Finished building my mouse rack.

I finally got off my lazy butt and got a mouse rack built. I got tired of forking out $1.00 to $1.50 per mouse. I guess the initial cost is high but in time it should even out plus I can do more with my time instead of driving to the Pet Shop.

I know I can buy frozen mice and have but I have not been real happy with frozen mice or should I say some of my snakes have not been happy eating frozen.

Here are the photos...

And here are a few more...

Very nice, great job! What size hardware cloth did you use?

Originally Posted by MagickalMorphs

Very nice, great job! What size hardware cloth did you use?

thanks...


I used 1/4 (quarter inch)

Very nice! But if I were you I'd go ahead and run another length of wood diagonal across the back. It will add a bit of support and keep the thing from tilting and twisting.
Very nice work!

Originally Posted by Cheryl Marchek AKA JM

Very nice! But if I were you I'd go ahead and run another length of wood diagonal across the back. It will add a bit of support and keep the thing from tilting and twisting.
Very nice work!

lol yeah that is in the works. One last trip to Home Depot...feww almost done.

thanks

almost....

That looks good, bad rodents caused me to build my own rack. It has been a couple of years and I cannot believe how much money I have saved not buying rodents every week.

Are you going to stick with the bottles or move on to a water gravity system? For me it turned out to be less annoying to fill a 5 gallon bucket than a bunch of bottles.

Originally Posted by Junkyard

That looks good, bad rodents caused me to build my own rack. It has been a couple of years and I cannot believe how much money I have saved not buying rodents every week.

Are you going to stick with the bottles or move on to a water gravity system? For me it turned out to be less annoying to fill a 5 gallon bucket than a bunch of bottles.

Do you know where to get the supplies to build a gravity system? I would like to but I need to see blue prints so to speak. I can usually look at something and put it together but I've never seen this gravity system. Even if I had a list and knew where to buy everything I need I should be able to figure it out.

Thanks

A gravity fed water system is a little expensive initially, but believe me it's worth every penny and then some compared to filling individual water bottles every couple of days. If I had to give up my watering system and go to bottles, I'd probably just quit breeding rodents.

Installing the system is pretty simple once you see the parts. You can see pics of how I installed it on a couple of racks on these pages:
http://www.arbreptiles.com/cages/rat_rack/ratrack.shtml
http://www.arbreptiles.com/cages/rat...ing_rack.shtml

Just scroll down a bit on both pages to the watering system section.

As for parts you'll need the following:
A bucket of some sort, preferably translucent so you can see the water level through the side.
A supply valve for the bucket.
One drinking valve per tub. The Vari-Flo valves are usually recommended for mice. I've used the standard non adjustable valves for both mice and rats though so either will work and there's no price difference.
One Tee fitting per tub except for the last one. You can use a 90 degree fitting there or just bend the tubing which is what I do.
Enough 3/16 tubing to go through the rack.
Some loop clamps are handy, but some people use electrical staples and just put them in carefully so as not to crimp the tubing. I prefer the loop clamps myself.


The cheapest place I've found for the parts the last time I bought any was at Klubertanz Equipment. http://www.klubertanz.com/
The part numbers for the components are:
Supply valve - A202
Brass Vari-flo valves - A301
3/16" Tee - A405
3/16" tubing - A401

Klubertanz does not carry the loop clamps, I get those from AG Select here http://tinyurl.com/43ub8h

These are the parts and brands I use, Edstrom.

One thing I notice, the way you have built the rack using water valves will either require that you slide the tubs out until they hit the valves then compress them a bit until they drop out, or shorten the slides they hang on.
Pushing in one side of the tub enough so that it drops out isn't a problem though, I have to do that with my racks.