Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I keep my mice in the garage, but it's getting kind of cold out there and I noticed that production has fallen off. What do some of you use to keep your garage warm in the winter? I have a small space heater but it doesn't help a whole lot below 40 degrees or so.
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Paul Weaver
Carolina Herps

Do NOT use space heaters in your garage. Regardless of whether it's kerosine, propane, or electricity, space heaters are notorious for causing fires. And because they all have warnings on them saying not to leave them running unattended(either on the box, the information thta came with it, or on the heater itself), your insurance doesn't cover it, and you can't sue the company if it causes a fire.
In my dad's business, we had over 75k worth of damages that the insurance would NOT cover.
Please, pay attention to the warnings on those. They're not something to mess around with.

I'd say the best thing to do would be to run another heating duct from your house to the garage. But, that's gonna be expensive.. I dunno what else you'd do. Maybe install a small furnace in the garage itself.

The cheapest, and maybe an easier way to heat your rodent racks in the garage would be to get one of those typical reflector lights that can clip onto things(they sell them at every pet shop) and just clip them on the rack, and face the reflector towards your rodents. I would recommend using one of those ceramic heat bulbs. Depending on how many rat/mice racks you have depends on how many of these bulbs/reflectors you need. I keep my mice in the basement, and it gets cold in there, and one of these clipped to my one mouse racks works lovely, just don't exceed the wattage that the ballast will accept because those ceramic bulbs get hot! Since I only have one rack with 4 levels, and 8 containers I put the ballast on the bottom of the rack facing the upward toward the tupperware containers, and this seems to help out a lot, especially for the pinks who need warmth.
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1.4.10 leopard gecko
2.3.0 nephrurus levis levis
1.1.0 nephrurus wheeleri cinctus
1.1.0 nephrurus amyae
1.0 spider ball python
0.1 high contrast albino ball python
1.0 albino het ball python
1.1.0 pastel ball python
1.0.0 gargoyle gecko
www.coolreptile.com

I use (2) 250 watt heat lamps I bought at Wal-Mart. It produces alot of heat and light. I have black tubs in my racks which "soak" up the heat like black leather on a sunny afternoon (is that BBQ I smell). Production does drop off a little however, even with the heat that I generate. If I insulated the garage everywhere it would help but we will be moving into a rodent breeding facility in about 2 months anyhow so it would be a waste.
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2.1 RTB (Zander, Ridick, Liliana)
1.1 Burms (Vladamir, Natalia)
0.1 Lavender Albino Retic (Katerina)
1.1 100% Het Tigers (Nicholi & Charlamaine)
2.3 Silver fox rabbits
many, many, many, many rats
"So, just how big a boy are ya???!!"