Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Okay, things were pretty cool when it was eight and I was checking them twice a day, cleaning as necesary. Now we are around forty and should be well over a hundred before this project is even close. Not to mentioned the fact I have a rat colony to deal with now....

I have come up with a few things to save time on changing water, cleaning crap, etc. What do most of you do? Any really bright ideas you are willing to share?

Checking and cleaning as needed twice a day is just not working anymore, and will definately not work in the hundreds. How often to you check and clean? How much time do you spend? I am using newsprint because I feed f/t wet and the aspen just wasn't working out. Do most of you feed dry on aspen? Thaw in plastic bags? Feeding in a separate container would have to be a loser time wise.

Any advice from someone in the hundred animal range would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Al

Breed your own and feed live. (I see you are already starting a rat colony.)

Really, as much as some people balk at the idea of feeding live prey, if you ask around most anyone with that number of snakes (or any reptile) will tell you that they feed live. It's too time consuming any other way.

Then again, if you are breeding your own feeder rats/mice you will be able to offer the prey in any prey state you'd like (Live, Fresh killed, frozen-thawed) and at your convienence.

It is important to have a feeding schedule and stick to it. I offer prey once a week...if it is not taken then that animal waits until the next week. Try dividing your collection up by days of the week.

If you have 100 animals try this:

Monday, Wednesday and Friday you commit to feeding roughly a third of your collection at a time (1/3 each day). That way everyone is offered food at least once a week. Anyone who refuses food won't starve to death in that one week period of time and they will be less stressed than if you poked in their rack every other day trying to get them to eat.

Other "chores" can be done in a similar manner. Simply determine how much time is needed for each and divide it up throughout the week.

Of course, there are things like fresh water changes and clean up after voiding and defecation that shouldn't be put off for a week.

I only have one water dish with each of my snakes. It is kept at the front of the rack (since the belly heat runs along the back side = less humidity issues). I have extra water dishes for everyone. I simply go around with a couple buckets.

One bucket is for dumping the old water out...the other is for collecting the "old" dishes. I then take a few gallon jugs (milk or water) and fill up each replaced water dish. The "old" dishes are thrown into a tub where they are washed, dried and put away for the next time I change water dishes (this is only done once a week).

Refilling water is done in the same manner except that I don't collect the dishes. I simply have one bucket for old water collection and my gallon jugs I use to refill everyone's dish with.

Doing this requires minimum disturbance of the animals since I only have to pull their tubs out a little ways. If I see that someone has defecated or needs their paper substrate cleaned I make note of that on a small pad and return to them when I'm done with the "Water Boy" rounds.

Otherwise, everyone is left alone except for feeding day (where their tubs are more closely inspected).

Now here comes my disclaimer: I don't have 100 plus ball pythons. I have had a fair sized collection in the past (30+) and this method worked well for me. I've since scaled way back (This is a just for fun thing now.) No I was never a "major breeder", maybe not even a minor one. But, this is what worked for me. Currently, my collection is small enough that feeding frozen thawed rats isn't too time consuming.

Just my thoughts...

As already stated, probably the single thing you can do to lessen time is feed live. You have no thawing and no teasing animals to get them to eat with live. You also have no waste.

I pull rodents for feeding as I am cleaning the rodents - I clean the rodents then go feed the snakes. Then, I clean the snakes two days later (hopefully after most of them have pooped).

Also, when I clean my rodents I try to leave an empty tub at a top or bottom corner of each rack. This way, I transfer the rodents in dirty tub #2 to clean tub #1. Then I clean #2, transfer the rodents from #3 into #2 etc.

A good rat rack with an automatic watering system will save you a bunch of time cleaning and caring for rats/mice.

I use paper substrate with my snakes. An hour or so before I clean my snake racks, I go through and dump all the water bowls (or wet down the paper) in each tub. This way the paper does not stick to the tub - it comes off immediately when I scrape it with a pancake flipper. The water also softens up any dried urea in the corners of the tub.

