Rat Rack Question

[Adrya]

This more pertains to rats feeding in a rack system...

A couple days ago I built a rack just like this one:

Building a rat rack

The rack works GREAT and is much easier for me to maintain my small-ish breeding stock of rats...

My question was this... Unlike in the tutorial where the guy uses 1/3" mesh, I used 1/2" and I'm using up the last of lab rat food blocks/pellets that I have. The blocks sit on top of the mesh just fine, and I know the rats are supposed to eat the food through the mesh. I watched a couple of mine yesterday trying to eat the blocks through the screen, but the food kept moving and I never did see any of them try to use their paws to hold the piece of food while they eat it through the screen... I'm sure they are smart enough to figure out how to eat it through the screen but, they will quickly figure it out right? The food is supposed to not be able to fall through the mesh right? Because the purpose of that is to reduce food waste. I just don't want my rats to have so much of a problem eating through the screen that they starve.

Currently I'm feeding them the last of parrot food mix and lab blocks that I have and then I'm feeding them the catfood that I was previously giving. The catfood is small enough that it falls through the screen. I didn't get 1/4" inch because the rats would have trouble eating through it because of their relatively large mouths, so I used 1/2" and figured I could just switch to a large dog kibble instead once I'm done with the cat food. So I figured I would use food bowls for them to put the catfood in until the cat food is all gone. I had also thought about just using bowls and sticking with the cat food since the cat food has such a nice high protein content, and not bother with putting food on top of the screen. But then that defeats the purpose of being able to dump a bunch of food on top of the screen and letting them eat through it and reduce food waste.

And I didn't get 1/3" inch and the only place I could really find it was the site link that guy listed but I didn't want to spend $50+ on 30ft+ extra hardware cloth that I didn't need.

I could use some reassurance or suggestions or something about the rats being able to eat through the mesh. I know quite a few of you on here have built racks like that or similar, and I want to know how it's working for you, with the rats eating through the mesh and all. What are your experiences?

Thanks.

[Adrya]

Anyone?

[jbt123]

I don't know ANYTHING about rat racks, but if the holes in the mesh are big enough, couldn't you push the food halfway through the holes so that it still is holding on to the food and it wont instantly fall through the mesh? The rats would eat around on the food sticking through the mesh until it eventually falls into the cage, but it would be mostly eaten by then, and they would rather go for the "apple" that fell out of the tree before trying to pluck another...

See what I mean?

Sorry if that's a stupid answer...I really don't know what else could be done about that...and my answer sounds like it would take WAY too much time and effort to put individual pieces of food in the holes. lol

[Adrya]

That's an idea.. but yeah, like you said, would be too much effort and generally would have been a waste of my time building the rack in the first place. lol