How many is too many?

:O

Is there such a thing?? My question is mainly for the private collectors/one man shows with a full time job outside of reptile keeping. How many snakes do you think you can handle caring for by yourself and still managing to have time for personal life, work, etc.

When you have one more than the energy, time, space, and finances to properly keep them is when you have too many....actual numbers vary from person to person.

I have 27 including my 12 foot burm and its a lot to do. Work two jobs to support my spending habits (which still out weigh my making habits). But I like every second of it. Well except cleaning up those big burm turds.

When you're not able to care for yourself or the animals. Simple as that. You can have as many as you want, as long as you can care for them properly and you can care for yourself.

What my Wife says we can handle??? LOLOLO

At 4 and to others

I have room for 120/130 Breeders and about 400 hatchlings and that's where I put my limit space wise and time wise especially since I also breed my own feeders.

My limit mainly translate as something that does not feel like a chore and I enjoy doing.

I understand it varies from person to person, that's why I did this as a poll to see how many snakes people can handle on their own. It can be tough trying to breed on the side and still have a full time job. Lots of money and time goes into it, but I agree, you also have to get joy out of it and not let it become a chore.

I swore I'd keep it at 15. Now that I'm at 15 I'm thinking 25. Lucky for me my full time job is only 3 days a week. Gives me 4 days to play with snakes

My limit is currently what my other half feels comfortable with. Since all relationships are about respect, give and take, I'm not pushing the issue. Especially since we live in a smaller townhouse at the moment. Once we move, I'll have more flexibility I'm sure.

At the moment, my limit is: 2 snakes, 3 geckos and my 55g hermit crab tank.

I could easily handle more as a workload, but I could easily see how having a variety of other animals could cut into my personal time away from work. If they've all got different needs, that makes it harder. A rack full of BPs would probably be easier than, say, a Corn, a JCP, a BRB, a Blood and a BP.

Personally, I'd like to add about 2-3 BPs to my collection, and a Leachie gecko. I do want to get a more exotic snake, such as a BRB or an arboreal species, but that's far down the line.

I feel like I know each of my animals very well at this point, and that's definitely point I take into account. I want to know my animals, and them to know me. When I get too many and that becomes difficult, then that's a serious problem.

I can handle more snakes than my wallet, unfortunately. My vote was 20-40, considering rack space.

When the rats are on schedule, it is very easy. The snakes do not take much time to maintain, but it boils down to how much work the rats require for me. I'm also trying to save money to go back to school, as my decision to go back to school was made after the financial aid deadlines, and I don't qualify for much yet, because I'm under 25 (despite paying for it myself). Aside from normal bills, I'm also trying to save money to get a partial sleeve/back tattoo.. which I know is going to be rather costly... so.. as long as the rats are doing what they're supposed to, we get the help we need to clean the snakes/rats, pay them in rats, and life is much easier. If I were doing this on my own, and didn't have my boyfriend and a couple friends who are willing to trade services for paying off snakes or for feeders.. I would have a much smaller collection for my current lifestyle :)

I used to have a home zoo, until I realized having a home zoo is not nearly as much fun as it sounds. For me, it was too much. Now I'm down to 2 pythons and 2 boas, and I don't know how I could possibly have wanted more. 4 is perfect; not much maintenance, I now have the space, time, and money to provide large and elaborate enclosures for each of them (I'm working on outdoor enclosures as well for summer afternoons), and most importantly I am now able to spend a LOT of time with each of them, getting to know their individual personalities and spoiling them rotten. :D

Of course everyone's perfect number is different, and I have a great respect for any keeper who takes good care of their animals, no matter how many snakes they choose to have. But in many cases (or at least for me) having a 'collection' is overrated. There's always going to be one more snake that you'd love to have, but there is something to be said about keeping a small number of snakes that you really love.

I must agree with anatopism on the fact that snakes are simple. I have just started a colony of rats so its not a big one and I only have a few rats at the moment so thats a new project that I am looking forward to. I have 13 snakes with a new one coming in a couple of weeks and I find that maintaining them is very simple I just take some time every morning to check on my animals and note anything like sheds and other presents. I really dont have a schedule that I clean. as soon as a mess is made I pull it out of the rack and clean it up. If a snake has not messed its cage inside a week I clean it anyway. Water gets changed every other day and honestly I enjoy it because I get to handle them too so I figured I would slowly continue to grow my collection based on what I think is good for me... I am also trying to pace myself so that next year I have space and time for hatchlings too. I dont think I would feel overwhelmed by any less than 30 or even 40 snakes...

We have enough rack space for 96 right now. We would be comfortable with around 100, but my wife is not keen on keeping rats so that would bump the cost way up getting weekly feeders.

I'm not going to use the poll because I've seen people who can't even care for one. It becomes too many when you can't take care of all of them. Period. If you can handle 20 then go for it, if you can handle 100 then go for it.

