I'm pretty stoked, I'm expecting to get five levels of an ARS-5032 rat breeder rack either this week or next. I'll be glad to get rid of my glass aquariums and get them into a rack system that waters the whole rack with one five gallon bucket and feeds from the outside!
One question, what do you use for bedding for your rodent rack? I find that if I use too much pine bedding in my aquariums the rats will actually bury some of their young and some will die buried alive. Has anyone noticed this in a rack system? Maybe they will feel more secure in a rack and won't dig so much? Or maybe I should keep the bedding pretty thin?
Here's the setup I'm getting, I'm only getting five levels so 20 tubs total. If I like it I'm hoping to get a few levels of a rat grow out system. But for now I'm thinking I can rotate my males through 12 tubs with females, one female per week, and then use the other 8 tubs as grow outs until I feed them off. I'm thinking I can use three males and have three male / female pairs and leap frog the males after three weeks so all the girls will have a buddy during breeding right before birth, then will birth and nurse alone, and maybe combine two or three females per tub at the end to rest after weaning.
It looks like the size of a tub is roughly equivalent to a 20 gallon breeder tank. I'd probably have to split up litters between two or more tubs once they are weaned.
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