Using food hoppers???

[Tim_Cranwill]

Hi guys, I've been using food hoppers for my breeder mice for months now and it's working great. I was wondering, does anyone use food hoppers for rats? I was going to try it out but I don't think they'd be able to fit their mouths through the holes to get the food. The diamond shaped holes are 2.5cm x 1cm...

Any ideas or experiences you could share would be great. :)

[jadegrasse]

I use 'hoppers' on all my racks. The rats eat ProLab food through 1/4" or 3/8" extruded steel ceilings on the racks. Works great. Food wastage is down 70%. I have a picture on the photo section of one of my racks.

[Tim_Cranwill]

Thanks. Any advice on setting up a water system like you have?

[jadegrasse]

Money........Just kidding. I have no idea how people with over 20 bins can use water bottles. I have 4 racks. The largest rack is a holding rack with three trays (see pictures on gallery). It has 6 watering nozzles and 5 gallons of water storage. The other 3 racks have 20 to 60 bins per rack! Each rack has a water bucket with a lid, filter, on/off valve and one nozzle per tray. The filters and covers are A MUST!! If even a small object gets lodged in the nozzle, the whole bucket will empty out slowly and drown that tray and every tray under it! Buckets hold between 4 to 15 days of water. I have a well so I use 1/2 a teaspoon of bleach per bucket to stop slime and green growth. I also use 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract per bucket to reduce the smell of the rodents.
There is only one place I know of that sells the brass/stainless adjustable gravity fed nozzles.

Alain

[Linds]

cranwill,
I FINALLY finished my combo rodent rack. I have drop-down hoppers for both the rats and mice. The rats hoppers are made from 1/2" hardware cloth, and the mouse hoppers are made from 1/4" hardware cloth. I just stick the water bottle spout through the mesh (I had to cut a larger hole in the mouse hoppers because the spouts have a larger diameter) in the hoppers.

Originally posted by jadegrasse
of water. I have a well so I use 1/2 a teaspoon of bleach per bucket to stop slime and green growth. I also use 1 teaspoon of

Yikes! :eek:

[Burmies]

You have to use 1/2" metal screen for the rats to fit their mouths through.

Burmies

[jadegrasse]

I have been using the 3/8 expanded mesh with rats and it works well.