my rodent set up

I have my rodent room set up like this:

Small concrete mixing tubs for rat breeding (1.4 rats per tub) and these are stacked 7 high in a rack that is about 6 feet tall (give or take) with casters.

Large Van Ness cat litter pans for nursing mother (1 per tub) and these are stacked 7 high and 4 wide in a rack that is again about 6 feet tall (give or take) with casters.

For every breeding rat rack I have, I have 2 nursing racks. This allows me to keep four females with the male in every breeding tub at all times (the ratio is 1:8 males to females but usually half of the females are nursing).

Large concrete mixing tubs are used for grow out racks. These are stacked 6 high is a rack that is about 6' tall with casters. These have custom feeding bins and multiple custom watering nozzles (the idea was stolen from FB and modified) so that the height does not keep the little ones from eating and drinking. The multiple drinking nozzles are also VERY important when you have a few dozen rats all in one tub trying to drink at the same time. I try to have four grow out racks for every nursing rack that I have.

Ventilation is supremely important! You will want ventilation fans (and not just window fans...DEDICATED COMMERCIAL TYPE ventilation fans) on opposing ends of your rat building. If the building is small (less than 200sqft) you can get away with just one fan on each end (north/south or east/west).

Location for your building is very important too. If you can put the building under a few huge trees that will make shade for it in the summer that will help your air conditioning bill. If you have any doubts that you need air conditioning just wait for that first week that its 100 degrees outside and half your rats die LOL. You will wish that you had the AC then.

I am going to work on some simple floor plan drawings with the ratios that I have mentioned and the racks that I have mentioned that will help you in designing your own rodent building.

Got Pictures?

Originally Posted by Kingetula

Got Pictures?

Today the rodent shed just sits around and gathers dust. After I sold my boas, which at one point I had 40 breeding females, I just had no business keeping rats anymore.

I am going to draw some floor plans with basic rack measurements for each rack to show you guys how I would utilize the floor space to get the most out of it.

At one point in time I was going through about 60-120 adult rats per week and about 800 to 1200 rat pups with various size rats going to various sized hold backs as well LOL.

When it got to be this bad, and it was interfering with my real job I had to make a decision to go cold turkey. I was always a day late and a dollar short on the cool stuff, ghosts, snows, albinos, sunglows, and I was never making the big money that would have made it all worth while.

I understand, it's not about the money for me. I do it because I love it, it's a passion and a hobby. I did cut back to just a few snakes not so long ago however that didn't make me happy. I am still trying find the right balance where it's still a hobby and not a job as you pointed out. Why don't you get some snakes you really like and not worry about making money, if it's something you would just enjoy having... If they breed and you make a few bucks, there you go.

You don't have to go cold turkey but I do understand how it can be overwhelming and a break is needed even before starting out slow and with a few snakes, been there...

yep been there! well lol i'm there now. i lost my job back in Feb 07 and havent found another until July of this year when i decided or well i should say my wife let me decide i would file for all my ids, permits and everything and breed and sell reptiles. it doesnt make much $ after its all over with but hell i get to pay for what i love to keep and get to stay home and spend time with my daughter aswell. finally getting my rats up to size so i can stop depending on the local petstore for feeders which was costing me on avg about $50 - $60 a week. right now i'm doing more buying than selling so my wife helps out with the buying on my snakes lol but she loves it. she was always scared of them until after we got married and i said honey i'm getting back into snakes lol she thought about it and then said ok get them lol i said glad you agree because if you said no i would of had to devorce you if you'ld let me lol. my wife is so supportive of what i do. she plays with her baby childrens python and i play with the rest lol.

I'm in the market so to speak for a new GF but I can already picture 6 out of 10 girls saying, "You have snakes", and then 3 out of that 4 saying, "Venomous snakes"! I'm guessing I'll have a hard time finding that special 1, lol. Maybe Fauna should have a match making service lol!

Hold on to her man!

lol yep its going to be hard. all the girls my wife works with say you let him keep snakes in the house?? lol she is coing around to holding and working with my other larger snakes but still wont mess with anacondas yet lol. hell our daughter will be 1 in Nov and everytime we walk in a store my wife always looks for gators and other cool reptile toys for her to play with. the other day i found 2 cool Steve Irwin sets, one was a big one where he talks that cam with a big croc and the other is a small one that doesnt talk and comes with a smaller croc and i bought both lol my daughter loves playing with the big set and hearing him talk about the zoo down under lol. i guess i should of bought 2 sets of each cause we just found out we have a new little baby human on the way lol. i agree with the fuana match making site lol i might have to change religons and marry a few girls then lmao, my wife is ok with 1 other girl as long as i dont marry her lmao so im good to go

Congrats on the new human!

I already went cold turkey a few years ago to focus on my actual business. It wasn't easy and I was depressed for some time, but selling all of the snakes, racks, cages, and equipment netted me about $30,000 to invest into my actual business which helped out tremendously LOL.

I am actually in the process of getting ONE baby boa now. I just want to have one that I can raise, watch grow, handle, take out on nice days, and generally just enjoy. I don't want it to become a business again.

I started under the mentality that most of us do when we have reptiles. It costs me the same amount of money to just look at them as it does to breed them so why not let them pay for themselves.

Well, before I knew it I was out of control LOL. I had tons of boas...albinos, ghosts, jungles, snow hets, sunglow hets, hypos, and all kinds of crap. It was becoming an addiction. I was spending at least 10-12 hours a week taking care of boas and rats. It just wasn't worth it anymore.

So, to get back on topic with the thread LOL, I can help anyone that has just a little bit of space to set up a rodent colony. I have been down the road where I started from scratch with 10 and 20 gallon tanks and then made my way into rack systems, and eventually found ways to save more space and set up a rack room where I always had pregnant females, nursing females, and small/med/large rats ready to go without running out of room. Keeping your rodent colony producing the amount of animals you need, without going overboard, and running out of room is a well machined science LOL. I learned it the hard way and if anyone has any questions on it they can PM me.

Originally Posted by Kingetula

I understand, it's not about the money for me. I do it because I love it, it's a passion and a hobby. I did cut back to just a few snakes not so long ago however that didn't make me happy. I am still trying find the right balance where it's still a hobby and not a job as you pointed out. Why don't you get some snakes you really like and not worry about making money, if it's something you would just enjoy having... If they breed and you make a few bucks, there you go.

You don't have to go cold turkey but I do understand how it can be overwhelming and a break is needed even before starting out slow and with a few snakes, been there...

I think its all about finding balance with the snakes and the rodents