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Rats everywhere

susang

susang

New member
How do you all keep your rats? I have some in a 55 gal they're fine. I had tow great cage one was a three tier thing, wire and a maybe 16" high 24x24" wire cage. The wire cages worked great until the babies came and they crawl right through the wire, so I had to put them in glass vivs with wire tops. These work well no escaping babies, but I need them for my snakes.
Well that was a bit of a chat, does anyone keep rats in the big Sterilite tubs, do the rats chew the plastic? TIA susang
 
I have kept breeding rats in what the pet stores have in for like guinea pigs... all hard plastic with a plastic web locking top... and they never chewed that. I am not sure about sterilite tubs though. Would have to have loads of ventilation though otherwise they (rodents) can be prone to get sick from the slight build up of ammonia smell. Hope I was of some help :)
 
We use the Sterilite for the mice, hubby rivets hardware cloth almost the size fo the top. So ventilation isn't a problem.
 
those kind of tops are awesome! :) I had a friend who did that for me on a couple tubs.. I am just not that handy lol

I guess from what my rats did or I should say didnt do , chew, I would give it a try :)
 
I keep mine in a big tub, lots of holes drilled in for Ventilation and a big hole cut out of the lid that's covered in chicken mesh. This works very, very well! :)

My mice are in smaller containers that have a double layer of chicken mesh as the roof.
 
rats in tubs

I have 5 colonies of rats. three are in aquariums... which as I have learned can be a pain in its own right...two are in sterlite tubs as an experiment. I made lids out of 1/2'' hardware cloth from home depot. The thirty gallon tubs are about the size of a 40 breeder aquarium. I drilled a hole for the water bottle and they hang outside the pen.
This has been about three months now and I have found that breeding is successful, and none have even attempted to chew thru the plastic. They are easy to clean, easily stacked with enough space for air still. I did decide to go with the solid color ones because of the cats, but they still know its a rat home and love to watch the shadows.
Thanks for letting me share this with the forum.
Scott
Reading PA
 
How I keep my rats ...

061206-leftwall.jpg


The aviaries are about six foot tall, two foot deep, and four foot wide. They're split into two cages, each holding about six rats. The smaller cages on the left, the bottom one holds four rats, the top holds a mother with her litter.

280406-girls.jpg


Close up of one of the aviary cages - shelves, hammocks, toys ... keeps them happy! The more you give them to do, the more they'll exercise, and the healthier they'll be. For this reason, barred cages are much preferable to plastic boxes or tanks.

Maybe not practical if you want to keep hundreds of rats, but I guess that's why I only ever kept thirty or so adults at a time :)
 
Way to go Toyah those are great cages, never thought of aviary cages. The one thing about the tubs is ease of cleaning but both the mice in tubs and the rats in tanks climb across the hardware cloth hanging upside down, so they do get some exercise. I guess I'll start looking for those cages, thank susang
 
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