How Long do you spend on maintenance Daily?

[artgecko]

Wondering how long in general everyone spends on maintenance on a daily basis. As my collection has grown, I've found that more and more time is necessary..namely for my non-snake reptiles (geckos, frogs, etc.). I'm now up to maybe 30 minutes a day between feeding, cleaning, etc. (not including any additional handling time).

[Craiga 01453]

Are we talking just snakes? Just reptiles? All pets?

[Sauzo]

I got mostly boas which dont poop that much. And when my big ones poop, they pace the cage and also when you open it, you can easily smell it. So it only takes me about 15 mins to peek into everyones cage daily. Now if you are talking changing water, fluffing and respraying substrate, digging around looking for urates in the ReptiChips which i do most of that stuff every other day, then it takes probably 30 mins or so. And also if you are talking handling time, it takes a lot longer and varies as each snake kind of determines how much time they want to explore and hang out with me.

[the_rotten1]

Probably varies from 15 minutes to an hour. There are some days when none of the snakes poop and all I have to do is check temps and fill water bowls, and then there are days when about half of them all decide to heed nature's call at once and I'm stuck cleaning a dozen cages. So probably 30 on average. 15-20 most days, but every now and then they make massive messes like my green pastel girl did last night. I don't know how the hell she managed to get poop on the top of her head, but it was a fiasco.

[DLena]

It depends. If it's a quick check and water, about 1.5 hours; if it's feeding day, I stagger it between 5 days, 7 days, 13 days and each feeding day takes about 2.5 hours from pulling out of the freezer to checking for refusals; spot cleaning 2.5 hours, major messes anywhere from 4-6 hours; serious cleaning takes entire weekends.
But I have quite a few snakes.

[L.West]

I currently only have 3 boas in 4ft cages. I check their cages every morning and night for poops/urine. I disinfect their water bowls every morning and give them fresh cold water for the day.

Other than that, if one or all decide to poop - then I have to devote maybe 20 minutes to each one before I leave for work in the morning. That sucks when they wait until monday morning to do that - why couldn't they just poop/pee on sunday morning when I am home and no where that I have to be. LOL

[artgecko]

Oddly enough, the most time consuming animals I keep are the frogs, followed by the chameleon. Both have issues with water (frogs constantly get their dirty and it must be replaced, the chameleon requires moving water which is a pain). My snakes are far easier by comparison..I do spot checking daily and change water every 2-3 days or as needed. I do full substrate change out every 2 months or so (or as needed) and that can take quite a bit of time.

I feed every 14 days for the snakes, every other day for the geckos, frogs, and chameleon, and weekly for the skink. Sorting and dusting live feeders is the biggest pain.

I actually spend a fair amount of time maintaining my roach colony too... Those things eat and drink like nobody's business and produce a lot of frass too.

[Craiga 01453]

The snakes are easy. As far as daily maintenance it's less than 15 minutes. Feeding days a little longer. Full enclosure cleaning day is about 3 hours, but I dilly dally and lolly gag and take my time.

Fish are easy on the daily too. The tanks both get cleaned every other week and I do both the same day, about 2 1/2 - 3 hours usually.

Ferrets, on the other hand...are a pain in the butt!!! I love them to pieces, but their daily cleanup entails me climbing into their enclosure (I turned a 4'x6'x6' closet into an enclosure with ramps, levels, tunnels, etc...) for about 10-15 minutes twice daily. As well as washing their blankets weekly.

[artgecko]

The snakes are easy. As far as daily maintenance it's less than 15 minutes. Feeding days a little longer. Full enclosure cleaning day is about 3 hours, but I dilly dally and lolly gag and take my time.

Fish are easy on the daily too. The tanks both get cleaned every other week and I do both the same day, about 2 1/2 - 3 hours usually.

Ferrets, on the other hand...are a pain in the butt!!! I love them to pieces, but their daily cleanup entails me climbing into their enclosure (I turned a 4'x6'x6' closet into an enclosure with ramps, levels, tunnels, etc...) for about 10-15 minutes twice daily. As well as washing their blankets weekly.

This...This is so true about rats as well. I used to breed and have a pretty big colony (12 adults) but maintaining their cage was difficult... and it would smell after just a few days, even with using a litter box and good bedding. I am down to 2 adults now and don't plan on breeding anymore due to the amount of time it takes to maintain them and the odor. I tried using racks, but that didn't work for me or the rats.

[distaff]

My four snakes take almost no time at all. I really wish I had a few more.

The rats are another matter! I use fleece bedding, and it mostly gets changed daily or it does smell. My hairless seem to stink things up the most - not sure why. I really like interacting with rats, but they are more work than even the birds (budgies, canary, dove). I make sure the ratties get daily exercise time while cleaning and prepping their food. That requires rat-proofing the area, and clean up after they are back in the cages. They are so smart, active, and engaging - I'd feel guilty if they were stuck in racks.

Goldfish are kept out in a 300 gallon stock tank. I'm paranoid about a big aquarium bursting in the house. There is no room for one in here anyway. Very easy to maintain the stock tank outdoors. Weekly water changes are just remove the plug, and bring over the hose. I go through a lot of Prime water conditioner with a tank that size, but the fish are still cheap pets to keep. Our filtration is just aerated sponges on solar, so there is no addition to the electric bill.

Hoping to get more into inverts soon. Looking into hissing cockroaches, millipedes, and maybe a couple of tarantulas (how I'll sell the BF on the last, I've yet to figure out.)