TheOddBall

I have been very industrious lately, first building a new snake rack and then replacing a roof, and now building another rat rack! With everything that I am expecting to hatch, I like to make sure that I am producing more than enough rats for my snakes. Any surplus feeders that I have I end up selling, so I am never overrun with rodents. It works out well.

Materials:

• 2-16 foot 2 by4s
• 5- 5.5 feet 1by 4s
• Hardware wire
• 1.5 inch nails or screws
• Hammer or screwdriver
• Table saw
• 4 plastic tubs
• fence staples
• measuring tape
• wire cutters

Here is  the break down for  building a rat rack step by step:

Step 1:

Cut the 2 x4s into 8 pieces that are 27.5 inches longs as well as 8 pieces that are 18.5 inches long.

Step 2:

Nail the frame together. You will end up with 4 of these when you are finished. Make sure the shorter pieces are in the inside of the square, as shown below once it is made.

This is what they should be looking like so far….

Step 3:

Cut the wire into 27.5 x 23 inch pieces. You will need 4 of these.

Step 4:

Attach the wire to the wooden frames. These are the tops to each rack level.

There are the tubs that I used. They are available at Lowes. At this point, I made sure the wire tops fit the tubs correctly, they did but I like to see it.

Step 5:

Attach the 1x4s to one of the wire tops. I built the rack from the top down as shown below.

Step 6:

Add the levels….At this point I cut some spacers to make sure each level was spaced the same.

Step 7:

Next I added the railings so the tubs can slide in and out easily. The railings are made from 2 x 4s and are 27.5 inches long.

More railings about to be attached.

At one point I laid the rack on its side because it made attaching the railings easier.

Step 8:

At this point, I added two boards to the back to keep the tubs from being pushed too far back.

Step 9:

Finished—–>>>>Just add rats, food and water! Bam! This is a heavy rack and dragging it over to the rat area was a pain, but it will work well since it can handle some wear and tear.

Breeding my own rats for the last 6 years has saved thousands of dollars. At this point, I imagine I produce roughly 12,000 rats a year! That is insane to think about. Hopefully these instructions will help you get your own rat colony going with some home made racks!