Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Can you show off your rat breeding racks? I am thinking about raising rats and need some ideas for a rack.

Thanks
Paul
HTDesigns

Here are some of our rat racks. They are made to use the standard concrete mixing pans available from Home Depot. We make our watering systems a little different than others by using 1/2" PVC pipe with the threaded drinking valves as opposed to the standard barb fitting/flex tubing system. We find that this is a little more durable and our piping never clogs or gets air trapped in the lines which can cause the water to stop flowing. It is a little more hassle in the initial set-up but seems worthwhile in the longrun.

Please let us know if you have any questions! Good luck with your rack building!

Thanks...
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Sean Bradley
Owner : EbN
www.ExoticsByNature.com
www.BallPythonMorphs.com
www.CornSnakeMorphs.com

Now thats what i am talking about!!
My current setup is not only short on production but is an extreme hassle with the standard rubber water lines.

Could you tell me/us more about the threaded valves and the connection needed at the supply valve.

You wouldn't happen to have some part #'s too would you ? lol
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Charles Glaspie

We have a similar setup as the one posted above, except a smaller rack. Hey Coldthumb, this is Justin I work for Chuck. Good to finally see you on here.

Hey Justin,
That one looks good.
So where did you end up finding those tubs for the cheapest?

Chuck
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Charles Glaspie

Hello Charles,

Here are some pictures of the threaded water valves...

This photo is a couple of valves that have been tapped into 1/2" PVC caps...

Here is a photo of the underside of the top of a mouse rack that has this system on it. On a rat rack we use 1/2" hardware cloth so there is no need to cut out the wire for the nozzle to clear...

The rest is just whatever PVC fittings you need to get the job done. We use all 1/2" on ours but if you want it to hold a little more water then use 3/4". At the bucket to line connection we use a 1/2" MPT and FPT fitting with a large rubber washer (availble at most ACE Hardware stores) Just bring a 1/2"MPT fitting to the store to see which rubber washer fits the best. Just outside the bucket we put a 1/2" PVC ball valve and a 1/2" true union so that we may shut off the water to the rack and remove the bucket assembly for cleaning or maintenance without draining the bucket. In between the bucket and the union/ball valve we use a 1/2x3/4x1/2 PVC Tee in which we glue a 3/4" clear tube (used for undergravel filters in aquaria) The tube fits kind of loose so you just have to use a lot of glue and let it sit up for a while. This functions as your "sight-glass" to let you know how much water the bucket contains. That way you can know, at a glance, who has water and who doesn't.

So basically when you order your nozzles from a website such as www.agselect.com you just order the threaded ones as opposed to the barb fittings. Everything else is Home Depot/hardware stores.

Please let me know if you hae any other questions...

Thanks...

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Sean Bradley
Owner : EbN
www.ExoticsByNature.com
www.BallPythonMorphs.com
www.CornSnakeMorphs.com

Thanks Sean,i really appreciate all the details.
This is going to save me some day to day headaches,no doubt.
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Charles Glaspie

Charles...

No problem man. Please let me know if you have questions. I really want to get up some free rat rack plans... just need to find the time to document the construction of one. Oh well... time and money... I'm lacking in both

LATER!
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Sean Bradley
Owner : EbN
www.ExoticsByNature.com
www.BallPythonMorphs.com
www.CornSnakeMorphs.com

nm

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Sean Bradley
Owner : EbN
www.ExoticsByNature.com
www.BallPythonMorphs.com
www.CornSnakeMorphs.com

How many females do you keep per tub and how often do you rotate the males among them.

We use the same tubs but have them on moveable (casters) racks (one of 6 tubs and one of 12).

I like how neat yours is. Ever consider conecting the watering system directly to piping instad of using buckets?

Ben

Hello Ben,

In each tub we keep 3 females and 2 males per rack. We move the males down a cage about every 2-3 days. This seems to work quite well for us. Breeding rats in groups and separating the pregnant females is the best, most productive way. However I find that I am not very good at observing and pulling the pregnant ones so they give birth in the harem and the other rats kill the babies. That is why we breed our rats this way.

Thanks for the kind words. We have been running this series of racks for about 3 years now and have no complaints. I really like how neat they look and how easy they are to clean.

It has been very rare that a rat has clogged a nozzle and flooded a tub but we are in a commercial building with neighboring businesses. If we were to have our racks on constant supply water, a flood could be catastrophic. Our racks are 7 containers high and there is a 5 gallon bucket for every 14 tubs. We only fill these buckets once weekly which is not a drudgery.

Please let us know if you have any other questions.

Thanks...
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Sean Bradley
Owner : EbN
www.ExoticsByNature.com
www.BallPythonMorphs.com
www.CornSnakeMorphs.com

How are the water heads put into the cage for drinking? I'm assuming the top is screened in so when you slide the cage in and out, it could snag the watering head. I have the same setup only I use large water bottles for each tray. This also forces me to check up on them every other day.
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Jay A. Martin

Hello Jay,

Basically the rails that support the tubs stop about 3-4 inches short of the depth of the rack. When you slide the tub out it actually sort of falls out of the rack downward and below the nozzle.

You can see in this picture where the "tops" of the cages stick out past the rails and vertical supports...

Be sure to leave enough clearance for the tub to drop down and around the protruding nozzle. Please let me know if this is still a little hard to visualize as I will have Celia take some photos tomorrow.

Let me know if you have any other questions...

Thanks...
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Sean Bradley
Owner : EbN
www.ExoticsByNature.com
www.BallPythonMorphs.com
www.CornSnakeMorphs.com

.
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Jay A. Martin

Do you ever have a problem with them chewing the tubs? I have a similar set up but they constantly chew the upper edges of the mixing tubs.

Hello,

It has been rare that they chew up the edges of the pan. I think that in nearly 3 years I have had about 4 pans chewed. You may want to try to tighten up the rails in your rack. If you can make the boxes fit a little tigher to the top you may find that they chew less. I have a rack very similar to the ones I posted today on here that a customer of mine made. We purchased his entire collection of reptiles and rodents and sort of inherited one of his rat racks. His rails were quite loose so for a while I had several rats chewing out of the tubs. Upon tightening the rails the problem mostly went away. Of the few tubs that I have had them chew out of I would say about 3 of them were in his rack. I have a feeling that one of the lids in the back part of the rack is spaced up just enough for them to get in there and chew up the tub. Its always the same back corner in the same level. That rack is trash bound soon.

Please let me know if you have any other questions...

Thanks...
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Sean Bradley
Owner : EbN
www.ExoticsByNature.com
www.BallPythonMorphs.com
www.CornSnakeMorphs.com

Very nice.. I do like water setup!

this is our small rack.... cost about $100 with everything included! super easy to make too....

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1.0 gorgeous spider ball python
2.2 het for axanthic
5.9 normals
www.blazingreptiles.com coming soon!

argh, forgot, not allowed to post from there.. ha

pic is at http://www.(the other site).com/photopost/data/503/1849rack-med.jpg
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1.0 gorgeous spider ball python
2.2 het for axanthic
5.9 normals
www.blazingreptiles.com coming soon!

Ok call me naive but what is (the other site) i always hear about it.

DANG... Can it be any more complex.