Question for those who breed feeders for their snakes.

[cchardwick]

Here's what I do, I keep rats, mice, and snakes all in the same room and there is almost no smell at all except at the end of every 5 days when it's time to clean the rodents. The snakes don't mind one bit, in fact when it's rodent cleaning day I feed my snakes, it gets them in the mood LOL.

For my rats I keep them all on newspaper and shredded paper that I get free from work. I currently have 18 tubs (out of 20) full with mom and dad and babies (~ 20 total per tub) or a male/female ready to breed, or mid size rats up to 7 per tub (ARS rat breeder rack). I keep a box fan air filter right next to my rat rack with two layers of activated carbon filter pad in the front of it.

For my mice I keep them in glass critter cages with screen tops, similar to aquariums (8 tanks total, three 40 gallons, four 10 gallons, and one five gallon tank). I use packing tape and tape on a carbon filter pad over the top of the screen so that it covers the entire top of the tank. When I open the tank the smell about knocks me over, especially the male tanks. With the screen lid closed with carbon filter pad I can't smell a thing up until the fifth day. Some times I'll have up to 40-50 mice per tank! In my 10 gallon tanks I usually limit it to 20 per tank, even that is excessive, but I pile up crumpled up newspaper in there so it's like a big 3D maze LOL. I use the 10 gallons to separate males and females and to grow them out.

I got rid of my ASFs, they produce way too slow. I've only ever been nipped by one rodent and it was an ASF. Never have my mice or rats tried to bite me. I always give them some notice for several seconds before I pick them up and never move too fast like I'm trying to hurt them.

I keep my snakes on coconut husk substrate, keeps the smells to zero.

Here's a link to the carbon filters I use for my mouse tanks and box fan air filter. I'd say I replace them every couple months or so.

https://www.filtersfast.com/P-Hunter...bon-Filter.asp

The smell of my snake / rodent room is hardly noticeable even when you are in the room. It's way less than if you just had one male mouse in a tank all by itself. Those male mice really stink, I can't even bring them home from the pet store without having to get them out of the cab of my truck and back in the bed of my pickup LOL. But my white line of mice are far more productive than any other rodent I've ever seen, even more so than my rats. And the retired breeders get to a respectable size. I tried to keep mice without the carbon filter pads on top, forget about it. You can smell them the second you walk in the house.