The pet store that I order my Mazuri in has not gotten in a bag for me in 5 weeks! They keep saying, "It will be here next week for sure." Well 5 weeks later, hearing that 4 times, I'm getting a little POed. I've had to switch their diet 3-4 times because I can't find a good food that cheap. (I was getting 50lbs of Mazuri 6F for $30)

Production screeched to a halt and I haven't seen a baby rat in 2 weeks. My youngest is about 6 weeks old. (One rat killed and ate all her babies because of all the food switching)

Well I went out and got some dog food from Southern States and if they do well on it, I"m going to keep them on it. 40lbs for $15 isn't bad. I have 3 females old enough to breed. They are all in with males. I have another two ready to mate this month, another 5 ready to mate in August, and another 2 ready in September. So hopefully, by the end of the summer, I should have 10 breeding females.

I plan on keeping my "rat rack" (two working tubs) and using it as a breeding rack. But I need to figure out enclosures to use instead of tanks. I made a tub for my sister for her rats but we find that the rats easily chew the zip ties. I think I might go with metal ties and see if that helps keep the chewing to a minimum. Any thoughts on this? And I usually use the 56qt tubs for my mice. I was thinking of keeping 2 female rats per tub and rotating males through these tubs. (using the "rat rack" as a place they go while not breeding since I plan on adding another male to the group soon.)