Thoughts on fixing chewed tub bottoms...

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Are those tubs completely flat or do they have grooves that the rats can use to start chewing their way out?

If they are not completely flat I would suggest to replace your tubs and get rid of he chewers.

Some tubs are just not good when it comes to housing rodents.

[alohareptiles]

Are those tubs completely flat or do they have grooves that the rats can use to start chewing their way out?

If they are not completely flat I would suggest to replace your tubs and get rid of he chewers.

Some tubs are just not good when it comes to housing rodents.

Yah, they do have grooves...That's why they have the ability to start chewing...

[alohareptiles]

And I'm not sure which ones are the chewers...many had chews in the grooves...

[Stewart_Reptiles]

And I'm not sure which ones are the chewers...many had chews in the grooves...

Sadly as I mentioned previously when you have a tub of chewer you need to get rid of the entire tub, because you do not know who the guilty ones are and because even if you did they will teach each other.

Try getting some better tubs and maybe even consider building a rack with Large Mortar tubs since you want them to have space (they are spacious and do not have any groves )

[accidental777]

This has been a very helpful thread. I just had a female chew out of a tub last week. She chewed through the corner of the tub???? Still not sure how she did it, but I have a few theories. Working on catching her. She escaped but the other breeder female and six 4 week old offspring made no attempt to leave.
I am sad to hear that I will have to cull her, but at the same time it is nice to know that being more selective will save me $$$ in the long run.

[alohareptiles]

I'm gonna put down 4 potential breeder females because they started chewing one of my mortar tubs in my rack...Since I can't figure out who the culprit (if there is a single one), they're all gonna be food...

[accidental777]

I think I am going to need a bigger snake.....or maybe I just have an excuse to buy one now :-)

[pitoon]

I have a bunch of great birthing tubs that I love...But I notice they start chewing at the bottoms even with a ton of food, water and pieces of wood in the bottom of the cage...I loosely fixed on by using Gorilla Glue to smooth out the rough edges and fill the tiny holes that made it through to the bottom...I've read it's hazardous when wet, but nothing about when dry...Any thoughts or too risky?? Because it did what I wanted and the holes and scratches are no more, but now there is a bunch of smooth GG on the bottom that they might chew...

what i've done in the past is keep all the chewed tubs....i'll keep the best ones of the bunch and use the worse as donors....i'll cut certain areas of the bad tubs and patch the good tubs....the patches are held in place with chicken wire, rivets, and washers.

for me personally i have a hard time throwing away something that can be fixed or reused.....i prefer to repair verse spending unecessary money on new tubs. but to each their own, right?

and as others have pointed out feed off the occupants of that tub. if they chewed once....they will chew again! if you want i can post pics of my tubs....they are about 4-5 yrs old and chewed up like bublegum.....they are patched and still doing their job after all this time!

Pitoon

[accidental777]

I finally caught my chewer! Note to all, metal live traps do not work on rats, at least not this one. Glue traps were a fail too. She just slipped up and got too confident :-) At least now I have a test patient for when I set up my CO2 remote.

[alohareptiles]

Yah, trying to catch a rogue chewer is NO fun at all...I know the feeling However, the C02 chamber will be a nice payback for you...