Bulding a New rack

[Midwest Morphs]

I am in the process of building a new rack, and I have been looking at how I am going to lay it out with certain tubs etc.

I have one main question though, Since I don't have a separate room for my racks and was getting a breeding trio of ASF's. I was thinking about making 2 shelves in the bottom corner of the rack for the ASF's. Is something like this possible housing them together like this? I was not going to have the shelves heated like the snakes and they were going to be in there own shelves divided away from the snakes.

I was just needing to make a all in one set-up with 9 32 qt tubs, 2 41 qt tubs and then the two ASF tubs, and a storage compartment on the bottom for scales etc.

Also I'm trying to pick up a couple 1400 gram females, they are going to eventually go in the 41 qt, but for a quarantine period will they be fine in my other 4 31qt tub rack?

Thanks
rk

[771subliminal]

I am in the process of building a new rack, and I have been looking at how I am going to lay it out with certain tubs etc.

I have one main question though, Since I don't have a separate room for my racks and was getting a breeding trio of ASF's. I was thinking about making 2 shelves in the bottom corner of the rack for the ASF's. Is something like this possible housing them together like this? I was not going to have the shelves heated like the snakes and they were going to be in there own shelves divided away from the snakes.

I was just needing to make a all in one set-up with 9 32 qt tubs, 2 41 qt tubs and then the two ASF tubs, and a storage compartment on the bottom for scales etc.

Also I'm trying to pick up a couple 1400 gram females, they are going to eventually go in the 41 qt, but for a quarantine period will they be fine in my other 4 31qt tub rack?

Thanks
rk

i put a display shelf for my bps tanks and i built a cabinet below the bottom tank that i keep my bedding, supplies and also the tank that i keep my feeder rats in and i have no trouble with them eating or acting funny in anyway.

you can see the set up for it in this pic.

[Gloryhound]

Due to ammonia build up rat enclosures need to be better ventilated than say a tub for your snake. Mine have screens across the complete top of the tub. We are starting to breed rats and I am thankful that we chose the front room in the basement for them otherwise the whole house would stink. Granted we are up over 60+ rats now including pups and 9 or 10 adult mice and one litter of mice pups. By the end we want 54 breeding females rats, 3 breeder male rats, 18 breeder female mice and 6 males. Should supply more than enough for our collection and once we add an out building for the rats we will expand to a full capacity breeding program!

Yes 1400 gram females will be fine in a 32 quart tub for a couple of months. We have a girl over 2000 grams that is in a 32 quart tub. If we put her in a 41 quart she goes off food, but in the 32 quart she pounds her F/T rats every week like clock work!

[Argentra]

Rodents should be in open, fully ventilated tubs. If not, the build up would really bother you and could kill the rodents.

I have my own 'rack' setup for my mouse colony and it's working like a dream...even better than the old ferret mansion did.



My newest group watching the camera above them


And the wire assembly of one of my breeder tubs


Sorry about the blankets, they just had litters in there and I'm keeping it private for them.

As for those big girls, they should be fine in those tubs until you can get larger accommodations.

[Midwest Morphs]

I am building the rack new So i can make it any way, if the big problem is ventilation i can make the rack slots for the ASF tubs bigger for space and also wire screen the tubs. As far as the scent on the ASF, i have read it is supposed to be substantial amount less than normal rats.

[Gloryhound]

Yes the ASF scent is lower than regular rats. On the down site I have heard that ASF rats are addictive. If you start them eating ASF rats they will not easily switch back to regular later if at all. If you leave enough ventilation they should be fine as far as the ammonia build up goes. If it were me I would look into building a small stand alone rat rack. As your snake collection grows your rat collection will have to grow as well. The more rats the more odor that will develop. If all of this is in a main stream part of the house everything in the house will start to smell like it. You live there so you may very well get used to the odor, but guests will not be used to it and who knows what they may think. With a stand alone rat rack it can later be moved elsewhere as future space permits or your rat breeding program gets large enough that odor becomes a problem and you have to move it.