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rat colony

H

hell awaits

New member
hey guys..

i've been debating around the idea of starting a rat colony..it would definitely end up being more cost efficient for me...but i was wondering how much it would cost starting off..right now i have no free tanks...so..i was thinking about a sweaterbox..would rats do well in those..i know they'll chew on pretty much everything so i wouldn't want them to chew themselves an escape route..also..i would be keeping them in my house..possibly my room...so..how's the smell?..haha..i actually have an extra c02 tank..i've read about the chambers previously..but i just wanna know about the basic setup cost.

thanks
 
Hey there,
They seem to smell less then mice..But it really depends on how many you have...
I use Sterlite tubs(or rubbermaids)...I use the ones that are 55L(I think? or close to it..It says on the label) I keep 1 male and 1-2 females in each. They do great and average sized litter is about 10-12!
Feeders around here are about 7.50 dollars each for adults, the tubs are about 8.75 each...Mind you this is CDN dollars...I'm pretty sure you could do it for about 40-50 dollars!? Thats 2-3 rats,tub,shavings,food and water bottle...
At one point when I was younger I had about 4 of these set-ups in my room and didn't mind the smell at all until about a week or so when the shavings needed changing...I now have about 24 of these set up and haven't had many problems with them at all! They won't chew much unless they are without food or water. Thats when they start to chew really bad and will get out on you!
Give treats like dog food, and veggies and they will do just fine!

Ryan
 
Hey there Stephen!
I'll have pics to put up on tomorrow! I'll be sure to put some on here for you to see!
It's really quite basic! Not hard to clean or maintain at all! Only a water bottle to be filled, a food dish to be filled and shavings to be changed! I find housing them in the plastic tubs like sterlite and rubbermaids it is much easy to clean because the dirty shavings don't stick like they do in glass tanks. Just dump it and rinse them out!
Ryan
 
thanks for the input..i'd like to see some pictures also..i'll probably be starting this soon so i'll keep you posted

thanks, mike
 
I just started one this past weekend and you can easily do it for under $50, less if you use homemade hides. I started keeping them on aspen, but that wasn't absorbent enough so I switched to Yesterday's News, a cat littler, and you can't smell them at all. Below are some pics, you can see my attempts as litter training have been unsuccessful....
 

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Danaish72 said:
I just started one this past weekend and you can easily do it for under $50, less if you use homemade hides. I started keeping them on aspen, but that wasn't absorbent enough so I switched to Yesterday's News, a cat littler, and you can't smell them at all. Below are some pics, you can see my attempts as litter training have been unsuccessful....
Click to expand...

I *love* that last pic, Dana.
 
thanks for the info.

that last picture's gonna make it hard to use them for food though..haha

the main reason i really want to start one is because well..i love rats..

so it's kind of like "killing two birds with one stone" :cheers:

,mike
 
Awww rats are so adorable! And they have such great personality's too, I have a 3 yr old right now and hes huge! I don't think I could go through with using them as food, mice are different they seem....well, just dumb :)


---Kenny
 
haha..i know what you're saying..mice just seem...so..expendable...compared to rats...i wish mice grew as big/as nutritious as rats..so i can just feed them to my boa and just let the rats hang out with me

,mike
 
hell awaits said:
it's kind of like "killing two birds with one stone"
Click to expand...

Did it occur to anyone else that this could've been a really horrible pun?
:sidestep:
 
Yup, I keep rats as pets only. I could never use them for food. IMO rats and corn snakes are the best pets on earth. Yah I'm wierd :)
 
Hello!
Stephen and everyone else... Here's some pics of the set-up I use for my rats..It's worked great for me for the past two years! I think I've only had to replace 1-2 in that whole time! At last count yesterday I had 21 of them set-up..(This one has a Albino Rex male and a Black-Hooded female)
animals002.jpg


I use the same to house pairs of gerbils for breeding and for after they are weaned young...
animals003.jpg


This is a pic of three of the gerbil breeding tubs...They say you should keep the set-up as simple as possible when breeding these guys but I usually give in and give them atleast a box!
animals001.jpg


I tried to get a label of the tubs I use...
animals004.jpg



Hope that helps!
Ryan-Valley Pets
 
I used similiar tubs when I first started. Make it easier on yourself. You don't have to build the wire/wood tops. Just take the lids that came with the tubs and cut out a square in the top. Put a peice of hardware cloth over the hole and use some bolts with large washers to hold it in place on the plastic.

I saw a pic earlier with a water bottle IN the tub. Thats gonna get chewed. Drill a hole on the outside at about the hieght you want the bottle. Then drill two small holes higher. Thread a peice of wire through the two small holes so you can use it to fasten the water bottle on the outside of the tub with only the nipple of the bottle stuck through the lower hole.
 
Hey there!
I don't put the water bottles in with the rats.. It comes through the wire on the top so they can't get at the plastic..For the gerbils I have always put in there like that..Never had one chewed yet...Knock on wood! But I have with the rats for sure!
I have tried the hole in the side like you said with my mice at first but they soon made the hole big enough to get out! So I have always tried to stay away from that.lol Just my personal experience!
Ryan
 
I tried just that with hamsters in the smaller bins and the little buggers chewed right through the lid in no time... I tried it with mice also and no matter how many holes I drilled the tub kept getting wet and it seemed to make the shavings damp and really smelly... I like the wooden tops with the wire because it gives them all the ventilation they need. Rats are really prone to respiratory problems. Again just my thoughts..! Whats everyone else think?
Ryan
 
Ryan,

Thanks for the Pics. Nice set up. I need to get back into breding mice. I used to have a set up w/ cat litter trays. I had 4 trays, and each tray had 1 male 4 females. The trays would pull out like drawers. Wire screen was on top and I poured the rodent blocks on top of the screen. Then the mice would chew the food through the screen . No Waste ! They cranked out plenty of mice for my small collection of 15 snakes.
 
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