Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Here are the rest of the pics I promised.

I wish i had some better woodworking skills, and some better tools (my router is older than i am), but i think i did alright on my mouse rack.. needless to say im changing designs on version 2.0.3 LOL

I run my mice in groups of 1.4 or 1.5, and i get pretty decent results. I am breeding swiss webster stock animals.

This is a look at my "feed" areas.. i can fill these up with almost 3 weeks worth of food at a time, so i dont have to constantly check on the food levels in the rack. (the next design will be diffrent)

This is a look down the level, gotta love auto watering systems!

im only running 4 levels of swiss right now (most of my mice died in a lovely watering system freak out.. i lost about 200 adult breeders and their litters).. most of what i have feeds on rats anyways.

Nice racks. : )

What size mesh is that? Looks like 1/2 x 1/2???
That's what I have on my racks.

What brand of food are you using in the pic?
I can't find a brand of dogfood that won't fall through the mesh.

Thanks,
Jen
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HerpCrazy Reptiles

The mesh is 1/4" X 1/4". For mice 1/2" x 1/2" is just too big. I tried it for about 2 hours once, and i watched every hopper mouse in a pan walk right thru the mesh like it wasnt there LOL

they feed fine with the 1/4" mesh, and ive never had any problems with it.

The brand of food im feeding is Fred Meyers brand dogfood. It comes out to ALMOST exactly the same as lab blocks (even has a high % of protein). It works for both my rats and my mice.

best of luck

dan

n/p
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HerpCrazy Reptiles

Hey, I'm planning on having a "mouse house" built, or adapting an existing shed into a mouse house (Hubby and I are planning on making our minds up over two options, one is a house on 2.5 acres, where the mouse house will be custom built 18 x 12 feet, the other is a house in town with an 8 x 12 shed I'd modify).

I want to maximize space, especially if we get the house with the small shed. I saw from your design that the wood that holds up the cat litter pans (are those small Van Ness pans?) has been cut into an upside down T shape. Is that what your "router" does? I'm not very clever with tools, nor is my hubby, and the biggest mystery to me is how on earth am I going to get those racks built! I like your design, it looks very well done. Could you give the dimensions of your entire rack, and say how many pans you have per level, distance between levels, etc etc? just curious because the design I've made is very similar, It's just in my head instead of truly made. oh, and btw, your rat racks are awesome too... how much do those cement mixing tubs cost at Home Depot?
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~Sasheena

Kit, Kaboodle, Tantilla, Tantillas, Lightning, Kinkee, Maple, Licorice, Castle, Bishop, Queenie, Jester, Pandora, Phantom, Aphrodite, Athena, Hermes, and Lady

I built my racks based on the dimensions of my rodent shed. If i had more space i would have made the rodent racks 4 tubs wide x 10 levels high.. but i just dont have the space.

for that rack i did use a router, but it was a nightmare to cut everything to the right size, and i wouldnt do it that way again.

on all my future racks ive used 1/2" copper tubing cut to the right legnth as my "spacers" my tub slides attach too.. it works suprisingly well.

toss me an email, and ill send you a set of plans i drew up for that rack. Its a .pdf file, so make sure you have acrobat reader on your machine.

thanks for the compliment on the rat racks.. i spent alot of time making sure i built them just the way i needed for my setups..

i think i paid $3.99 for the tubs here in seattle, but i think closer to $5-7 is normal? (i have friends at home depot, so i got employee discount )

best of luck

dan