Mike,
I too have lived in a house wherein the snake room was part of the house. Only in my case, the snake room was connected to the living room via a ARCHWAY WITHOUT a closing door. Which basically means that the lovely ODOR of the many Drys and Pitouphis used to WAFT into the living room at the MOST inappropriate times, such as when the family was watching the Tellie(T.V.) or when an "important" non herp-related "Guest" came over ( Read....mother-in-law"
This led to general hysteria and more than a few disagreements. Which I lost. Everytime....
Keeping the peace is preferable.
Having said all that, I can assure you of four things:
A) Drymarchon (Indigos&Cribos) produce waste that STINKS. Anyone that tells you that they don't or that their waste is somehow no worse than other snakes is either trying to SELL you one, or is delusional to the extent that they shouldnt be allowed in public. Or around sharp objects.
B) The key factors that cause Drys to poop are:
a) The amount of food and frequencey of feedings
b) The amount of stimulus, noise, movement around the cage.
c) The temperature they are maintained at, both ventral and
air temps.
d) If they are taken out of the cage when it is cleaned,
versus spot cleaning.
e) WHAT they have been fed.
C) Having a snake room that is attached to the house means that the ambient temps are going to be similar to the house temps, which works great for months when it is nice but lousy for really hot summer months or reall cold winter months.
So, here are my recommendations to cutback on the amount of potential drama in your life, Dry wise:
1) Cutback on the feedings, I dont feed my Dry that often, in fact I never have. Snakes that are pumped foold of food usually dont seem to do as well as ones that are grown at a moderate rate or slowly. Feed offspring every 6 days and s every ten days. YES. they will take longer to mature, but less problems occur with them, and with other snakes, when they are not pushed. Also go for smaller meals, drys really dont need the largest meal that their mouths can hold.
2)Limit the amount of lights turing on and off in the snake room, the noise from heavy metal cd;s blasting in their lairs, and the amount of fuzzy pets that go in and out of the snakeroom(This means kids also) all these things are STIMULUS and they respond to stimulus by.....you guessed it...crapping....
Cut back on the stimuus
3)Keep temps in the mid to low range, avoid temp spikes and also avoid letting the snake get to cold which can cause regurg. And THAT IS worse than the fecal matter.
4) Often, if it is just urates, the snakes can be "spot cleaned" if they are kept on shavings or sani chips. I prefer newspaper, neccesitating the removal of the snakes and cleaning of the cage, and when you put them back in it, the nice new cage...all clean and sparkly, STIMULATES them to poop.
5) Feed mice and small rats to easterns. Feed hoppers and fuzzys to juveniles. Avoid fish OR frogs at least until you get a snake room SEPARATE from your house. I've noticed that rat PUPS and pinkie MICe tend to produce some real poops also, so I avoid them on all but the most difficult feeders, or on neonates. Birds seem to work well, but I am partial to birds so dont feed them(I know.....softy Fred)
Mike, best of luck. Work on getting those guys out of the house, even into the garage is an upgrade because it allows you to not be hemmed in by the sensitive nostrils of others. Hope some of this helped, if it didnt please fell free to write me and tell me to bug off.
Take care
Fredrick Albury