Large Amount of Reptiles

[ThEmAdHaTtEr]

Hey guys, got a question for you. What do you think about keeping a large quantity of reptiles at home? At the moment im keeping - 0.2 BPs, 1.1 leos, 1.0 toad, and 0.1 beardie. Thats a lot for a 14 year old in his room. Ginving them all the TLC they need pretty much sums up my life. Not that I have a problem with it tho, I love my pets. But how do you guys deal with it? Whats the easiest way to feed them? Handle them? House them? Things like that. Thanks guys.

[reptilez]

I to am 14(turning 15) and have 1.1.7 beardies 0.1 BP and 0.1LeopardGecko. I have a book case divided into 4 enclosures and one 20 galleon for the babies.
What do u mean by:
Originally posted by ThEmAdHaTtEr
Whats the easiest way to feed them?
-Reptilez

[ThEmAdHaTtEr]

Like, do you breed your own? Or go out and buy feeders when needed? Things like that.

[reptilez]

I go out and buy my own. I may start to order them from sites.

[PoiSoNouS]

I have 21 snakes a golden gecko in the same reptile room.. for the snakes its not that hard, they all eat the same day, they usually have to be cleaned all in one day day to.. except for the gecko.. of course... :)

[shaggybill]

What does 1.1 toads mean? How can you have 1.1 toads?

[Tim and Julie B]

Well, here's what I do. I have a solid routine. I wake up before work and make sure everyone has water, turn on the lights and give all the veggie eaters their food, which I keep prepared in the fridge so I can just grab what I need and that's all. I go to work at 7:30 and usually get home around 5-5:30. The first thing I do is check to make sure everyone has eaten their veggies then I fed all the other herps their crickets and mealworms. I take out the rodents to be thawed and I double-check the water and make sure everyone has calcium in their dishes. This usually takes about 1/2 an hour. Then I feed everyone their rodents. Once a week we clean and disenfect every cage(usually Sunday). This takes about4-6 hours, but it's only once a week. That frees up the rest of my day, which is actually a lot of time. Hope this helps, it all comes down to doing everything on a regular schedule.

[BWSmith]

Well, I run everything outof my home. I am currently at about 60 or so snakes. With a good routine, I spend about an hour every night and about 4 hours every weekend working int he herp rooms. But I would venture to say that each hot takes as much time for daily mantainance as 5 nonvens. Just get a routine and system down. Just don't get so overloaded on herps that they begin to suffer. Keep everything in plain site and easily accesible. remember, out of sight is out of mind.

[ThEmAdHaTtEr]

Thanks tim and julie B! Bill, 1.0 means a male, it goes male female unsexed: 1.1.1 would be one male, one female and one unsexed. But tim and julie, Doesnt feeding the mice take longer? Do you just drop it in the tank or whatever and the snake eats it? With my BPs, I have to dangle it for about a minute or so till it strikes. Thanks for the info tho.

[ThEmAdHaTtEr]

Originally posted by BWSmith
\Just don't get so overloaded on herps that they begin to suffer. Keep everything in plain site and easily accesible. remember, out of sight is out of mind. I completely agree, and thats why I have bought nothing more. I would LOVE to have a BCI but I dont wanna buy it and not be able to care for it. A lot of keeps buy to have it, and dont meet its proper requirements, its a bad thing! Heh, well thanks BW!

[BWSmith]

I have found that there are certain places in my herp rooms that I don't tend to check as often. Particularly cages that are very difficult to work with (like having to physically move a 40 breeder tank from between two shelves to do anything, even water). As soon as I realized this, I took some time to strategicall arrange both herp rooms so that if nothing else, I can doa quick walk through and get out droppings and change water as needed with minimal effort.

To keep herps successfully, you not only have to know about the herp and it's requirements, but you must understand yourself as well. Often it is too easy if a cage is hard to get to for one to say "ehhh, it can wait till tomorrow". As the collection increases, so must the planning.

[Tim and Julie B]

Yes it can take longer to feed rodents, but most of the time we can simply place the food item into the cage and the snakes eat it a little while latter. Wish all snakes were that easy!

[ThEmAdHaTtEr]

hey ive never even tried that! Im gunna have to try it some time...Man BPs are stubborn! :P

[NewLineReptile]

I have 14 snake's and 12 lizards and one monitor all in my house i have one room that is all set up for them and there enclosures what i do is the same as tim and julie B first thing when i wake up i check them all turn the lights on feed who has to be fed and i keep track by putting everything i do with the reptiles on the computer and that is feeding dates sheding dates action's problem's ECT all that kind of stuff i find keeping track like that the best way to do it

[Cobra266]

okie, i dont have that many herps right now but i plan to in the future...see my mom has the idea of making a dry-wall room in the corner of the basement like they did for my brother so i could keep the stock in there. I think its a good idea...but my brother doesnt like the idea of sleeping in a place close to snakes. Well, he can just live with it! :)

[Mardy]

I have found that as I got more reptiles I had to chose animals that would live in about the same
temp/hum. to make keeping them all a bit simpler.
It was much tougher to keep things that like it dry and some that like it wet ect.


Mardy

[Linds]

I've got 18 snakes, 1 frog, 1 tortoise, 3 leopard geckos (more once the hatchlings start popping out again), 11 spiny mice, 1 rat, feeder bugs, 2 snails, and 1 little ******* (cat) all living in my bedroom with me :p Instead of display or naturalistic setups, I keep most of them in functional setups to keep maintenance more efficient, and I breed as many of my own feeders as I can to keep costs down (I breed mealies, mice, rats, and am working on superworms and am going to try lobster roaches soon as well).

[ThEmAdHaTtEr]

Man thanks for all the replies guys! They were very helpful. Illl have to start up a dayly routine.

[JD@reptiles]

i bet it is easier being young and keeping them at your house. i am 15 and a fe a few animals myself ;) . i can see it getting much harder in a few years when i have to pay my own rent and crap like that.

[Lisa]

We're up to 18 snakes. and feed them all the same night. we seperate the ones that share a tank for feeding, we have enough containers that each snake gets their own container. while the snakes are out for feeding we also take this time to do the full cleaning of the tanks, plus the spot cleanings through out the week. it can take 5-20 minutes a day to do the spot cleanings.

[JasonBrennan]

I have 27 snakes right now, 3 aquatic frogs, and one tegu (not to mention the 100 plus breeder rats, all the mice, the 4 dogs, the cats, etc). For me it is not that bad, as I work from home, and I actually enjoy the maintance tasks of keeping up with all the animals (except the cats!! Those are my wife's!) I tend to feed everyone on the same day (but there is always one or two that won't cooperate and want to wait a day or two!). I spot clean as I need to (everyday someone seems to need something done), completely change everyone's water every day. It takes a few hours aday (but I am very meticulous, more so than most), but I also spend time handling different snakes each day (I don't ever try to get to them all in one day, not sure my hands could take that many washings, lol), so that accounts for some of that time.

On the weekends, we do complete cages cleanings and wipedowns (unless one of the big ones has shed and dumped, then it gets a complete breakdown and cleaning right then and there!).

All in all, try to establish a routine, but understand that living animals will rarely conform completely to a routine, and just deal with the issues as they come up. DON'T put them off, get them done, and you will be fine. The problems occur when you start putting things off (they will pile up quicker than you think!)

Just my $.02, now where is my change?