Oh yes, and that's just adults and subadults. There are also younger pythons and boas being raised that were either purchased, traded for, or the result of previous clutches selected for their beauty. But the number always fluctuates. Right now I have gravid albino granite females, gravid albino labyrinth females, gravid albino retic females, one of the female albino patternless is gravid, and a number of lesser value breeds and phases are also currently gravid. By April or May the number will be in the hundreds.



As to my system/s I keep it real simple and cost effective. I'm glad you asked because I am quite proud of the systems that I shaped to make all of this very easy to do. I build all of my own cages. Most of my cage structures are 6 1/2 feet tall by 3 1/2 feet deep and 6 1/2 feet wide. Each structure has four 18 inch high cages built into it. Each cage tower, as I call them is on large industrial rubber swivel wheels. For smaller breeds or subadult snakes I make cage towers that are 6 1/2 feet tall, 2 feet deep, and 4 feet wide, again with 4 cages built into one tower and again, always on swivel wheels. There are 4 very basic designs that I make that all fit very nicely in any given room regardless of the size. I currently operate 4 reptile rooms. The temperature and humidity is controlled in each room. To make maintainence much easier I also built rolling work stations which are outfitted with newspapers, waste disposal containers and other supplies. On bowl cleaning day (we wash every Sunday and call that day of the week "Super Bowl Sunday" lol because there are SO many bowls) the rolling station is outfitted with two large wash and rinse tubs with hot water antibacterial soap and about 5% bleach. Every snake has two personal water bowls. To save additional time, as we clean each bowl an already clean and dry bowl (designated to that snake) is placed into the cage and filled. The first bowl is washed, rinsed, and placed on a towel to dry. Then on to the next cage. The whole operation takes roughly one hour at about 30 seconds per bowl. For little juvie snakes I simply replace disposable bowls with new bowls and toss out the old. The daily cage cleaning is very similar in nature. We go from cage to cage and roll up any soiled newspaper and replace that section with new. As most cages are usually unsoiled this process takes even less time than Super Bowl washing.



Let me know if you want to hear more about my operation. I also have "Milk Snake Monday" the day designated for the care and maintainence of all colubrids, "Tap Tub Tuesday" the day to wash out the python's soak tubs and refill with warm tap water (they get filtered water in their drinking bowls) "Water Change Wednesday", the day we dump and replace their drinking water, This day is also divided to "Weekly Wave Wednesday" in the rat facility, (yes, we have an extensive rat facility that churns out between 3000 and 5000 rats per month) this weekly wave involves the day which I wean a generation of young rats, and "wave up" a mature batch of young but mature females into breeding colonies (usually about 150 females per week, sometimes more), the weekly wave day also carries over into our huge rabbit breeding operation. We keep and breed roughly 60 female rabbits at any one time to produce between 200 and 300 rabbits per month. Like the rats, these are predominately for the snakes to eat, but we do sell surplus stock to other reptile breeders/keepers at a low price. Thursday is mostly a day off, unless a "Preggo Pull" day happens to land on that day (I pull pregnant females every 4 days. Takes me about an hour to pull about 100 pregnant females on average and set them up in the maternity racks [I posted pics of my rat facility last July or August]. Then there is "Feeding Friday", my fav day of the week (today in fact!) in which I make it a point to feed every snake that wants to eat. Basically every day is a feeding day, but on Fridays I try to feed everyone. Saturdays are basically day's off, but there's alsways something to do. Just never a lot.



Since I don't work I actually do all this and have much more free time than any person holding down an 8 to 5 job. My average day consists of about 2 hours of "work". Though I am reluctant to refer to it as "work" since I like doing it all.



If you have any other questions Tom don't hesitate to ask them. I love talkin repile any time. Happy Herping





>>Over 60??!! Wow. I would like to see some photos of your set up and see how you do it.

>>

>>Tom
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"If I had 365 enemies it would only take a year out of my life to settle all scores." Mia Miselfani

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