Rattie Enclosures!

[Lobo_Reptiles]

Thanks to Gin I can finally start breeding rats! Here are some pics of the two enclosures. I have 3 females and one male.

Here is the male all by his lonesome. Can I get another male to go in there with them or will they fight? I was thinking of getting a breedable male to put in there and also a breedable female to put in with the other females. Will that be okay?




Here are the three females. I didn't have a top for this, but figured they wouldn't be able to reach the lid. I soldered a lot of holes in the top and will be securing it with heavy objects once I move it upstairs.





So yay/nay?

[Shelby]

Male rats don't fight with each other, and actually rats get lonely without another rat with them.

Even with a bunch of holes soldered in that lid, there is not enough ventilation for your rats in that tank. Go to the pet store and get a screen lid and some clips to hold it on. You'd be amazed at how high rats can jump..

Oh.. and it's only a matter of time before the rats chew through the duct tape and make your water bottle fall down and possibly leak all over (or you'll just have some thirsty rats) You can buy water bottle holders that are designed to hang over the rim of tanks.

Hope this helps.

[frankykeno]

They will also hop on to the top of the water bottle and happily push off that lid. Chasing young rats through your house is not fun LOL

As far as the water bottle if you can't run out for one of those metal bottle covers I think Matt (Smulkin) had an ingenious idea with a soda can. It's posted here on the feeders forum.

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=26636

Please do think about a buddy for your male rat. They really are very sociable creatures and need a cage buddy. Our male breeder always has a female or two in with him but once we start a second breeding colony then he and the other male will bunk together whenever they aren't busy with the ladies. You can always use either male as a breeder though I wouldn't put them in together with a female in heat as that might cause issues.

I usually toss in some empty toilet paper tubes or such like to give them something to goof around with and chew on. Bones from your dinner are great also for them to chew on as their teeth never stop growing. Just keep an eye on anything like as far as cage cleanliness.

Good luck with your breeders. We started a few months back and just love the convenience of raising our own feeders as well as saving us quite a bit of money (I was paying $4.99 a live rat locally...ouch!) One of our female rats, HoneyChild, just delivered 2 days ago, her second litter for us....15 big fat healthy rat pinks! I think I love that rat LOL.


~~Jo~~

[SatanicIntention]

I also wanted to mention that if male rats live alone, they usually don't have much of an idea on how to go about the whole "breeding" thing. Sad as it is, they need a buddy to "practice" on, and it is very important to their well-being to have another rat of the same sex(or spayed member of opposite sex) around. You won't have a very good breeder if he is kept alone.

Also, if my rats can FLING themselves out of the bathtub when wet, then I am absolutely positive that if that lid is not secure, those teensy babies WILL get out eventually. A secured screen top will prevent escape as well as provide the adequate ventilation that is required for their absolute health. And yes, water bottles left inside cages will get holes chewed in them. The duct tape will also get torn to shreds. I also hope that isn't pine bedding. Babies, as well as adult rats, are incredibly susceptible to respiratory infections and ailments. If that is pine, and they start to have red stains(porphyrin) around their eyes and noses( or dried on their fur-its rust colored), they must be taken off of it. If babies are gasping to breathe, that means they aren't nursing and growing.

As for breeding, the females should NOT be bred until they are at LEAST 4.5-5 months old. This will help ensure that you don't have females dying from babies being stuck in the birth canal because the female's pelvic canal isn't done growing. Males can be bred at around 3-4 months if they are big enough.

I know many of ya'll believe that these rats are JUST a food source for your snakes and should only be kept at the minimum living conditions to maintain life and breeding. But you also have to remember that how you keep your rats and how they are fed directly influences your snake's health. If these animals aren't fed correctly, and are only fed dog food or a "mix" from the pet store, then your snakes and other carnivorous reptiles that eat them will start to show signs of it. By keeping them on appropriate bedding, housing and feeding appropriate foods, they will provide you with huge litters of robust, healthy babies that don't have breathing problems and aren't getting eaten by the mother rats. Mother rats who are overcrowded(or who are even kept with other rats while birthing, nursing, rearing) will cannibalize their young or may not even accept them at all, resulting in a lost litter and money lost on your end.

Here is a good page on nutrition, housing and general care: http://www.rattiusmaximus.com/ratcare.htm

Anyway, I hoped that helped a bit, and if you have any other questions, just ask

[Lobo_Reptiles]

I got a larger female to put in with the male rat today. He's still too young to breed I think so it should be okay. I also used a wire hanger and customized the water bottles to let them hang over the edge outside. Will they be able to chew through that? And the bedding is cedar I believe...we use it for our ferrets. I also got a new screen lid for the females. I feed them these little lab blocks. Thanks everyone!

[Shelby]

They shouldn't chew through wire.

Cedar is about the worst thing you can keep any animal on. It has toxic oils that will make your rats sick. From the looks of your pics though it looks like you have pine. Anyway.. there's better stuff. Aspen is good, and carefresh.. some paper based cat litters.. I'm using hay now for mine. They seem to have fun making nests out of the stuff.

[Lobo_Reptiles]

Yeah you're right, it is pine. We use cedar for the ferrets and I thought thats what it looked like. So I can't use pine or cedar, what kind of wood chips DO I use?

[frankykeno]

Personally I choose aspen for the rats as I buy it anyways for the snakes and I've found it just as nice to use with the rats too. The breeding females especially seem to like it as it's very light and small shred so they can push it into lovely mountains to make cosy nests out of for their young.

Just another thought....as rats are omnivores just like bears and humans...you might want to suppliment that dog kibble with other things that are just in your house anyways. I toss some left over cereal, dry pasta, some trail mix into a plastic container and just give it a shake then add a bit of lab block and some dog kibble and feed that to mine. They also get leftover salad, bones from dinner, table scraps of all sorts.

I'll have to actually do a cost breakdown on my feeding costs per rat produced but I think it must be pretty minimal as most of what they are getting is just leftovers other than the lab block and kibble. Nice of them to turn what might end up in my garbage can into lovely baby rats for my snakes and save me a ton of money monthly LOL.


~~Jo~~

[Shelby]

Yep.. mine get a cereal mix daily along with their nutro dog food. I give them treats and leftovers too.

[JLC]

Nice of them to turn what might end up in my garbage can into lovely baby rats for my snakes and save me a ton of money monthly LOL.

The ultimate in recycling!!