How to make a shed into snake room...

Hey need some I dears on how to make a shed into a snake and rat room outside in New York...it gets real cold and real hot...what would I do for heating and cooling.. Thanks Richie..

That's honestly really hard to say... You'd have to insulate it VERY well. Once you did that, you'd need a heater and air conditioner. Turn on the AC when it's hot, the Heater when it's cold (maybe??). It would take a lot of work but I'm sure it's do able.

insulate it well, even the floor and have a good plan in case something bad happens in winter.

That's what I was thinking a heater for the winter and there is a window so I figured a air conditioner for the hot days.....what temps do mice need to live.. how cold can it get and how hot before they would die..Thanks like always Richie..

mice and rats are much different.

they have fur and have their own body temperature. heat can hurt them badly, they can to a degree compensate by drinking and sweating but if that stops working then they are done if it gets too hot.

cold, well, they have their fur and mothers keep their pinkies warm and so on. also the colony will produce some temperature of its own, they contribute energy to heat themselves and the barn.

so for rats and mice you have a temperature range that has some width to it. you could keep it simple and say that if you can work in there for hours without sweating and getting close to a heat stroke, and in the winter without freezing badly if you wear just shoes, pants and a t-shirt, rhodents will be fine. you just need to take off the edges, find a solution for the coldest winter days and the hottest summer days.

for snakes, its completely different. the temperature range is tight. in the winter, when your heat tape or UTHs need to run at really high power to work against the cold of the barn, your electricity bill will kill you and the snakes may still catch an RI on the cold side of the tub. if you in addition heat the whole barn during the winter, the snakes will be fine but your electricity bill will hurt even more.

so for snakes we are talking about serious insulation, if you do not want mind-blowing electricity bills and the DEA coming by every winter because it glows like a christmas tree in infrared and they suspect you grow weed in there, the insulation needs to be really awesome.


in short: rhodent barn = quite easy. snake barn = requires a level of insulation you usually see in homes, not barns.

Thanks a lot that was very helpful for now im just looking to keep rats and mice in there....I know a lot more work has to be done for the snakes to be added..i been buying rats and mice every week and it is so much money so im gonna try and breed them..i would love to have more snakes but the food bill is getting up there..Thanks again....Richie