Intervention -- Went well!!!

[lars5277]

Someone suggested to my wife that we have an intervention to keep me from getting more snakes. This is how it panned out.

Tomorrow I get to pick up my two new balls. The girl said they were an adult male and female. They have been housed together thier whole life in a 4'x2' cage. I will separate. They are about 3 years old from what I hear.

I also talked to a guy who said he knew of someone that needed to find a new home for thier 4'-5' female RTB. He said the guy would probably charge me about $40 for the big girl. Shannon gave me a dirty look, then said we will name the new RTB and the one I am getting from Clay who is a male Samson and Delilah. I will probably have the female RTB this week and the male RTB with in 3 weeks.

I also talked her into a Blizzard Corn Snake when the weather gets good.

The only concession I had to make is to have her a custom lizard rack built. It will be a 4 stack to hold all of her lizards in the same place. She also agreed to let me build a 10-12 stack ball/corn rack. 10-12 stacks means 10-12 snakes, plus I will have some cages freed up ( imagine the possibilities). I am also getting a room in the house that will be my office/herp room. I will have room for all the herps, my computer, gun cabinets, TV, PS2, and Xbox. I am also putting a mini fridge and a food chopper in there for lizard food, frozen rats, frozen mice and beer. Am I missing anything important?

I made adjustments to the rack tonight and I am going to see how that work out. I added a dimmer switch from Matt to the rack and will be using that instead of a thermostat. We have eyes on the rack almost 24/7 and can monitor the temps very easily. So I think a dimmer will work better until I get my new rack built. I taped the outside part of the Accurite right over the plastic which has flexwatt taped to the bottom of it. Maybe that is wrong. I also had 5 feedings while I was tinkering with stuff.

Can we have an intervention about my gun collection soon. The gun show will be here in May and I have taken a liking to WWII weapons.

[Shelby]

Heh.. sounds like you got a good deal.

As for the herp room.. the things I can't live without are:

space heater (I live with people who should live in Alaska.. cold house!)

rotating fan (circulates the air to even out the heating.. temperatures throughout the room are much more even because of it.

closet/shelving for supplies (gotta keep all the stuff out of the way)

small rolling cart (this is more useful when you have a lot of snakes) On cage cleaning day, I set all the water dishes on it (I use disposable water dishes) and fill them all up, then just roll the cart around with me as I put fresh water bowls in each cage. On feeding day I have a container with all the f/t mice and rats.. again I roll it around with me as I feed each snake. It's just darn useful for carting around stuff I use for all the snakes.

The one thing I wish I had the most.. is a sink. Ah.. how that would simplify things..

[lars5277]

We will have a space heater cause this room has two exterior walls, and two windows.

I also keep a few fans on in the house and will make a note of that.

The room has a small closet and will have a few metal racks for storage and TV.

Cart sounds like a good idea, but I will only need to get up to take the mice into the sink to thaw and and wash water dishes.

This is actually a pretty big room I am getting, it is about twice the size of my current office.

Alaka isn't so bad. After one winter your set. I used to BBQ at -20 all the time. Another reason for the herp room is I can keep it warm while I keep the rest of my house a nice frigid temp. Right now my house is set on 85-90 degrees. We don't have to pay heating bills on base.

[Shelby]

Alaka isn't so bad. After one winter your set. I used to BBQ at -20 all the time.

Erm.. well, I am a tropical being. I'm moving to crispy hot Texas as soon as I can.. I hate winter!

When you get your herp room all set, be sure to post some pics!

[frankykeno]

Hmmm things I would add (because I'm totally OCD/anal and whatever else you want to call me LOL)....

- dry wipe whiteboard for things to remember or quick reference weights, etc.
- good wall mounted hand vac for those stupid aspen spills (a clean snake room is a happy snake room LOL)
- if not pre-existing in the room itself...fire/smoke/carbon monoxide detectors (I'm not waiting till it hits the hallway to wake my butt up!)
- lock on the door...take my TV Mr. Burglar but I'm slowing you down before you hit the snake room! (plus I have little kids around the house a lot)
- ceiling fan to move that wasted rising heat back down where it's needed more

Then just to drive Michael nuts I'd have to go shopping at the following sites:

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/shop.php?

http://stores.ebay.com/Wide-Selectio...que-Gift-Ideas (search Ball Python....they actually have a clock and a tote bag and whoohoo!)

http://www.ballpythonmorphs.com/06ballcalendar.html

http://www.brandydesigns.com/Reptiles/reptiles.html

http://www.herparts.com/

Then of course a wall to showcase things like our favorite 8BallPythons T-shirt and anything else like that snake related. Oh and I wonder if I can actually find snake type border paper for the walls....hmmmm.....

[SnakeySnakeSnake]

If you keep a ceiling fan on in your herp room, has anyone done measurements to see how well it evens out the air temps from 6' down to ground level? (I plan on doing that when I have time just to check to see how much my rack will be off because of temp differences at different heights.

[frankykeno]

I keep a spare Acu-rite in our little back room we laughingly call the snake room so I'll try to check that out for you Bryan and let you know what results I get from ceiling to floor level with and without the ceiling fan on. It is a small room though so the numbers might be quite affected by that.

[frankykeno]

Oh and just thinking about escapes (after reading Shelby's friends story) I'd have a look at the heating and make sure, whatever the source is, that there is some way I can make it inaccessible for even the smallest of baby snakes.

[cassandra]

This is something I'd want to add to a snake room (nicely framed): Snake Anatomy Poster

And I'd really want to get an 8 Ball Pythons t-shirt...a little on the expensive for just a t-shirt, but I here you get a free snake with it!

[JLC]

Someone suggested to my wife that we have an intervention to keep me from getting more snakes. This is how it panned out....

SSssooooo glad I could be of such useful service to you and your family! Now...I've got this phone number for "Collectors Annonymous"....

Hehe....congrats on all the new additions and anticipated additions!