Alternative Rat Rack

[Uncle Festae]

Well I decided to really step up my rat production.....Since I've already been breeding rats for my live only feeding BPs, why not step it up and produce enough for all my snakes (no more buying!!) And after I'm done shopping for snakes this year, the food bill would've been too high for my liking.

And with hatchling season about to bloom, there will be plenty of BP breeders around here looking for live pinks and pups, giving me an opportunity for some rat for baby BP trades until I need them for myself

I had to come up with something other than the conventional rat rack used buy many, because this rack absolutely HAD to be in my bedroom, and I cant deal with rats kicking up soiled bedding through the hardware cloth onto my carpet. I didn't use an auto watering system for the same reason, I dont need rat feces infused floods in my room

I'm also super paranoid of an escapee.... I like the rats just fine, but not running around loose, getting into everything. I'm sure the people in my apartment building wouldn't like it either And the cat pans or short tubs are too short for my liking. The rats like to screw with me , and I can never get them all out before some start getting loose at cleaning time. I also can never tell if they are chewing the dark opaque tubs until it's too late

I also really like the fact that I can stack all these tubs away in my closet if for some reason I dont want someone to see them

The shelf unit is extremely sturdy, definitely not a cheapo flimsy one. It measures 36" wide x 72" tall x 15" deep. The tubs measure 12" tall x 16.5" wide x 23" long. I got the blue ones, because it gives them a bit more security, and it hides the filth that seems to build up on the side walls. And it just looks nicer

Here is a side view from the doorway. Take note of that high power dual exhaust insert for my window, that is the best investment I made here!! My room smells awesome, I have an automatic air freshener that shoots out a blast of AF every 9 minutes. You can walk within a foot of the rack on cleaning day and you wont smell a thing!! But if you get close and look through the mesh, it reeks! LOL



Here is a crooked frontal view (My incubator is directly across from the rack, on the opposite wall and I couldn't get a straight on shot)



Here's a couple overhead shots of the tubs. I use the screw on sippers from 16 bottles, and put them on 20oz pop bottles, I like them much better. I cut a piece of wire on the cloth to allow the sipper and the flange drop right through the top, making the sipper hang 8" from the bottom of the tub. I made the hangers using craft wire attached to the shelf above. On the top level, I installed ceiling hooks to hang the wire from.





Even though this is VERY sturdy, I have 2 young daughters that like to mess with everything, and with it in my bedroom there's always the chance to bumping into it in the night. So I tethered it to the wall using a ceiling hook and a bungee cord. All the tubs are bungee corded as well, to stop the lids from popping off, and to secure them on the shelf.





For the tops, I traced a pattern using a cereal box the size I wanted. I cut the hole out using a box cutter (A good one, no dollar store crap!) It went through like a hot knife through butter and perfectly straight. After I cut the first hole, I used the cutout as a template for the rest.

I attached the hardware cloth on the INSIDE of the lids, since I have NEVER even had a tiny chewed spot doing it that way.I used zip ties about half an inch away from the plastic edge, I melted the holes using the prong of a fork bent backwards, heated with a lighter. The holes are very tight, leaving no gap at all around the ties. I then cover the ties with 3 layers of foil tape. They leave it alone pretty much ( couple scrapes on the tape here and there, but no chewing, and the chances of finding the zip ties are almost nil)

Top view



Underside



Underside with foil



I would love to feed strictly lab chow and tri color fusili like I did when I just had 1.3. But the only places that can get it for me aound here are ALL Purina dealers and will only get me Purina 4018, and at $70 for 50lbs

So I use a food mix like the stickied one here, but I also add powdered baby fomula and baby rice cereal to the preggo and nursing females.

But I have made a modification for this setup that adds a dropped down food hopper/water holder. It is awesome! But until I can find lab chow at a decent price, useless to me. I will install this on a dummy lid tomorrow and get a mod/admin to add it to this post.

Im going to be running 1.20-25 in here, separating females who are at around the same stage of pregnancy, birthing or offspring at similar ages like have always had success with (except for one female I have that is a hoarder and will rob any mothers of their offspring, so she gets kept by herself, or non brooding females)

I currently have 1.9 breeders in there. There are 4 females with offspring of various ages totalling 49 babies. The other 4 females are at various stages of pregnancy with 2 due this week (baby central here LOL What are the odds? ) I figure I got my 16 holdback females covered LOL

Hope this is of use to some people out there, I know it is for me

[TekWarren]

That's almost exactly the setup I've been using for last several years...only without bungies I'm using a aluminum (i think) shelving unit that is very easy to move. I think we are even using about the same size tubs. I like offering my rodents a bit of room. I run 3-4 african soft fur rats, the 4th generally being a male who is only kept in long enough to do his "job". Our lid setup is the same except for the foil tape, nice idea and probably prevents scratches from the edge of the wire.

I also made a sort of food/water hopper that hangs down from the lid. Its made of the same size mesh. They are less apt to chew on the bottle as its enclosed and it keeps their food off the floor of the tub where it could get soiled.

[Shelby]

Looks nice.. I'd just be concerned that young weaned rats could not reach those water bottles.. I see an adult rat is realllly stretching to reach it in the second picture.

[Uncle Festae]

Looks nice.. I'd just be concerned that young weaned rats could not reach those water bottles.. I see an adult rat is realllly stretching to reach it in the second picture.

Oh, you're definitely right about that April. I dont use rats that big though, so once the time comes that they are ready to be weaned (30-35g or so) They are killed off one way or another (gas chamber or snake tub)

And the adult really stretching... Could just be the pic? They can stick their noses and teeth right and through the hardware cloth and thats like 3.5" higher than the sipper. (I've been using tubs like this for months now, just not this many or as organized LOL)

And the tubs I use for growing out the weans for use as breeders, have a bottle attached to the inside wall for easy reach, I should show pics of that part too.

Thats cool Warren! Thats pretty much just like what I did, only mine is centered and runs the entire length of the cutout, so it's just like the hopper on a "standard" rack. If the growouts start chewing the inside mounted bottles, I'll have to add the modifiction just to stick their bottles in.

Thanks for the comments

[jamesw]

I did the same thing, I dont use all the bungies, they havent ever escaped either.

[Jahbeard]

I just converted from tubs to a rack, but I have them saved for overflow. I really like the food/water bottle combo.

[Shelby]

Ah that's good.. I just know it's easy to overlook things like that, so I thought I'd point it out.

[CntrlF8]

Very nice design.. I'm using something similar, although I'd never thought about turning the tubs sideways and strapping them down.

I'm breeding mice currently, would the same 35qt Sterilite tubs I'm using for them work for ASF's also? I would assume so, since they're not much bigger.. I'm doing 1.3 right now with mice, will be going to 1.4, maybe 1.5...

[Cliff J]

I realize that this is an old thread, but I'm a newbie. Will someone, please, post some photos on this rat rack again. I'd appreciate it very much

[VicShell]

Hey cliff it is here now http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...1-New-Rat-Bins