1.4 Rats>>

[reptilesalonica]

Just got my first rats (1.4-outbred, whistar swiss, hoppers). I breed mice 2 years now and this is my 1st attempt with rats colonies. Which is the minimum of space that 1.4 adults rats need? Please don't reply with gallons, just metric, thanks!
~Greg~

[Ian]

18 x 36 is probably good

[reptilesalonica]

you mean inches?
~Greg~

[reptilesalonica]

With those 1.4 hopper rats i want to start colonies. Which is preferable, racks or cages? What material should i use?
~Greg~

[Linds]

Either works fine. Its all up to your preferences. I prefer to use racks as they are more space-efficient. I run colonies of 1.3 in the jumbo kitty litter pans. I think they measure 22X16x7.5 or around that. It works well for me.

[reptilesalonica]

Yeap, i made a little (too long) search on the net :p ...and i found great info!...Feeling silly with all those mice cages i been using those 2 years that i been breeding mice...
Racks are very good if you don't have much space and you want to breed many rodents.
~Greg~

[mykee]

I keep my 1.3 colonies in racks that measure 13 inches by 18 inches by 8 inches high. They seem to be doing just fine for me.

[reptilesalonica]

I like to keep 1.6 or 1.7. This way you have always babies from every colony.
I have 20 cages with mice. Most of them have 1.6 mice, a few 1.4 and a few 1.7.
~Greg~

[Batdad]

Couldn't find the link I was looking for but this one should give you the info you need, there are some charts and they are in metric.:)

http://www.emory.edu/WHSC/MED/DAR/overcrowdingpolicy.pdf

Hope it helps,
Bruce

[reptilesalonica]

Nothing again :(
Can you pm me that address?
Thanks~Greg~

[KingFfaj]

you probably need Acrobat Reader

[reptilesalonica]

I have acrobat reader...i mean that the url won't showed up. Can you see those (...)?
~Greg~

[Ian]

Although I use Freedom Breeder racks, the same bins that they use you can find at costco once in a while for pretty cheap. These seem to work out the best because there are no ridges in them so the rats can chew them. If you can build a rack system with these then I would go with them. I can't remember the model number but they are made by Iris.

[reptilesalonica]

Thanks for help Ian but you probably didn't mension that i am located in Greece :) So many things that are common there, here maybe never showed up in the animal market :(
~Greg~