check out the new rodentarium

[fishead]

Howdy, my rats figured out that they could chew through plastic so I knocked up this rack from 1mm gal sheet.
In one of the pics you can see the water sump. It has a float valve and is piped to the back of each enclosure where there is a chicken drinker nipple thing. They have to stick their nose through a slot in the back wall to access the nipple. I think you can see one of the slots in a pic. That way any excess water doesn't end up in the enclosure souring the substrate (which is rice hulls).
Each enclosure is about 1.2m wide x .7m deep x .3m high. Also made a big aluminium dust pan that makes cleaning them out a breeze. Another pic shows the pellet scoop which I made a little narrower than the feed hoppers so feeding is also dead easy.
We all know looking after the rodents is one of the biggest (and most boring) jobs associated with our herps so making things easy is priority number one for me. If things are a pain to do we're less likely to do them.
It's been up and running for a few months now and seems good. The shed is well insulated but I'll probably set up a fan for summer.

[wil]

very impressiive, is it you that puts the rats poo on the garden?

[Miss B]

Wow, good work. Looks great.

[Davem54]

great

[mr_muesli]

good job, how long did it take you to construct it? How many rats per cage???

[fishead]

Hey MrMuesli, I didn't keep tabs on hours. There's ten 8' x 4' sheets in there. Suffice to say if I had to quote on it, it would be well into four figures!!
It's very lightly stocked at the moment, I'm trying to build numbers up. I guess I'll have about fifteen girls and one boy rat in each enclosure and will have about thirty girls and one boy super mice per enclosure. Plus a couple of spare grow out enclosures. Note they are big enclosures.

[maklouf]

it looks great, how much did it cost you in materials,
and how long did it take you to construct it?

[jay76]

very nice

[mungus]

Photo's dont do it justice !!!
Its a pain seeing all his set-ups, makes you want them.

[sockbat]

That's one awsome encloser.

[pepper]

Oh my god Fishead that is fantastic would love to see more of your enclosures !!! Did u think of it yourself . I need one of those. But my rats haven't found out they can eat through plastic yet.

[spoonman]

Great work. Ive been pondering a few ideas about making a simalar setup my self. the time i waist on the rats is rediculus. do you have some more photos off the watering sett up? id love to see them

[fishead]

Thanks guys, hey spoonman that pic showing the water sump is about all that is visible. The pvs pipe running off it snakes along the back of the enclosures and the chook drinker nipples are screwed into it. As the water level drops in the sump the float valve refills it like a toilet cistern.

[dazza74]

wow that is awesome but i would move the power supply in case you have the container leak or crap itself

[JasonL]

Geez, a bit ritzy for rats, hate to see how you set your snakes up!