Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everyone,

My husband and I are moving from our tiny 700 sq ft apartment to a large 3-bedroom house in about two months. Among our planned renovations include finishing the basement, and transforming part (or all!) of it into a dedicated herp room - maximum space I have to use is 23' x 19'.

Right now I only have 3 snakes - see my signature. But I'm hoping that the herp room will allow me the space to expand my collection, and possibly start my first breeding project, or give small reptile education programs out of my home.

Here's the list of equipment and supplies that I've thought to include in the room so far. Any other suggestions? Also, advice on heating/cooling/humidifying the room, and special considerations would also be appreciated!

Here's the list of stuff I'd like to be in the room:

-Utility sink
-Storage cabinets
-Freezer for f/t rodents
-Misting system
-Seating (couch, a couple of chairs, etc.)
-Of course, plenty of room for caging!
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::i believe in joy > http://www.winds.org/nekomi/hope.html

::my homepage > http://www.winds.org/nekomi

My Growing Zoo:

1.0 Husband (Byron) ^_^
0.1 black cat (Shade)
0.1 rescued stray grey cat (Ghost)
0.1 Brazilian Rainbow Boa (Zia)
1.0 Leucistic Black Ratsnake (Houdini)
1.0 White-Lipped Python (Midas)
1.2 Panduro cichlids (A. panduro)

There is a thread just below on this. You can read my first reply to it here

First, do you expect at all that you'll need to cool the room in the summer? I don't need to cool mine, even on 100* days, and my garage roof is exposed directly to the sun for hours per day.

Otherwise, the only cooling you may need to consider is for brumation of certain species. What part of the country do you live in? I know some people in the south use portable or window AC units to brumate the species that require it. Again, I'm very lucky that I can cool my room down just by turning the heat down. But that is a function of where I live and where my herp room is situated.

One thing I would consider is splitting the area if you will be cooling species down for breeding.

For humidity, I'm a big believer in humidifying the invidvidual cages rather than the whole room. It's easier to humdify the room but it does little for the individual cages. Let's say you set up a humidifier that raises ambient humidity by 20%. You will not see a 20% increase in the individual cages - it will be less than that depending upon the design of the cage. The one way that a room humidifer does help is by reducing the evaporation rate in individual cages, but you can also just have a misting system cycle more often.

It's cheapest to heat the entire room rather than individual cages, but again whether that's possible is a function of the species you keep and, more importantly, the variety of species you will keep. Regardless, you'll likely need some heat and I strongly recommend a radiant heat source for that. You'll get much less of the layering effect seen with forced-air heat sources.

If you will be insulating the area I strongly recommend using an insulation with a radiant foil barrier. I have it in my room and I can heat my room to 90* easily with less amps than would be pulled by seven, 100 watt light bulbs. Even when it's below zero outside.

At the very least paint your room with paint designed to reflect radiant energy. Personally, I would use both, but maybe the area is already insulated and you don't want to go back and add the radiant barrier.

Here's the list of equipment and supplies that I've thought to include in the room so far. Any other suggestions? Also, advice on heating/cooling/humidifying the room, and special considerations would also be appreciated!

-Utility sink
-Storage cabinets
-Freezer for f/t rodents
-Misting system
-Seating (couch, a couple of chairs, etc.)
-Of course, plenty of room for caging!