Updates on rat and mouse room!!

[Wild Bill]

Here are some pics of the rodent room. First is a pic of the rats racks.



Then here is a pic of the first mouse rack I built in my rodent room. It now has two others built right next to it for a total of 60 of the large cat litter pans.



Here is a closeup of the mouse rack.



Oh and before I forget, Bryan(s) , I already applied for the patent!! J/K

Bill

[JLC]

Wow.....those are awesome looking!


I'm really curious...besides the time you spend building racks, how much time do you spend each day just checking on, caring for, and cleaing up after your rodent colonies? Looks like you've got a LOT going on there!

[Wild Bill]

It varies from day to day. On a daily basis I usually check in on everyone (just a quick drawer opening). If I find any that are ready for weaning I try to get them out right away. At this point the majority of my time spent goes to filling water bottles , but I am working on the auto watering system which should save me tons of time . Once a week each tub gets cleaned, which with 84 tubs can take awhile. Especially if alot of babies present, because I have to work around or carefully transfer babies. As far as feeding I usually fill their food troughs on cleaning day, sometimes with pregnant or nursing mice in tubs their will get topped off sometimes during check ins. I really wish I would have made their troughs a little bigger. So I guess you can say it keeps me busy!! LOL!!

[Emilio]

Wow look's like a big job , I see you need some of those guy's but I would imagine you sell them right.

[SnakeySnakeSnake]

Here are some pics of the rodent room. First is a pic of the rats racks.



Then here is a pic of the first mouse rack I built in my rodent room. It now has two others built right next to it for a total of 60 of the large cat litter pans.



Here is a closeup of the mouse rack.



Oh and before I forget, Bryan(s) , I already applied for the patent!! J/K

Bill

Thats ok! I will paint a pin-stripe down the side and call it turbo-mouse-den, whew, safe!

But seriously, you make some nice racks! I don't want to touch mice!! Rats for me.

I'm not allowed to make them any taller because my wife is 5'2 and takes care of feeding/transferring while Im out of town

[Wild Bill]

Wow look's like a big job , I see you need some of those guy's but I would imagine you sell them right.

As many as I can, LOL!! Not easy finding clients, but I have a few to sell to. Most of the rats I produce for myself, but extras get sold to a local breeder. I don't use mice myself, but have some people that need alot of them. I don't really make much, but it pays for my food, bedding and feeds my snakes.

[Wild Bill]

Thats ok! I will paint a pin-stripe down the side and call it turbo-mouse-den, whew, safe!

But seriously, you make some nice racks! I don't want to touch mice!! Rats for me.

I'm not allowed to make them any taller because my wife is 5'2 and takes care of feeding/transferring while Im out of town

LOL!! Thanks!! I don't really like the mice, but I can put up with them!! My rat racks are shorter than the mice, but wanted to save floorspace on the mice. Nothing a handy dandy step stool doesnt cure!!

I'm hoping when I get my watering system setup, I wont have to worry if I am gone for a couple of days.

Bill

[wolfy-hound]

I LOVE my racks from Bill.. I just roll them out of the room for cleaning the snake bins, then I have tons of room. They are easy to clean, and I transfer rats from one bin to another, to clean the most efficent way.
Take rats from bin 1, put in some container. Clean bin 1.
Take rats from bin 2, put them in bin 1. Clean bin 2.
Take rats from bin 3, put them in bin 2. Clean bin 3.
Continue until you run out of bins, each rat only gets transferred once, and no swapping around bins even. I don't seem to get any escapees this way either.
Wolfy

[Bdadawg]

I do the transfer thing like wolfy, saves time & more efficient. I actually saw the seperated feeding/watering sections on a local herpers feeder racks after building mine. I usually keep one tub for each size rack with bedding but no critters.


My mice racks are a bit different. I used the 5.4 qt shoeboxes. I keep the mice all together in 3 "community" enclosures, then transfer the individual females out into the rack when I see them noticeably pregnant. Its a bit more labor intensive ... but I seem to have bigger litters, less cannibalism, and healthier females than when I was keeping them in 1:8-10 in the larger tubs. Also with only one female in the smaller tubs it means less frequent cleaning is needed, so the females wont cannibalize the litter because of my scent on them.

This is one of the mouse racks. The tanks on top are some of the gerbils.



My math was off a bit on the mouse rack ... so it only has 4 tubs across rather than 5, and 5 rows. Also still trying to design a rack for the gerbils/decide if they are cost effective to raise.

Bryan

[SnakeySnakeSnake]

I drew up a rack similar to that tonight but I cant plan any dimensions because i havnt decided on the tubs i should use. I want to use this for rat mommies , so I was thinking 12 quart tubs may be sufficient, or else some kind of cat litter pan, I need to hit walmart up and search around some.

edit: I see i already said this is another thread, I am dang tired right now, losing track lol