Snake room/rat room question

Hey Guys,

Me and my business partner have decided that it would be mutually beneficial if we both gave up our own apartments and moved in together into a 3 bedroom, and made the third bedroom a snake room/ office. So I am actively building racks and enclosures to accommodate both of our collections (balls, bloods, and boas). I usually keep my rats in a separate room but with both of us needing access to the rats and an increase in the number of rats we will need to produce, I am contemplating moving the rat racks into the snake room.. i will have multiple Norway and Natal colonies.

My question to everyone is whether you have noticed a change in behavior and/or feeding responses with your snakes when they can smell the rodents all the time. Personally I have found that my ball pythons tend to have a reduced feeding response when the ASF are in the room, but not when the Norways are.. The Boas tend to have a better feeding response when they consistently smell the Norways, even though they are all on F/T.. And I don;t have any bloods myself so I can;t comment on that. I was wondering if anyone has experienced this or has any information relating to this topic.

Thanks.

Keeping enough rats to feed that many snakes indoors may be rather unpleasant. You might want to see if the garage can be used. They stink ten minutes after you clean them.

I use pelleted horse bedding from the feed store on my rats, and it (along with a quality diet) keeps the rats non stinkey

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wilomn

Keeping enough rats to feed that many snakes indoors may be rather unpleasant. You might want to see if the garage can be used. They stink ten minutes after you clean them.

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x2. We use to keep our rodents in a side room off the reptile basement ( yes they have the entire finished basement ), but the smell of them got too bad so the rats are now in the garage. I honestly never noticed a difference in feeding responses when the rats were in the same area as my snakes, but then again it was a separate closed off room.

Good luck to whatever you decide. And have fun building all those racks :gj:

Thanks for the responses everyone! Unfortunately I don't have that option... Its getting too expensive to buy feeders for 30 snakes, but I am only in an apartment :(.. I was thinking about keeping them in the den/living room but am seriously reconsidering now. I plan to constantly be culling and freezing so hopefully this will keep my numbers down :\.

Thanks to everyone for your input.

Use pellet bedding(or a mix of pellets and pine), change regularly and throw a air purifier in the room and it won't be bad. Feeding quality food will definitely help with the smell too as jjmitchell stated makes a huge difference believe it or not. I keep my rat racks in my basement and keep my snakes down there and haven't noticed a change in behavior, everyone had a great feeding response before and they still do.

To clarify.

I keep rats and snakes with the mice, all in the same room. No problems with any of them.

However, I keep one cage of fancy rats in the house, only three of them, and they can get stinky in just a couple of days. Enough rats to feed 30 snakes in a living room would stink.

I think.

Ammonia would make you blink.

And put foul taste in what you drink.

And you can forget about pink.

Have to plink your own dink.

if you truly think

that room won't stink stink stink

Quote:

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Originally Posted by wilomn

To clarify.

I keep rats and snakes with the mice, all in the same room. No problems with any of them.

However, I keep one cage of fancy rats in the house, only three of them, and they can get stinky in just a couple of days. Enough rats to feed 30 snakes in a living room would stink.

I think.

Ammonia would make you blink.

And put foul taste in what you drink.

And you can forget about pink.

Have to plink your own dink.

if you truly think

that room won't stink stink stink

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LMFAO!! That's awesome! :rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::gj: