Rat Breeding - How to....

So you want to breed Rodents? This post will be a brief summary on how to do it, and be successful. 

First and foremost, your going to need money. I'd say with about $200 (Already having your own tools), you can build a Rodent Rack, and stock it with 2-3 tubs of Rats to start off your colony.

Now to building your Rack, your going to need to get some tools. You can rent/buy these at your local Lowes/Home Depot, and return them all within the same day. 

Tools you'll need ... 

1. Miter Saw/Hand Saw - Whichever you can afford. I'd go with the Miter Saw, it's 100 times easier. You can find them HERE.

2. Screws - You can go with either 1 1/4" Wood Screws, or 1 5/8" Wood Screws. You'll need at least 1 box, to be safe, I'd go with 2. You can find them HERE.

3. Drill/Screwdriver - Power Tools are always easier, so I'd go with the Drill, you can find a really good/cheap one at Home Depot/Lowes. You can find them HERE.

4. Drill Bit's/Accessories - With untreated wood, you HAVE to pre-drill it, or it will split, and you'll end up wasting wood. If your trying to keep this as cheap as possible, I'd go the safe route and pre-drill everything. You'll also need Clamps to hold your wood together so you can pre-drill them accurately. You can find Drill Bits HERE. You can find the Clamps HERE.

Materials you'll need ...

1. Wood - There's no real estimate on how much you'll need. It all depends on if you mess up, and have to scrap some. I'd say safely, go ahead and buy 10 2x2's and 10 1x1's. You can buy the bundles of UNTREATED wood for about $13-18 per bundle, so for the materials I'd say your gonna spend about $30-50. I'd go to Home Depot, they tend to be a little cheaper here in Virginia.

2. Tubs - Your going to need concrete mixing tubs to house your rats. You can get them at Home Depot for $4-5 each. You can find them HERE.

That's really the only things you'll need for building your Rat Rack. I followed some plan's I found online to build mine, you can find them HERE. You MAY or MAY NOT have to tweak/peak it to fit your needs, but follow these and you'll be sure to get it done in just a few hours.

Plumbing your Rat Rack ...

Your going to need only 4-5 things, and you can find them all online for a decent price. I'd say for just these materials, you'll need about $40-50. 

HERE is the website for the plumbing materials, I'll list what you NEED down below.

Original Large Drinking Valve - (6) for a 6 tub Rack

Tank Connector - (1) for a single 5 Gallon Bucket

Flexible Water Tubing - Priced per Foot. I'd say you'll need about 10-15 ft. depending on how you route it.

3/16" L & 3/16" T Fitting's - You'll only need 1 'L' fitting, and 5 'T' fittings. You use the 'L' fitting on the last tub.

Mounting Clip for Large Drinking Valve - (6) for the Large Drinking Valves, easy to use.

5 Gallon Bucket - Found at your local Wal-Mart or hardware store.

You can buy other stuff if you'd like, but if you don't want to spend more money, nothing else is needed. 

After you have all of this stuff, and have your rack built, it's time to buy rats. This can be probably the most time consuming part. You DO NOT want to go to a pet store, and buy feeders and use them as breeders. Feeders are your 'bottom of the barrel' rats that the person/company deem as 'non-breeders'. If you live in a populated area, and you don't have a local breeder that you can buy from, you may have to go with Pet Store Feeders. Either way, you want to buy the following Rats for a 6 TUB Rat Rack:

6 Medium Male Rats

24 Medium Female Rats

**If you buy Pet Store Feeders, after your VERY FIRST litter, you want to replace every female that you have, with all of your female offspring that you have.**

As I stated earlier, this is a summary of how to breed your own rodents. If you have the time/money to spend to do this for your reptiles, I highly recommend it vice going to the pet store everyday, you know what your rats eat, and you know they are QUALITY.

If you have any questions, please comment below, or message me via Facebook.

God Bless!