New Mouse rack...

[CornCrazy]

I am going to be getting a new mouse rack from Dwight Good in a couple of weeks. It is similar to this one:
http://premium.uploadit.org/CornCrazy/mouseracktrace.jpg

I am excited about the rack because currently I have my mice in aquariums. They are a pain to use and a pain to clean! It is going to be nice to be able to have many more mice in a MUCH smaller area!

[sircat]

hehehe...which means more room for more snakes lol

[CornCrazy]

I am out of room for snakes right now, as well. I hope to have a snake building soon, though. I'll have to work on building a lot of new racks, then!

[LLAP101202]

Hey Terri.....would that rack work to breed rats in too??? and for mice how many do you put in each of those litter pans and do you colonize them or seperate pregnant moms??

[CornCrazy]

No...this rack would be too small for rats. Dwight does make rat racks, too. Dwight said if I want to produce LOTS of pinks, I can put 1 male to 6-8 females in each of these pans. If I want room to "grow the babies up" then I will only have 3-4 females in each. And I do not separate my pregnant females out. It is VERY hard to re-introuduce them into the colony so I leave them together. The moms tend to help each other take care of all of the babies, also. They are good at sharing the responsibility!

I don't take the male out either.

[Vanns]

I was looking at some racks that I found on the net that look pretty nice.

http://www.snakeracks.com/rodentrackphotos.htm

They do both snake and rodent racks and seem pretty decent.

[LLAP101202]

see I had trouble with males killing my babies....I mean every now and them the moms do too usually NEW moms but I usually take my pregnant females out together...like right now I have 1 male and 4 or 5 females I think 4 of them are pregnant.....I will take all 4 out at same time and put in another tank to birth and grow the babies and then once weaned put the moms or new females back in with male...I have always done this and hadpleanty of babies....the few times I left them in the males killed the babies and YES I am certain it was the males......also I KNOW I cant take one pregnant female out and then take another pregnant female to put with her if the first already had babies or she will fight the second mom...thats why I put as many pregnant ones as I have together at same time......I dont know...it seems I am constantly being told I am doing EVERYTHING with my snakes and my mouse breeding WRONG but yet I have fat healthy snakes and lots of mice to feed them. But I am trying to either switch to f/t rats or breed live havent decided yet...but I think after this group produces I am going to frozen.

[CornCrazy]

I was looking at some racks that I found on the net that look pretty nice.

http://www.snakeracks.com/rodentrackphotos.htm

They do both snake and rodent racks and seem pretty decent.Yeah...they look nice, but did you see the price???

[CornCrazy]

Laura...I don't think that the way you handle your mice is wrong...

If it works for you, then that's great. On occasion I have had a colony of mice that regulary that eats its babies...those colonies are fed off. I cannot afford to keep them if they are going to cannibalize their young.

[Vanns]

Yeah...they look nice, but did you see the price???

I was actually thinking about making some myself that resembled these. I think I can get the same thing for about 250.00 or so

[Quigs]

Laura,

You can do the exact same thing with rats as the mice as far as racks go. You just simply have to have a larger frame built around obvously larger pans.

I have not done this yet, but I've been throwing around the idea here lately. What I have seen people use and suggest is the large black pans used for concrete mixing. I have looked and priced these at both lowes and home depot. They run from about $5-$10 depending on size and manufacture.

I hope you haven't percieved me to be telling you that the way you raise your mice is wrong. I have simply offered you advice based on my experience and what works well for me! Sorry if I inadvertantly offended you, that certainly was not the intention!

Like I have said before, I actually really enjoy raising and breeding the mice. Some consider it a chore, but I do not. Therefore if I can help and/or offer advice in doing so, I'm more than willing!

Regards,
Quigs

[LLAP101202]

QUigs....NO DUDE you didnt offend me at all..Hell I grew up with a Navy dad 3 OLDER brothers and all their friends and one of my brothers is navy too...its pretty hard to offend me with ANYTHING lol What I meant was it seems like all the professionals and the professional sites I have talked to or read and from talking to most people I seem to do everything completely wrong....I keep more than one snake together and I keep my everglades rat and my snow corn together..YES I KNOW I KNOW this is very wrong and as soon as I can build racks I will...but they are all thriving and are fat and healty including the ones I am baby sitting that I had to nurse back to health.....I just like to get opinions and ideas from others on other ways to do things...just seems like when I have tried everyone elses ways mine arent as happy or productive lol but I am DEFINATELY not offended...so PLEASE keep the advice comming. NOW you may all yell at me for keeping my snakes together. Please start NOW! lol :twisted:

[Quigs]

Here's a pic of what I'm talking about. I borrowed this pic from Home Depot's site. Although the dimensions of this particular pan are much larger than that of ones I have seen!

