Rat Breeding Setup

[pbenner]

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

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I kept finding very crap quality feeders around, I went this route to control food supply and to gut load before CD and freeze.

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?

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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.

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.