, but not typically plastic. In the wild they don't typically chew plastic unless trying to access our food via trash cans or something. They chew plants, wood, and their food to wear down teeth there and most breeders provide small blocks of wood for chewing in addition to the lab blocks themselves wearing down the teeth, so extra chewing on the tubs is unnecessary and actively culled out by the majority of breeders. Typically by feeding the offenders off to their snakes or other carnivores after humanely euthanizing them.

    Breeder rats are rarely bored enough to bother wanting to escape as long as food and water are supplied. They're either having R-rated fun times or dealing with their babies, so boredom is generally not a factor at all.

    Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

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  13. #9
    Registered User Jellybeans's Avatar
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    Re: Rat Breeding Setup

    Yes rats are natural chewers that's how they wear down their teeth I would put something in there that they can safely chew on they sell all kinds of crap at PetSmart and Petco you can buy.
    Sometimes I have to go to a couple different pet stores to find acceptable Frozen thawed meals for my snakes there have been some that I just will not buy

    Sent from my LGMP260 using Tapatalk

  14. #10
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    Sorry, I should have specified plastic chewers.

    I feed Mazuri 6F which is hard in and of it's self, but it's contained inside a metal cage made of Hardware cloth. Working food out from around the wire cage also helps keep teeth down.

    I have not have a plastic chewing problem.

    Paul

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