Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was wonder about other peoples snake rooms... mainly those multi keepers that dont use heat tape. I know I'm not the only one. I have been keep multi species off and on for 5yrs in a small room that is heated by a oil heater at 79*- 80* with a nite time temp drop with little problems other than I cant get the bottom self lower than 78* I do use a heat pad on some of my snakes but not all. I don't have the funds to flex up my racks yet. Anyone else use this same style of heating? If so hows it working for ya?
Chri Flowers

First off where do you live?
My no heat snake room seemed to work better in Miami than up here in N Central fl.(ocala).
I have 2 snake rooms and one i have an oil filled radiator,for young and baby snakes and BPs and the other room is not heated and full brumation of colubrids
Weather is frequently changing here.Sunday i had ice and a white roof Monday i moved the Bearded Dragons back outside to warm up and enjoy the sunshine

I live in the northern panhandle of WV where it gets quite cold during the winter. My set ups may not be textbook but they work well for me. My seven snakes (0.1 adult corn, 1.1 Thayeri, 1.1 alterna, 1.1 campbelli) are in separate wood cages with soft white bulbs on one end. The gradient usually works out to 75-82, give or take a couple of degrees. During the summer I do not have to use the heat as much. Oh yeah, and they are in my basement.

Sounds like we have identical snake rooms! The snake room with 150 milks has an electric baseboard type heater connected to a Johnson Controls thermostat and a small oil heater provides a bit of heat at the opposite side. The furnace room is attached to the snake room and provides most of the heat during winter. A small fan moves air around the room.
The area outside of the snake room stays at 75 almost year round and the cooler temp Asian rats are fine with that but heat tape keeps the big guys warm in the racks.
The root cellar/wine storage room stays at or below 60 all winter and another "guest room" stays at 65-70 for cooling the tropical milks.
Minnesota winters have a reputation that's well deserved and my greatest fear is an extended power failure during Jan/Feb.
Is anybody using a back-up generator??
Jeff

Yeah, Jeff,........your worst fear of there being a long power outage in Jan/Feb is well founded!,......the back-up generator idea is a perfect solution, but a little more expensive than most keepers could afford. In your case however, living in Minnesota with 150 plus snakes, if you could afford it, it would be a real life saver.

Maybe a better way to look at it is,......maybe you can't afford NOT TO..LOL!

BTW, great looking animals you sold to Mike!

ps, also looks like the "doll" thing got deleted,,hahaha!

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Ok so it looks like I'm not the only one with a snake room this way. Thats comforting. The only trouble I have is keeping my pines cool enough I may just have to move them to our living room... lol my wife will love that.

Just throw a slab of glass on them, and tell her they are the "latest contemporary" coffee table idea from "Better Homes and Garden"...LOL!

~Doug

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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Hey Chris..if your "betterhalf" balks about having em in the living room, you could put them in my living room. Heck, bring ALL of your collection down to me & make her estatic... There'd be no problem with that here. ( looking over shoulder to make sure the wife ain't around ) You know I rule the roost here and what I say goes..
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Richard Evans

no not THAT one

Hi, I had a snakeroom similar to yours, I was able to keep them ok, but had very little success breeding them.
Somebody posted on this forum once that if you keep your snakes happy by offering them a range of temps, you will have them make lots of baby snakes. So, I am building a new snake room do to a forced move. I am installing flexwatt tape in this one, so in a few years I will find out for myself if it's worth it.
Jeff Robbe

I am able to offer varied temps. I do a nite drop of 5* and I hibernate in the basement 55* and the temps get close to 80* in the afternoon and 78 evening. Partly due to the windows in the room. So they difently have varied temps.

I use cheap ceramic heaters ....

I heat the whole room to about 82 at chest height....all year long all the time.

I have a couple racks for balls with heat tape on the bottom 8 tubs ,,,not the top 4 in each stack....

I breed ratsnakes,balls,milks and kings.......

balls that are at 80 to 85 all the time do fine.....with no heat tape.....

my trouble is the bottom rows are too cold......so I try and keep appropriate species in the bottom rows......the problem with that is.snakes that are supose to like it at 78....really would like to be at 83 also.......mountain kings,hondos and some ratsnakes act too cold all the time.......but they do ok....

.......I got pales and reds (milk) this winter and they are at 82 to 84 and they like it warm......I thought they would like it cooler....

yes the room goes to 78 and yes it goes to 89........all does ok......
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I have had some wise cracks on my rope light set ups, but if you have a background heat, rope light is the perfect hot spot heater. I designed these cages so that rope light can be run underneath them. It makes keeping alot of stuff in a small area easy.Note this big milk is actually bigger than some of the adult kings in the other cubbys...

nothing could be easier. See how I have a system...when the deli is tipped one way there is a food item in it,tipped the other it doesnt. That keeps cages clean and my room less smelly.

Hey Jeff thanks For replying. How much does that heat each Juvi bin up?
Thanks

I just took some temps for you. The room is about 78, the rope lite itself(never shut off)is 98. The inside of a deli cup 94, and with a paper towel down, 90. The cool side remains about 80, and this small cup with a small temp variance works well for me.

Thanks Jeff!!! Feel free to PM me anytime!!!
Chris
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