Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Getting on a schedule results in consistency and consistency is a good thing. Sometimes this is hard to do with such busy schedules. I breed and maintain my own rat colony. Cleaning twice a week is too often but cleaning once a week is not enough. I find once every five days to be most effective for me. But trying to remember once every five days is a pain in the butt. To solve this problem, I use Microsoft Outlook Calendar to set a recurring reminder. Every five days, a message pops up on my computer screen telling me to “clean the rats”. I can also print out the calendar a month at a time and see what tasks I have for the day at hand. You don’t have to use Outlook either. There are other applications out there that are either free or cost very little. I like Outlook because it comes with just about every computer sold and I can set any number of reminders. For example, I can set a reminder to feed hatchlings once every five days instead of once a week. Well, a reminder just popped up. Time to “clean the rats”.

I hope you found this tip useful. Do you have any husbandry tips? I’d love to hear.
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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles

hey bro,

nice tip i also have found once every five days to be the perfect cleaning time. i'm always thinking "when did i clean the rats last" b/c you can't go by smell being they always smell. well speaking of clean i'm off to clean rat poopie right now..

Larry

First~ Check and find out where your feed lot is storing the litter. I’ve been cleaning every five days as well (one week Monday and Friday~ the next week Wednesday, then back to Monday and Friday). But~ I noticed some weeks the litter was really wet on cleaning day~ and some weeks it looked like I could have gotten away with 7 days instead of 5. Then I found out my local feed lot is storing the “Kiln Dried” litter OUTSIDE. In the RAIN. The worst weeks were from bags of litter I bought after a rainy or extra humid week! I’ve changed feed lots to one that warehouses the litter INSIDE and I’m hoping to switch to once a week cleanings now. We’ll see.

Second~ Keep TWO tubs for every tub of rats you run, and keep one EMPTY slot in your racks (or use it for extra weanlings you can move during cleaning). Lay out the clean tubs from last week and fill them ALL with clean litter assembly line fashion. Then put a clean tub in the empty slot~ move the rats from the tub above into the clean tub. Now put another clean tub in the new empty slot and continue down the line. I actually run 4 racks~ but they are right next to each other so when I get to the top of one rack I can move the rats from the top of the next rack to the top of the first rack and work my way down. That way I only have to keep one empty tub for the entire set up. When you get to the end your empty slot will be on the other side of the room from the one that was empty this morning~ just work the other direction next cleaning day.

Use a hand held car windshield scraper to push all the dirty litter out of the pans into the trash ( a Rubbermaid Storage tote lined with a plastic bag has the perfectly sized wide mouth for the medium sized cement mixing bins). Spray each tub with a mixture of bleach/dish soap and water as you empty it. When all are empty~ drag them to the lawn and spray them down with the hose. (Change spots on the lawn~ or that spot will get too wet after a few weeks) Set the now clean tubs up to dry so they will be ready for next week.

I can do my entire Mouse house of 20 tubs of rats, 10 tubs of mice and one to five weaner cages, fill all the water buckets, fill all the feed hoppers, sweep the room and wipe down the counter in 2 ½ hours. I can get it down to 2 hours if I’m hurrying.
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Cheryl Marchek
AKA JM
Check out my website at:
The Red Dragons Den

I'm not keeping rats but I do much the same thing with my mouse colonies.

To get the litter really dry, I store an extra one or 2 bags in the back of my SUV. With the heat that builds up in there, the litter gets nice and dry. Found this out accidentally when I was too lazy to drag the bags inside one time!

To keep track of feedings and cleanings, I use a program called Time and Chaos. It has a calander, address/phone book, appointment schedule and a To Do list that will nag you (rolls over to do's to the next day until either completed or deleted). I like this program alot!

Cheryl

Why throw away that bedding? I dump it on the gardens in my back yard. I have nice rich soil cause it breaks down fast and I haven't had to buy mulch since I started keeping mice! The birds like any uneaten food left in the litter too!

Because I live in a residential neighborhood with small yards. The walls of my house are 3 feet from my fence on either side of the house. The front and back yards are a little bit bigger.

I don't have the room to run a compost pile. If I tried~ the neighbor would complain about the smell (it's enough of a challenge keeping the rats clean enough not to get complaints!). I tried pouring some of the litter around my tomato's one year~ killed them~ needs to be composted first~ and finally~ even if I did have a place for a compost pile~ I don't have enough room for enough gardens for all that litter!!

I've thought about this before! LOL!
Good idea though~ If I ever have a big enough yard I don't plan to contiue trying to stuff bags and bags of used rat litter into the weekly trash!
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Cheryl Marchek
AKA JM
Check out my website at:
The Red Dragons Den

I only have one rack with five rows of three tubs; I do a row a day and take the weekends off. The rotation keeps the average age of the bedding lower and seems to help with the smell (never great, never horrible). The daily routine helps me stay on track and if I miss a day its not really a big deal. I use a large outdoor trash can with a bag and a lid; I dump it at the end of the week when I fill the water bucket.

I plan to use the outlook idea for feeding.....

Keep the tips comming!

Thanks,
Al