Renting homes with reptiles + rodents

[Hypancistrus]

Tell them you have "small caged animals," and see what their response is. I personally wouldn't ever mention that it is a snake or reptile. People are prejudiced for no reason.

[Coluber42]

Actually, I would be completely up front about what you have. You're not talking about one or two animals, you are breeding larger numbers of them and presumably selling them. Show potential landlords your facebook page, show photos of how you keep all your animals and use words like "industry standard practice". Let them know how long you've been doing it, and show that you are responsible and committed to doing it right.
Not all landlords will be onboard with a breeding colony of rodents living in their property, and their concerns about it are totally legitimate from a property owner's standpoint. Not like a landlord who doesn't want you to have one corn snake because it might grow huge and escape and eat the neighbors.

There are other reasons why your landlord should know about it and why you would want them to be sympathetic, too. For example, if the heating system should fail to where the place is 50 degrees, the landlord needs to know that although you can put on a sweater, your animals can't.

I don't know how long you plan to stay in whatever place you move into, but especially if you plan on being there for awhile, having a good relationship with your landlord can be a really good thing. For example, our landlady in the place where we've been for ten years is planning on having a spigot added outside on our upstairs deck to make it easier for us to irrigate our deck garden - even though future tenants probably wouldn't care. Having a landlord who's onboard with your breeding activities could mean that they decide to repair that old sink in the spare room (that you're going to fill with animals whose tubs will need to be cleaned) instead of getting rid of it, for example.

[Snoopyslim]

If I were you, depending on how many snakes you have, I would ditch the feeders and just bring the snakes.

Are you paying for your own electricity? If so the landlord really has nothing to be upset about even if they happen to find out. Snakes are a contained, no mess animal, they can't really cause any damage...

[PitOnTheProwl]

Something people forget is a potential lawsuit.
Say I come to the place you are renting.
I am handling your snake or one you are selling.
I get bit and feel I need medical attention.
You dont want to pay gor my medical needs right?
You can be sued as well as the property owner for allowing you to have dangerous animals on the property.

Do we all think that is a joke? Yes.
Can it happen? Yes.

Then think about IF the landlord gets sued.
They can turn around and evict you and sue for their damages.

Most people in our self-centered society seem to forget to look at everything that could happen until something does happen and then they dont want to own the problem.

[Marrissa]

16 snakes ATM with a current clutch and should be two more on the way soon. I will probably not breed when in the new house because I only plan on renting for about a year. Maybe a little longer. Just enough time to put a year of hospital experience in, transfer my license, and then move back to CA and start looking for a job and home to buy.

I really do not want to get rid of my rats. I really like breeding them. Plus it's a HUGE savings to breed them myself and I have project lines of rats to improve to show standards (which are not immune to culls becoming feeders). I really enjoy them. And lines and the quantity later on would take a while to build up again.

Thank you for the help guys! I appreciate it.

[Snoopyslim]

Good luck and in the end honesty is the best policy finding a super chill landlord may take a bit longer but there's lots out there...who knows you may encounter another reptile enthusiast. The amount of people that have surprised me with their reptile knowledge and love has been a real eye opener. Sometimes the people you least expect actually love snakes and rodents for that matter.