Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Does anyone have a good, economical system to house and raise feeder mice and Rats (rack system)? I'm looking at breeding a bunch. If you have plans for a system or have any ideas please let me know. Thank you!

This isn't my rack but one of many i used as blueprints for building mine. hope this helps. http://gallery.kingsnake.com/data/27884MOUSE02.jpg

Thanks for the info. This is the best forum around.

Here is our solution for Cheap rat cages. We got the idea from a 'fancy rat' website (I don't remember which, or I would give proper credit). Basically, is is a cheap (these were $5) Sterilite tub with 'windows' cut in it. I tried several methods of cutting before I decided that a SHARP box cutter works best. I suggest you wear heavy leather gloves in case the blade slips. We only made holes on 3 sides. Thiswas more than adequate for ventilation and viewing, and one side was going to be against a wall anyway. Once the windows were cut out, I used a drill to make small holes around the perimeter of the openings. I left about 1 1/2 inches of spcae between the drilled hole and the window openning (you'll see why). Then I cut a piece of 1/4 wire mesh to shape, just a little bigger than the rectange formed by the drill holes. I used heavy picture hanging wire to "sew" the mesh to the tub on the inside. With 1 1/2 inches of mesh overlapping the hole on the inside, there is nothing for the rats to chew on, so they can't get out. On one side of the cage, I cut the " " out of the center of 4 adjoining squares in the mesh to make a larger square hole. The water bottle nozzle fits in here perfectly. I plan to replace the bottles with an automatic system soon. I still don't have the hang of posting pictures within text on here, so I'll add them below if I can.

This shows the inside of the cage, and the overlap I was talking about

This shows the side, where the water bottle fits on. I think you can also see the "stitching" better