Reptile & Amphibian Forums

what is a good reptile room size and what features could be added to make it better? and if anyone keeps iverts as well what size room/feature would be good?

My motto is the bigger the room the better.
It always makes a snake room work better when you have a good work area wether it's a rolling work station or a stationary one.
Another big thing is to have a sink close by and even better to be in the snake room if possible. Another thing I really like is a cabinet or shelf system to keep things like water bowls, scales, hide boxes, extra paper towels, shipping supplies and so on. If you don't these things always end up in your way. I personally think a snake room with a window/natural light is good.

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Randy Whittington

what type of door would you put on it in my opinion it should be wide and easy to push in if carrying a large tank but that would also take up more space.

If you have a option I would make your snake room door as wide as your entrance door to where you live so if you can fit a rack, aquarium or whatever into your house then you can fit it into your snake room.
I've had to take a door off the hinges in one of my snake rooms more than once over the years to fit a rack into the room.
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Randy Whittington

what about outlets should a snake room have more outlets than ther rooms?

Over the years I've always had all the outlets in my snake rooms filled with multi plugs and always wanted at least a couple more. I guess a simple awnser would be the more the merrier.

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Randy Whittington

how much natrual sunlight should it have because if a tank is put in direct it will cook anything inside?

Sorry I didn't mean direct sun light but just to have an exterior window in the room. Some people use artificial light to light snake rooms but an exterior window makes it easy. It provides a much more natural and steady change of light periods during the change of seasons.
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Randy Whittington

>>what is a good reptile room size and what features could be added to make it better? and if anyone keeps iverts as well what size room/feature would be good?

I have a dedicated 17'x9' snake room in the back of my third garage stall. Would love to keep them in a large office inside the home but the wife shot that idea down.

Size is a matter of preference. One thing to consider is that it is almost always cheaper to heat a room than it is individual cages. Supplemental heat for temperature gradiants is one thing but in general the more you can provide heat with ambient room temperatures the better off you'll be.

So while I agree with bigger is better, do take into consideration how what temperature you'll be heating (or cooling) the room to and what sort of costs will be involved.

The features of my room that I really like:

1) 220V power to run the radiant heaters I used. I can heat my room to 90* when it's below freezing outside for less than a dollar a day. I do wish I had used 220V radiant heat panels to heat the room instead. With the cove heaters I have to be careful about how high I can stack cages or racks at their ends of the room.

2) Radiant barrier insulation. Plays a major roll in how cheap my room is to heat but also means I never have to use an air conditioner in my room, even on 100* days. But some of that also has to do with that fact that third stall is partially below grade (dug into a hill). I would never use standard insulation in a reptile room if I could avoid it. You really need an insulation with a foil layer in a reptile room. Even if you'll be using forced air to heat the room you'll still have radiant heat being produced by the cages.

I also have the floor framed out and insulated. Really helps with heating costs when using radiant heat.

3) 36" door - the biggest I could get without going custom.

4) A lot of receptacles, but this has actually turned out to be a regret. With hindsight I wish I had run plugmold with a cord long enough to raise or lower the strips at my convenience.

Also, I would have like to have one run of plugmold on a built-in heavy duty timer. One set of plugmold or outlets providing power 24/7, the other on a one of those timers.

5) Heavy duty exhaust fan on a timer. It's one of those twist timers so I can crank it on and leave the room and it will shut off on its own. My timer goes up to an hour.

6) Ceiling fan that keeps air moving in the room.

Are you converting an existing room or building from scratch? If building from scratch, will be using any existing walls?
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Currently keeping:

6.10 Gonyosoma oxycephalum (Javan, mixed colors)

0.0.4 Rhynchophis boulengeri

1.1 Philodryas baroni

1.1 Lampropeltis triangulum multistriata

0.0.1 Rhamphiophis rubropunctatus

0.0.2 Morelia viridis (Aru & Merauke locale types)

1.0 Rhodesian Ridgeback

to answer that last question i am not actually making a snake room i was actually doing a project for a where i had to design an un-firnished floor plan and a reptile room was something i wanted to incorporate but wasn't sure were to start.