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v421/Quigs/mice%20and%20racks/cementpan.jpg
Versatile Heavy Duty Black Plastic Tub 45 Gallon Capacity
Sixe: 49 In. x 31 In. x 10 In
$25.00

The ones I have seen and have been recommended to me are smaller than this. Thus it was only recommend using a 1.2 maybe a 1.3 colony ratio.

On the other hand this particular pan would be great for housing a larger colony! Only problem I see is, how to support it in a rack system being over 4 foot in length! The weight starts adding up with a couple inches of bedding, a few pounds of rats and on top of the original pan weight itself!

But can you imagine the production???

Anyway, you get the idea, same setup just BIGGER!

Good luck,
Quigs

[starwarsdad]

Terri,

Does Dwight have a web site?

[Quigs]

NOW you may all yell at me for keeping my snakes together. Please start NOW! lol :twisted:

This is the feeder forum, I'll refrain...hehe 8)

Quigs

[Quigs]

Obviously, I'm not Terri...but I have dealt with Dwight. In my opinion you can't beat his customer relations!

I don't think he will mind me promoting him or his site here.

www.dwightgood.com

[ta2dshtrbug]

....I keep more than one snake together and I keep my everglades rat and my snow corn together..YES I KNOW I KNOW this is very wrong and as soon as I can build racks I will...but they are all thriving and are fat and healty including the ones I am baby sitting that I had to nurse back to health.....

Laura, I'll be the first to say that I keep several of my snakes together. I have a rack system and it has empty spaces, so its not for lack of space. I house a pair of adult bps, a pair of adult corns, another pair of adult corns, and a trio of rosy boas all together respectively. The only breeding groups I dont house together is my cal kings, for obvious reasons. I keep my snakes well fed, feed separately out of their cages, and have plenty of space alotted to the pair. I feel that feeding well, good feeding procedures and removing the need to compete for space eliminates most of the danger in keeping adult pairs together. So they can yell at me to....lol.

[CornCrazy]

What I have seen people use and suggest is the large black pans used for concrete mixing. I have looked and priced these at both lowes and home depot. They run from about $5-$10 depending on size and manufacture.

Dwight prefers the tubs from Lowes.

I agree with Quigs...Dwight is a great person to deal with.

[Quigs]

Dwight prefers the tubs from Lowes.

Really???

The ones I saw at Lowe's were more expensive and seemily not as sturdy. I personally liked the ones at HD better.

It could be a differenc ein location, maybe? KY Lowe's has something different than MO Lowe's?

I'll have to remember and talk to him about that next time we converse.

Thanks Terri,

Quigs

[CornCrazy]

Quigs...you may be right. KY's Lowes may have different pans. It wouldn't surprise me at all.

Now I'm curious! I'll have to go look at the pans at our Lowes and Home Depot! :)

[Alias47]

I know this is the feeder forum, but interesting side note on the snakes all kept together.

I met a breeder at a swap that keeps his grey banded kings together.
I told him he was crazy. Says he has been doing it for over 20 years and has NEVER had one incident of cannabalism. He feeds seperatly...and puts them together from when they are hatchlings. He figures...captive bred...always fed only mice...and fed regularly enough that they don't get really hungry...they don't ever exhibit the behaviour that got kingsnakes their names.
I would NEVER do that...but he is successful.

[flaming_lizard]

I would like to build a rack system for myself and the only thing I haven't figured out is the gravity fed watering system. More specifically what is used on the end in the tub for the mice to drink? Do you or can you buy the little tubes with the balls in them that the mice lick? If you use them what if one of the balls stuck open and flooded your tub? :( There must be some other way. I don't know and probably rambled on enough already.

[CornCrazy]

I asked Dwight what he used for his auto waterer on his rat rack when I picked up my mouse rack. I don't remember what it was, but I'll e-mail him and try to find out.

[Quigs]

This is what the valve look like.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v421/Quigs/mice%20and%20racks/1000-07681.jpg

It is similiar but different from the nozzle of a bottle. It's a little hard to see but there is a post in the center of the valve (right side). When that is moved, the water can flow. And yes, things can become lodged in there and you could have a flood.

It's important to keep the lines and valves clean. Naturally you will get mineral deposits over time if nothing else. It's also a good idea to test the valves when you are cleaning the cage, just to make sure it's functioning correctly.

Hope that helps a little bit at least.

Quigs

[Quigs]

Almost forgot...

Here are the only two places that I know of that carry this sort of system.

http://www.edstrom.com/

http://www.agselect.com/

Quigs

[flaming_lizard]

Thank you very much :!: that is exactly what I was wondering. Now it all makes sense.

[CornCrazy]

Thanks Quigs! That looks like the same thing Dwight uses.

[Alias47]

Quigs is a veritable wealth of information.

The things you know off the top of your head never cease to amaze me, buddy!

[Quigs]

Heh...and can you believe I don't even use this system? LOL

Quigs

[Alias47]

I can...and do.
:D