Old school herpers like myself are prone to "do it yourself" projects simply because we grew up in an era when products specifically designed for reptile owners were either too basic, or simply not available at all, and thus we quite often were left with no choice but to "do it yourself." Although this mindset still occurs in herp breeders young and old, there are times when doing it yourself might be the least expensive option, but not the best.

Take, for instance, a mouse breeding rack.

In the past my racks have all been hand made, essentially nothing more than tubs resting on wooden shelves, screen tops made of wood and hardware cloth, and individual water bottles, one per cage. This system worked well for what it was but as you expanded the system became harder to clean and maintain, and harder and longer to work. Individual water bottles had to be filled on a regular basis, replaced on a regular basis, and the rodents had a habit of chewing the plastic tops. Wooden screen tops had to be made by hand, and all that hardware cloth was bound to rip, tear, and puncture skin no matter how thick the gloves you used. Worst of all, the wood could never be cleaned adequately, or in the case of a disease outbreak, sterilized, and thus if your colony was struck by illness you had to replace much of your caging materials as well as your breeding colony.

Today most of the troubles and problems I experienced with my "do it yourself" racks can be avoided by purchasing a commercial mouse breeding unit. Designed to eliminate many of the problems and issues home built racks have, modern breeding racks are industrial strength units designed to be worked easily, and cleaned thoroughly. Made of aluminum, steel and plastic these racks are manufactured by a number of different companies, and most all are sturdy well built units designed to offset their high cost by providing years of solid service.

After reviewing a number of breeder rack units, we settled on the rodent breeder racks made by Freedom Breeder, one of the oldest and most established cage companies in the reptile community. Founded by Lindy Johnson, and run by his son Jeff, Freedom Breeder was one of the first companies offering commercial caging and equipment to the reptile industry and their cages are used by some of the top names in the reptile industry and the company has maintained a solid reputation. The name Freedom Breeder on a rack is as good as having the name Sterling on silver.

When our Freedom Breeder Rodent 50 unit arrived on the 18 wheeler, it had to be moved via a pallet jack it was so large and heavy. Arriving mostly assembled it took approximately an hour to get it unstrapped from the pallet, wheels installed, and watering system hooked up. Only a wrench was needed to fix the wheels to the bottom, and a knife to cut the plastic tubing for the watering system. When fully assembled the unit stood taller than our truck, yet on it's wheels could be moved with one hand. With the levels being easily detachable it was easy to size the unit to fit our required space in the steel container, it being exactly 2 levels too tall.

With a 5 gallon bucket provided to service the watering system, and large feed bins for mouse chow, time required to service the mouse colony is at a minimum, and instead of constantly filling tiny food bins or water bottles, daily monitoring is usually all that is required rather than daily servicing, greatly reducing maintenance time and mess. Freedom Breeder even supplies the unit with a removable feed tray that allows the racks food bins to be filled quickly from behind.

With the rack all set up now all we needed was some mice. Lots and lots of mice.