Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,
I just got done building this wash down system that holds all the breeder rats. I take out the pregnant females and let them raise up their babies in seperate lab cages.
Paul

i have never seen anything like this before and it intereste me a great deal. could you post some more pictures and plase explain more about this. do you keep all the breeders in that wire cage and have no substrate and just take out females when pregnant? as much info about this as you feel like typing would be appreciated.
thanks

I hope the above helps - any questions feel free to ask. At the time o took those pics I hadn't set up the water lines. I still have some bugs to work out yet too. There are some things you just can't think of until the thing is done and it is created and your using it.
Paul

How effective does the large cage seem to be for you? Also how many rodents are you working with currently?
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Randall L Turner Jr.
www.aircapitalconstrictors.com

it is the most effective way to produce rats I think. The standard argument is that the females are not in the presence of a male to get impregnated again shortly after giving birth. There is a three hour window where she can become pregnant again , but I don't think that really happens too much anyway and can be made up for easily by pulling a few pregnant rats from your "wein into" cage. Before this I was breeding harem style and pulling the females after they had given birth and then putting all of the females together in communal rearing tubs (lousey idea - one female will have 20-30 babies all around her - they are great mothers - and babies of all different sizes). It happens, and with some regularity, but not nearly enough to make a difference. You would burn out your females a lot faster too. It just doesn't happen very much as compared to the numbers of females that are out rearing babies at any given time.

Beautiful, are you going to breed commercially, or are these to feed your own collection? Do you have a automatic watering system? If not that could be a big time saver. When I was raising my own rats, I kept the females in their individual containers and just rotated the male rat every 3 or 4 days. One male per 5 females.
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1.1 Jungle Carpet Python
1.1 Ball Python
1.1 Corn Snake
0.1 Gray band Kingsnake
0.1 Desert Kingsnake
0.1 Pueblan Milksnake
1.0 Bullsnake
1.0 Rhodesian Ridgeback (Hondo)
0.1 Spouse (WC)
0.0.8 hatchling ball pythons

actually I am planning on selling a lot of mice and rats - after my needs are met. I have such a hard time now getting rats that I might end up missing some clutches this coming year - I breed ball pythons and a clutch can be a lot of money !

I don't know how to spell that sound that Homer Simpson makes when he drools and says "ooooo bacon". But oooooooo(sp) rats. Georgeous job.
Looks like the room includes a large cage made of that rubber coated shelf material. If true, rats might chew on it. This observation is small and easily adjusted for compared to the otherwise perfect job. That room would be my hang-out.