On the topic of heating, sorry should have posted in the other reply.



We use solar and wood burning. Solar is easy and works pretty decent until it gets in the to single digits or lower. The wood burner heats our entire building to the point of discomfort (for humans). Wood burner is inexpensive to get and pretty much free to operate. Solar is a basic design I found on the web. email me and I can send you enfo on it (combatxmma@yahoo.com). For the water I use a tankless water heater and thermostat. It is attached to the central filter system and when the water temp drops below 80 deg it kicks in and pumps hot water in the main return lines bring all of the enclosure pools up to an acceptable temp. I set it to 80 deg so that there is room for the time it takes to get them all back up to temp without putting the animals at risk from the drop in temp.



I have the water pump set on solar, very simple set up and got the panels from harbor freight. Using an invertor to switch from 12v to 110. The pump run about 10hrs a day and goes through a pool (Sand) filter. I set the pipes for easy access and the return lines run along the walls about 2' off the floor.



no matter what you do you are still going to have to go in daily and check things out. things break, things have hiccups and have to be attended to. You have to clean on a regular schedule. I have wooden crates to hold the big ones, while i clean. After a while of getting them used to going into the crates, for food, you will find it is SO MUCH EASIER. I use chainlink fencing for the side walls of the enclosures, on the sides not against the actual exterior walls.

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