Breeding Rack for Rodents??

[capsicum]

Does anyone know how to make one that will stand up to rodent teeth? I am tired of tanks and cages all over my animal rooms, lol. Thanks in advance.

TK

[Linds]

I built my rack out of spruce 2x2's and 2x3's, cedar 1x1's for the sliding tracks, 1/2 and 1/4 inch hardware cloth, and used stylette (if memory serves?) giant kitty litter pans purchased from zellers. The rack cost under $40 to build and the pans were about $7 I think, excluding the two large sized mouse bins at the bottom which were $4.

<img src="http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/504/22themeatfarm.jpg">

[capsicum]

Thanks Linds! Did you just use hardware cloth for the tops? I like the kitty pan ones, what did you use for tops? Thanks again

TK

Argh, please forgive me for half reading that

[justinO]

Here is ours, cost about $100 to make! We had a very small space to work with and only 1 or 2 rats can fit in each tub, we just cycle a male around!

[capsicum]

Thanks Justin, looks great!

TK

[Linds]

Hehehe yeah the mice have the 1/4" hardware cloth and the rats have 1/2" hardware cloth. The drop-down hoppers are removable and allow even the smallest rodents to reach the food, so they don't have to rely on any leftover crumbs the adults drop. I run my rat colonies 1.3 - 1.4 in them, and they can hold around 25 weanlings or 15 adults. The setup on the right are just a bunch of the early rat breeding bins resurrected to hold all the overflow LOL... kind of funny the overflow is just about as big as the rack Missing from the picture is also a 3'x1.5' storage bin currently housing a 1.6 colony.

[Lisa]

I find the kind of bins you start with make a big difference. I cheaped out and my bins sag giving the rats opertunity to chew, i've found better bins for a dollar more and they don't sag...

i've also been toying with the idea of using tin, if i can find a source.

[justinO]

Actually, my bins are from dollarama! I haven't had any chewing at all! I'm very happy with that find...

[capsicum]

Thanks all I am going to start collecting those bins for our feeders, even hubby is impressed with the layouts. Thanks again!

TK