Got my rats in a Rubbermaid

[Auskan]

Well, after the discussion this week on this topic, I decided to get my rats into a Rubbermaid. I already had a 55qt one sitting around and wanted one high enough for their wheel to go in as they do like to use it. Got the hardware cloth tonight (you're right - you do have to go to Home Depot. Lowes was closer for me but they had never heard of it there and kept sending me to the paint dept even after I told them it was not there. I finally drove to the Home Depot and the first person I asked took me right to it!). Got the hole cut out of the lid and the hardware cloth bolted on and got my 1.2 colony moved into it, after killing off the last two of my rat pups from the last litter. I think I'll be able to sell the rat cage I had bought that really wasn't working out all that well anyway, and we'll all be happier. Thanks as always for the ideas.

[sapphire_moon]

Great to hear! got any pics? You can always put that cage in storage, because one day you might need it to put rats in to grow them a little larger than a weanling.....throw them in the cage, let the grow, then take them for the snakes......

Or you can also use it to keep those one rats that are "just to cute" lol.
Thats what happened to us. We were going to move our 1.1 into a rubbermaid (soon to be 1.2 once the little female reaches sexual maturity) and use the large rabbit cage to grow some bucks into a nice juicy meal. But she found that in the first litter of almost all PEW's there was a broken hooded rat she just fell in love with...... so now we are getting 2 male rats as pets, and moving the 1.2 into a rubbermaid as soon as they are weaned (at 3 wks)

edit:

do you have a pic of that rat cage? If it's the same one I'm thinking of they sell them at p***o in lawrence for like 70 bucks!

[BellyDragger]

Tupperware bins are the only way to go as far as we are concerned we currently house about 45 colonies of them in tupperware and it makes cleaning alot easyier.

If you look at our webpage under "Feeder Page" there is a picture of some of our rat bins mind you we have found a better tupperware rat bin and are currently switching over as they are a little longer and lower.

Here is the link
http://hometown.aol.com/bellydraggerreps/HomePage.html

Cheers
Les
BellyDragger Reptiles

[Auskan]

I'll try to post a pic of the rat cage tonight. It was rather expensive at the store I bought it - $50.

Belly Dragger - thanks for the link - looks like you have a great set up. On the coke bottles - did the cap from a regular pet water bottle fit on the coke bottle or did you have to special order?

[BellyDragger]

The bottle tops were given to us by a friend who special orderd them a few years back when he was breeding rats, he no longer breeds them so he gave them to us. We use the old plastic Coke bottles because they seem to have more body to them than the new thin straight pop bottles they have now. The new ones seem to crush inwards as the rats drink from them. The old contoured (spelling) Coke bottles ridges and shape seem to hold up really well. I am shure you can get the bottle tops at a pet store that will fit pop bottles he only special orderd them because he didn't want the bottles (to small) just the caps.
I have orderd caps from stores before and they will usually do it for you.
Just grab a bottle and head out to a store and try them on for size most stores won't mind figure they will make a sale LOL.

Les

[sapphire_moon]

Wow, here it is like 80 dollars for one like you have (I think it's one like you have) But we have a rabbit cage we put hardware cloth around. It will house the "pet" rats that my partner wants to keep.....and we will be getting a rubbermaid sometime to put them in until they are weaned......which will be this friday...and the female will be used for breeding.

What kind of snakes do you have Auskan? I know you have corns.

Nice set up, I would like to see what they look like when you get all set up......