So I have a small operation. I keep 30 breeding snakes, and in order to support them I also have a breeding colony of rats. My fiancee and I live in an apartment and the snake racks and the rats share the average sized second bedroom. Lately, with the cooling weather, we've had to keep the windows closed and I've been noticing a heavy increase in the ammonia in the room. Now, we keep the room closed off from the rest of the apartment because of the ratty smell, but this is obviously a problem. If we open up the windows the room will get too cold for the snakes. So I'm wondering what we can do to minimize or help cope with the ammonia.

So let me tell you a little bit about our rat operation:

We have two large tubs, like 3'X2', two 10 gallon fish tanks, and 3 tubs about the size of 20 gallon fishtanks. All have wire mesh lidding. We have eight breeding females and two males. The males live permanently in the large tubs and the females raise their young in the smaller tubs until weaning age when they move into the big tubs with the males. The kids are fed off or otherwise dispatched around the time that they reach small/medium status, though obviously some before that to keep up with our frozen food needs. I used to clean the cages completely once every two weeks or so, but with the ammonia issue it's once every eight days now. I used aspen bedding and go through a big bag every time I clean.

So do I just need to cope with having to clean them that often or is there something I'm missing. Could I use a better bedding or am I just not thinking correctly with regards to the aeration of the room?