I use locking storage tubs to house my rats. (The locking lids are awesome!)
I personally like giving them head space, so I use taller tubs rather than mixing tubs like in rodent racks. I cut out squares in the front of the tubs and on the lids for ventilation. I cover all the cut outs with 1/2 inch hardware cloth and secure them with zipties. Metal zip ties are the best as the rats can't chew through them. To cut the openings, I used a hand grinder.
I also keep a wheel in the larger tub when babies aren't present. The wheel isn't stationary, so I'm afraid it will crush a baby if I keep it in there.
Here's my original tub set up when I only had one breeding group:
I soldered holes into the tub and ziptied a "harness" for the waterbottle to hook on. I soldered an extra hole for the metal sipper to go through as well. To prevent chew
outs, you can hot glue metal washers around the soldered holes and use metal ties.
I had to cut part of the lid to accommodate the wheel. I made a cage from 1/2 inch hardware cloth.
Ventilation is the key to prevent Upper Respiratory Infections, so I cut out part of the lid for more vents, which was reinforced with hardware cloth and zipties again.
This is my current set up. I'm still using the same large container, but you can see that there are some new modifications and more tubs. (And yes, I'm aware some zipties are missing from the middle tubs. Some lovely girls chewed off the plastic temporary ones. The store ran out of metal ties at the time of fabrication.)
The top two shelves are all females. The very bottom tub is my male bachelor man cave. lol
I used a food bowl in my old set up when I only had one tub and less rats. Now I added a food hopper to each tub. The hoppers are just made out of 1/2 inch hardware cloth and ziptied like everything else.
I also use a gravity water system opposed to individual water bottles now. I had to change water bottles twice a day when I had weaned babies and that was annoyingly tedious. With the gravity system, it can last me more than a month before it needs a refill. But I like refilling and changing out water more often than that because I want my rats to have fresh water.
How I secure sipper valves compared to vertical hanging ones in rodent racks.
Some girls just hanging around:
She's gonna pop!
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