Good luck,

Christy

I don't know how many balls I have but its close to 100, lol. On Monday I clean the rodents and pull out the ones that will be fed off, I also feed live. Tuesday I clean all the snake racks. I use white news print so the whole tub must be cleaned. For water bowls I use 16oz deli cups in crocks for the larger snakes and 5 oz deli cups in CVP cut to size for the small tubs. I use the 2 bucket method. Dirty water goes into one while I use the other to fill NEW deli cups. Deli cups are cheap and it saves me having to wash the crocks. The problem with paper is you can't spot clean. I use DCL & white paper towels in my shoeboxes. Tuesday and Wednesday evening I feed the snakes. I do 50% at a time so I can watch them since I feed live. I also go through the tubs daily to clean any cages that have messes in them or replace fouled water. Once you get a routine down it goes fairly quick. Hope this helps, Ron

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The Crawl Space

Everyone has their own combination and it's just something you have to fiddle with to get right. For example - there are a lot of people that swear by using newspaper - I tried it last month and hate it (I think my snakes did too)- for me it was a nightmare and easily quadrupled the time I spend cleaning cages every day. I also prefer to feed frozen thawed - I take it out of the freezer - thaw it over night in the fridge - then warm and feed the next night - I also feed in separate containers 7-10 at a time. Just line up the tubs - insert snake - insert food. As they are eating I do a second spot check and fill out feed cards put the snakes back and I'm done I've spent about 15 minutes snakes are fed cards are filled out all the cages have gone through their second spot. I have 4 live feeders and they take as much time as doing 10 f.t. as I have to monitor the feedings and clean up rat crap afterwards. Then there is my least favorite job of all cleaning out the rat barn every week - luckily I have a very small 6 tub set up so it takes about 1/2 an hour (or an hour if my kids help) - if my snakes were all eating live I suspect it'd be a good days work cleaning out the rat barn. I have better things to do so I buy f/t - I don't know the cost of raising your own compared to buying f/t I don't really care - to me I'd rather spend the money - again personal preferance some people like raising rodents - I don't. Daily maintnance consisits of every morning I fill up a big bucket with water grab a couple of empty tubs and do spot cleaning - any soiled aspen (I use chipped) gets scooped out and dumped in one tub, I pull all the water dishes (deli cups) and drop them in the other (water and all) grab a deli cup dip it in the clean water bucket and place back in cage takes less than 1 minute per cage. Sometimes I'll rewash the just-pulled deli cups most of the time I dump the tub out on the lawn and toss the deli cups into the recycle bin - I'm not really big on reusing to save a couple of pennies. Then I go out and make sure the rats have food and water. Once every week or two I pull all the tubs for cleaning and disinfecting. You kind of just fiddle with things till they fit your available time, budget, and preferences. But most importantly don't build your collection beyond your means.
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Tosha

"Nihil facimus sed id bene facimus"

7.33.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and gang)
1.0.0 Angolan Python (Anakin Skywalker)
0.0.1 Green Tree Python (Verdi - yeah I know but my kids love the book)
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Desert Tortoise (Pope John Paul aka JP )
2.2.1 Fish (1,2,3,4)
0.0.2 frogs rescued from pool skimmer

The animals with the great feeding responses really make life alot easier. There is nothing worse than trying to fatten up a girl thats a picky eater.

If your in it for money and it is like work....thats the way it is.

If your in it for fun and it feels like work...cut back.

Alan

I like the interaction with the animals, even the rats, I just have a limited amount of time each day to spend and want to make the most of it. I could always run the project another way and spend more money with fewer animals to get the same result.

So if I understand everyone, most people check their animals once a day or less and clean as necessary. Change water when soiled or once a week.

Deli cups and throw them away sounds like a great idea. I was already doing the bucket/gator-aid jug of water system. I also use a bucket of soapy water to soak the crappy hides in before I wash them to losen things up a bit.

The twenty /- minute speed clean in the morning is what I can drop. Going to once in the evening will make things work out with the larger numbers.

Thanks everyone,
Al