Ball pythons? On my own I could probably handle a breeding collection of 15-20 snakes, and whatever offspring come from those. Assuming I'd be holding back a couple to replace breeders, and selling the older ones off, I'd probably keep it 20 or under while I'm working full time and trying to get back to school. There are only 2 BPs I'll never let go of/trade out for breeding (as of right now) because they were my first two snakes ever, as well as my first "pets" that I owned personally.

Now when you get into variety of species, I think I'm getting near my limit. Having only ball pythons for a while was easy because it was the same basic schedule for simple to keep snakes (same enclosure requirements). Then I got a crested, which was easy on her own too. Took on my old roomie's crested, since it'd be simple to add, then a pine snake, and taking care of my boyfriend's daughter's leopard gecko. Most of the work? My boyfriend's green iguana. Adding a tropical diurnal herbivorous lizard has added a lot to the "pet schedule". He needs salad every morning, cleaning, changing out a giant clunky water bowl/swimming dish, expensive lights, etc. Any of these, even the iguana, on their own would be no issue, but all together it takes a chunk of time. Can't just take 'em all and stick them in the same rack :P

I still want a few more animals, but we probably wouldn't have a huge collection, and breeding is a hobby for me. I'd love to get into some of the colubrids, maybe having a breeding pair of Mandarin rat snakes and my pied black pines or something.

Ive taken care of 40 plus ball pythons cut back to 25 due to having surgeries and had no problems whats so ever with it. I go threw tubs a few times a day to insure everyone is clean an safe a sound. This keeps my tubs extremely clean an doesnt take but a few mins to do. This also stops the amount of dirty tubs I have to clean from building up.

My limit is ~25 until me and my bf get a bigger place. I'm comfortable with the ones I have now and wouldn't have issues adding a few more.

I work 40+ hours a week, go to college full time, volunteer on a regular basis, help my hubby run his gaming business, and still manage to keep the 'zoo' up and running. Quite frankly, the cats, dogs, and chinchillas take more time than all my reptiles put together. Where that's concerned, my corns are the most time consuming in terms of cleaning/feeding. I check the snakes twice a day and feed once every 5-7 days depending on age. I clean as soon as they do anything in their cage and on feeding day, they get a full clean (or two days after in the ball's case). If I didn't have the mammals and hubby to tend to, I'd be able to have a lot more snakes but I'm not willing to get rid of those so I keep my snake collection down to under 20 animals. As soon as I graduate, that will go up since I'll have the extra time I'm currently using for homework. :)
My rule of thumb though is I have to have the time, energy, and money to properly take care of them and that includes if something goes wrong. I have gotten close to getting in over my head before and had the good sense to downsize and back off on the rescue work I was doing. By staying within those limits, I've found that I truly get to enjoy the animals I have.

My limit (and my parents) is 3 bps plus their babies.


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Well right now we're at 17. I really didn't think our collection would grow so quickly. When we don't let ourselves get a bit behind on cleaning it's pretty easy, especially I've given up on F/T and gone completely live, since its less work. This is with me and my boyfriend splitting the work. As soon as our breeding colony of rats catches up with our need for feeders things will be perfect, although its not bad either way as I have a contact for feeders who's close and sells very cheap but quality feeders.

I definitely think we could handle a bit more, maybe around 30-40 although we need to wait to add too many more until we get another place.

Now by myself I don't think I could handle this many without worrying I would slack and I won't own animals if I can't make myself take proper care of them.


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I currently have 20 snakes (minus hatchlings), with comfortable rack space for 10 more (thanks again, Deborah!), and space in the snake room for at least one more rack.They never feel like a chore.

While I can house and feed more snakes, I do feel that I am about at my limit as far as the time alloted for handling and interacting with each snake, without taking away time from other hobbies and aspects of my life. I currently have 8 snakes...

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The only time I've ever had a problem with my snakes is when the power went out for two days. I had to buy a ton of heat packs.
It's not too difficult to upkeep them. Feeding time can be a bit of a problem because I always get bit. (which is why I'm switching to f/t)

My wife seems to think one more would be to many but she said that before she got herself a Blak Pewter :)
So currently 5 is to many at my house but I am sure it will be 6 soon :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Annarose15

I currently have 20 snakes (minus hatchlings), with comfortable rack space for 10 more (thanks again, Deborah!), and space in the snake room for at least one more rack.They never feel like a chore.

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Curious to see how long it will take to fill up those empty spots ;)

I know mine never stay empty very long.

I work 48-72 hours a week at my full time job, switching between nights and days. I am devoted in a full time relationship. Feed a gaming "addiction" and photgraphy addiction, and right now I am housing 20 snakes with eggs in incubation due to hatch at the end of July, and 2 females due to lay in another 40-45 days. I use PVC enclosures for my Carpet Pythons and CB-70 racks for my Ball Pythons. The only time it ever starts feeling like a chore is when I'm cleaning cages at 5 AM in the morning after working all night. But I still feel like I could easily house / mange another 10-20 balls / carpets. With a dedicated room on a timer, its really not much work to spot clean / check waters / mite check / fecal check / feed. But I'm using a f/t because even though I've done the live route plenty of times it just seems easier on me. Count em out, thaw em, and spend 45 minutes feeding / cleaning.