Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I know that this is a snake forum but I also know with every snakes comes a need for rats. I personally have always relied on supplying my own ever since I have had more then 5 snakes because of the price it cost for feeders at the pet store, now I have been breeding rats for about 2-3 years and I am looking to get new racks made... I make all my own racks the real question is what totes to go with. A while back I purchased some v35 vision totes but I have a hard time keeping more then 2-3 females in with one male and have decent productivity, I also made some racks using black concrete mixing totes from home depot... $5 a piece but they are thin brittle and the rats tend to be able to scrap their teeth on them and in time work a hole so I want to get a way from those, so I figured before I go out and make a purchase for totes... What do you guys recommend, what type of totes have given you success and what type of breeding set ups do you have per tote?

Thanks for the imput,
Matt

I use the concrete mixing tubs you mentioned. I've had two chews...but they just stuck their noses out and stayed put, so I replaced the tubs. The trick is to give them other stuff to chew on...like those flavored wood blocks for rodents.
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"What is man without the beasts?
If all the beasts were gone,
men would die from great loneliness of spirit.
For what happens to the beasts,
soon happens to men.
All things are connected."

-Chief Seattle (Duwamish Tribe)

I keep ASFs, notorious chewers, in regular rubermaid sweater boxes. 41 quart, I believe, with custom made wood and hardware cloth lids. The only time I have had a chew out is when the tub already had a small hole in it. It took them months to get bored and for their wheel to be tipped over for them to do it though. As said before, the key seems to be more on three things:
No good starting point in the tub, such as holes, ledges, etc.
Plenty of things in the tub to chew on. Wood and pig's ears work well for me.
Wheels. Wheels work really well for me. Walmart sells a sized green one that would be perfect for small and mid-sized rats. Finding a tub that would accomodate a wheel large enough for adult rats would be a challenge, however.
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Lincoln, NE
Ball Pythons - 0.1 Pastel, 1.0 Pastel het Pied, 0.1 Pied, 0.1 Cinn, 1.0 Black Pewter, 1.0 Woma (hidden gene?), 0.1 Yellowbelly
2.1 Normals
Kingsnakes - 1.0 L. m. thayeri, 0.1 L. m. thayeri X L. alterna, 1.0 L. g. californiae
Other - 0.1 Whitesided P. catenifer sayi, 1.0 H. nascicus, ?.? Chrysemys picta, 0.1 crazy cat, 1.0 husband

I've bred my rats for about 6 yrs and only recently began buying due to time constraints. I too used the concrete tubs from home depot and only have had a handful of holes chewed in tubs. What I've found is that once an animal starts to chew on tubs that rat becomes food as they have always been repeat offenders. Another problem I found is that if you over-crowd or don't clean often enough they will want to get out of the tub and that can lead to the chewing epidemic as well. The best ratio I found was 1.3 and was almost guaranteed 2 litters and usually got 3 per pan a month and they were good sized litters. I also only let my females give me 6-7 litters before "retiring" them, lol. If you allow the litters to start to get small you have cost yourself money/time/rats. At my peak production I was running 40 breeder tubs and producing between 800-1000 rats per month. I believe I'm going to start back breeding a few rats just so I will always have something on hand to feed those special animals that need more than 1 feeding per week. I plan on setting up 15 tubs and should be able to get close to 300 rats per month with 1.3 in the tubs and that would be a great way to ensure those young animals get the food they need as often as required.
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Josh & Krysty Hutto

Various Ball Pythons, boas, dogs, cats, fish, a couple sulcatas and a few other odds and ends.

a BAD dog is MADE not bred, support the American Pit Bull Terrier as the greatest breed of dogs on Earth!!!!!

I have also built my own rat racks and have been producing my own rodents for about 3 years. When I first started out, I used the HD concrete mixing tubs- thin and brittle. I recently made a new rodent rack with 16 tubs. For Bins I use commercial Bus-Boy tubs made by rubbermaid. They are readily available at Sam's Club in packs of (2) for $13.49. The are super strong and thick. I use a ratio of 1 to 3 or 4 with great success. They also have a nice wide lip on all sides unlike the v-35 tubs. They are about 7 inches deep, 21 inches long and 15 inches wide. (the same size as the V-35 but twice as deep. I can also fit (3) litters with there moms untill they are weaned out. Hope this helps.

Jason Weinrich
Morph Jungle