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~~