Agreed. Wonderful job building it. It looks very well constructed and effective.Originally Posted by SatanicIntention
It looks ok, but in all honesty, I would get MUCH bigger tubs. Moms with babies produce massive amounts of ammonia, and since the tubs are so small, there isn't alot of ventilation going on. You'll likely have to clean every other day, which wouldn't be feasible for anyone other than a crazy person
Also, rats that are too confined/too crowded will get bored/stressed and will chew. I have a couple of those tubs for storage and there are quite a few edges that ratties can get ahold of.
It's a good concept, but I really think they would benefit(not to mention produce better) from much bigger tubs that allow more ventilation and a place where they can get away from their feces/urine. If ammonia builds up, you're going to have rats with chronic respiratory problems. Sick rats don't produce(much less have time to eat because all they're thinking about is breathing), and if they do, the babies end up sickly.
Hope it helps some
I will have to agree with Becky in that ventilation is your best friend when breeding rodents. In fact their health and well being depends greatly on it. I hope I can offer in my limited experience with rat and mouse (I suck at breeding mice) breeding some suggestions that will allow you to keep your design and with very little editing your great work and time and money spent allow you to rock the rat world.
Understand these are only suggestions of ideas I have to help ventilation
First: you could simply remove the plywood on the sides and have a fan blow on it to allow air flow across the tops of the tubs. Problem solved.
Second (in addation to the first or stand alone): cutting out the sides of the tubs and pop riveting hardware cloth in its place to allow air flow.
Third: you could remove the board the tubs sit on and suspend them like this http://www.ralphdavisreptiles.com/in...ves/oct-03.asp
to increese the amount of air space between the tub and the one below it.
Just my two cents great work building it. But with some minor minor tweaks will have you over run with rats in no time
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