rat rack...it's ALIVE!

[cueball]

Whipped up this rat rack this weekend. I have a couple of problem children that still want live food. I really am not excited about raising rats but it's better than the alternative of driving 30 miles and begging pals. Thanks to all the people here that have posted ideas and pics for me to learn from!

Before you get any crazy ideas that my floors are dirty please keep in mind these pics where taken in my garage


Empty waiting for action!


Tubbed up!


mmmmm..rats!


hungry for rodents!

[Jake_la_serpiente]

Nice job! Looks great!

[cueball]

Thanks! I still need to sort out a gravity feed watering system. I hope to be up and running next weekend. What ratios do you usually keep together? These tubs are 28"x20".

[Wild Bill]

Wow, even painted it!! Looks good, now I feel lazy not painting mine. I have kept 1.3 per tub of that size, now that most of my rats are huge, I keep 1.2 per tub. I have been thinking of cutting down my number of males and keeping 3 females per tub and just rotate males around.

[Wild Bill]

Let me know how that paint holds up. I guess my only concern is the rats chewing and eating the paint.

[cueball]

Thank you for the advice. I do not want/need a million rats all the time. So I was thinking .3 to a tub and cycling 2. around as needed. Sound like a working plan?

[cueball]

The only place the rats would have access to the wood would be the rear food bin divider. The rest of the edges are not exposed as they overlap the tubs by a bit. Do you think this will be a problem?

[Wild Bill]

I find if you seperate females it takes approximately 7 weeks from conception to weanling the babies. So you a female can produce a litter approximately every 8 weeks (if seperated), which they can average 8-17 a litter. So you will simply have to do the math for what you need for rats a week. I have 44 breeder females and produce enough for my 20+ snakes, a local lady that gets 14+ rats a week, 2 pet stores and still have enough left to freeze. Sometime soon I will sell the extra frozen and ship them. But for now the frozen are being vacuum packed and saved just in case of any low production.

[Wild Bill]

The only place the rats would have access to the wood would be the rear food bin divider. The rest of the edges are not exposed as they overlap the tubs by a bit. Do you think this will be a problem?

I would just keep an eye on it, I dont know if it would be bad for them or not.

[frankykeno]

Very nice Chris! Just whipped that up on the weekend! *sigh* Wanna come live at my house....I need a carpenter type LOL. If the rats do show any tendency to chew a bit, dab on some of the hottest hot sauce you can find in that area...that'll fix their lil rattie red wagon but good and it does them no real harm.