Feeders in the Snake Room

Linds · 10-25-02, 11:22 AM

Next year I am going to have to be combining my feeders and reptiles in the same room. I am a little worried about the safety factor (ie- handling sizeable snakes with lots of rodents/scent in the room). Does anyone house their snakes and feeders in the same room? If so how do you find it? Could you explain the details of your setup? TY

Bryan Self · 10-25-02, 11:29 AM

This seems like an accident waiting to happen. Unless you could close off a small section just for the feeders.
Good Luck

Linds · 10-25-02, 11:44 AM

I really am quite worried about this. I've heard of some people using air cleaners with some success, but that is still not convincing me of much. The only other choice I have is to stop breeding feeders. It may be the only option unless something changes {insert a hope and a dream} by spring

Scotty Allen · 10-25-02, 12:17 PM

For years, I did not have the luxury of a separate room for my snakes (living with parents, one room was pushing it), and I kept my rodents in the same room. I never had any particular problem with this and I had to be extra careful as I was keeping a lot of venomous snakes at the time. Just be sure and wash your hands (obvious I know) after handling the rodents, just to be on the safe side. Also, you might consider using tongs if not already to give yourself a little more margin.

Syst3m · 10-25-02, 01:36 PM

Have you thought about raising them outdoors?

I know they will not do much breeding during the winter months, but you should be able to produce enough rodents during the summer months to store over the winter.

vanderkm · 10-25-02, 01:51 PM

Our rodents (100 or so) and snakes are separated only by a thin door and while odor and dust in the mouse part is controlled by an air purifier, our snakes do not seem to be excessively stimulated by the rodent odor and they definately know when it is feeding night - they are all poking their heads out of hides as soon as the first one has been fed and they think their turn is coming up. This applies to those that are fed in separate containers as well as those that are fed in their cages - as long as our hands and clothes don't smell like rodents they don't mistake us for food when we pick them up to handle them. They don't show excess prowling behaviour until 7-10 days after a feeding so I don't think they are stimulated or have their appetites dampened by being exposed to rodent odor all the time. We do clean and feed rodents only after handling the snakes on any given day though, and use a hook to wake our snakes up before picking them up. We usually remove the snakes from the room if they are out for an extended period of time (to watch TV with us, etc.) or if strangers are visiting and handling them. The dust created by gerbils is a bigger issue, but mice are much less of a problem for that. I would definately confine the rodents to one area in the room on a single rack rather than distributing them about.

Mary v.

crimsonking · 10-25-02, 04:19 PM

As of now, all of my snakes and all of my mice are in the same room. All of my snakes are agressive feeders, but aren't bothered by this and some are inches from the rodents.The biggest thing with me is to keep the mice very clean. They will"stink up" the place in no time. There's about 140 adult snakes and about the same number of adult mice at any given time in the same "room." I still must buy frozen to accomodate though. Hoping to build a new mouse house this winter to give me more room and add some more racks of each.

tai_pan1 · 10-25-02, 04:24 PM

WOW! 140 snakes! That sounds like a full time job. How do you keep your mice "clean"? Is that in reference to the cage, or do you clean the mice?

Mike

katey · 10-25-02, 07:01 PM

IMHO this is a bad idea for a couple reasons, 1 - the smell will likely make the snakes more agressive and 2 - The snakes will likely become stressed at being able to smell the food but not get to it....

just my 2 cents as alaways your mileage may vary

kate
http://snakes.lexxdog.com

Linds · 10-25-02, 09:44 PM

The more I think about it the more it is giving me the willies. I'm really going to be trying my hardest to place them somewhere else

Well, I have many months to go still, and alot can happen in that time, hopefully something will change - in my favour

Syst3m,
Breeding outdoors here would be a futile attempt. 100 degree summers and freezing winters and really nothing in between those extremes.

nyx · 10-28-02, 12:32 AM

I keep 8 snakes and three rodents in the same room; never had a problem. Only one is large enough to be considered harmful to human beings, and she's almost never shown any interest in the rodents or the cats who sleep on her cage. The one time I caught her eying the other members of the household, I had just brought a mouse into the house as a pet, and she was very interested in the cage for a while.
Snakes feeding live may be a little different, though - their cues for feeding behaviour are exactly what your rodents will be producing, while snakes that eat prekilled usually don't have the same experience.

Linds · 10-28-02, 01:38 AM

Well I already have 11 spiny mice and 1 rat in the same room as my snakes, but that's a lil different than 150+ rats and mice....lol

I feed mine mine f/t, but if I don't have any of that particular size in the freezer I do feed prekilled. A few I wouldn't worry about, but that amount is sure to put off a strong aroma to the kids

I think I'm gonna see if I can fit them in a storage cubby and take the door off, hopefully nobody will mind them being in the basemnt hallway.....lol

Katt · 10-28-02, 10:18 AM

Blah, anything to do with live rodents disgusts me. Well ok, not really. I do keep one Rattus rattus in the living room where our boids or and they don't seem much affected by it even though, I believe the Rattus rattus is the natural prey for burmese. However, a large number of rodents in the same room, doesn't seem like the hottest idea to me. I think it could work, but just thinking about it is giving me an asthma attack. (I have BIG TIME allergies, even frozen sets me off.)

Rattus rattus is the black/wild rat while Rattus norvegicus is the domestic/brown rat (the one most of you keep in your freezer).

Edwin · 10-28-02, 10:28 PM

I used to keep a colony of 6 mice under my snake tank, and they didnt seem perturbed by it. It must be similar to living next to a restaurant.

Syst3m · 10-28-02, 11:06 PM

Linds, I know people that do it here in michigan.

100+ summers and -60 winters.

I dunno. wont get much in the winter but summertime in the shade should still produce.