Where do you keep your animals in your home?

[LadyOhh]

I just recently met a man who has his collection of Retics and Boas (10+) right next to his bed in his bedroom...

Where do you all keep your animals? (snakes and rodents)

[shrap]

My reptiles have a room all their own.

My rodents used to be in the basement until we had some very bad rains back in the Spring/Summer of 05'. We had like 8 to 10 inches over a 2-3 day period, the basement flooded with about 18"-24" of standing water in it. Nothing is kept in the basement anymore except high up on shelves.

So now the rodents share the living room with us. Fortunately I have a HUGE living room that is somewhat like two rooms the way it is shaped. So the rodents now stay in the small alcove in my living room.

[joshdhensley]

I have Uros in the living room and one guest bed room, snakes and tortoises in the other guest bedroom and a hedgehog in the kitchen( it's clean and sanitary I wear!!). 3 cats ans two small dogs everywhere in the house.

[droogievesch]

I keep all of my animals in my bedroom (8 geckos, 1 tarantula, and 7 pythons)

[FireStorm]

The snakes are kept in a guest bedroom (it never gets used for guests, lol) and the rats get kept in the tack room of my barn. Once the barn is finished, there will be a designated herp room upstairs so it will be climate controlled and we'll have more space.

[Valley Dragons]

I keep most of my lizards and snakes in their own room. I have one snake in the living room. The incubator is kept in my bedroom because it is more temperature stable. I have a terrible time keeping the reptile room from overheting, argh!

Jamie

[ms_terese]

At one time we had 3 dedicated "snake rooms", and also kept a couple of pet snakes in the living room. Since we've scaled back, we only have one dedicated snake room, and I think we may end up making it a reading room with snakes in it.

We've come full circle....pet owners to hobbyists to business to hobbyists and now I think we may just be pet owners soon.

[Scott Ashton]

I have a dedicated room in my basement.

In fact, I just recently renovated it (it was a home office for the previous owner).

[Bar None Reptiles]

Well, since I live in a converted old barn, it's more like floors, no rooms specifically. Upstairs are the dragons and leopard geckos. Downstairs, behind the closed door, are the 3 dogs, 3 cats, crested geckos, and frogs. Feeders are kept upstairs with the dragons.

[Schlyne]

I have a 2 bedroom apartment. The spare bedroom holds the library and all the invertebrates. The reptiles all live in my bedroom. I prefer keeping the reptiles separate from the arachnids in case I have to do a mite treatment for some reason. It's possible that I could squeeze all of them into one room, but I'd have to rearrange half of the apartment to do so.

To keep the cat from bugging any of the reptiles or inverts, they stay behind closed doors. It also makes cleaning easier due to the fact that the bedrooms are hardwood floor and the living room is carpet.

I look forward to the day I buy a house and get the reptiles a dedicated room that I'm not sleeping in :D

[Cat_72]

I have reptiles all over the house....LOL.

[Mooing Tricycle]

All of Ours are in the Living room with only one snake in the bedroom. The cats have full range of the apartment and usually dont bother anyone, maybe except to look into tanks.

7 snakes and 2 cats and couple fish here. All in a One bedroom Apartment. ^_^ Home sweet home!

[Leighanne]

Well I live in a two bedroom apartment. I have 1 Ball, 1 Corn Snake, 2 Geckos, Two Tarantulas, a Green Anole, 2 Small Pet Mice, and Two Pet Rats all in my bedroom. I can't WAIT to have a house to be able to put my critters EVERYWHERE someday. People do think I'm odd because I can handle sleeping in the same room with them all but it doesn't bother me a bit. I actually probably couldn't get to sleep without them. The house will soon be over run with Spiders but I'd like my house to be over run by SNAKES!

[techgirl]

Mine are all over. 2 beardies are in the baby's room, 1 bp, pacman, 2 leos, and the hogg island are in the living room, the kitchen holds the armadillo lizard and 1 leo, the main bedroom has the bp, western hognose, and the sinoloan. It looks cramped but i like it

[catawhat]

My main room is a finished reptile room in the basement- snakes only go in there once quarentine is over. I have snakes in every room of the house though with the exception of the bathroom (don't laugh it may come to that if I don't switch to all racks soon). The rat breeders are my daughters pets so they are in her room.

[Cat_72]

Ingrid, I was thinking the same thing as you said about the bathroom..LOL.

[kellysballs]

I have a guest bedroom with the balls and my bearded dragon, my boa is in a giant corner cage in the livingroom, The breeder rats are in the garage, my daughters hairless rat pet is in the dining room, and the cat and dog have run of the house except for the room the balls are in. I plan on moving the beardie to my daughters bed room, I just havent figured out where yet.

[snakebiteAZ1]

are kept in a 60 foot building next to my house, which is heated with a furnace and cooled with a swamp cooler, helps keep the humidity up!! My rodents have a heated and air conditioned 12x12 building next to the snake building!! I use to have most in the house, but decided to get their own living quarters LOL!!! Mike

[markface]

i rent the upstairs of a house giving me 2 bedrooms and a bathroom as well as run of the kitchen . one of the rooms is almost all storage with one corner set up for my rats . the other room is combination living room/bedroom/snake room . i also use the storage room for a quarentine room . so the room i sleep in has one eight foot boa , seven ball pythons , four paulsonis , two sand boas , and one coastal rosy boa . oh almost forgot the new house geckos are also in there . my two mexican rosy boas are at the petshop in a walk in cooler for brumation , but when they are done hibernating they will also be in here with the rest of us . luckily its a pretty big room .

if i ever get off my lazy other end and clean out the storage room then alot of the snakes will be moved in there , but for now they stay where they are .

[catawhat]

LOL Cat, glad it's not just me! I am going to have to move to a bigger place soon, a two bedroom duplex is not enough.

[Bar None Reptiles]

For a while I had reptiles everywhere also. I never thought I would see the day when I had a bedroom without any in there. So I gave up my nice big bedroom and moved into the one not much bigger than a closet. Everyone thought I was crazy, but since my ex's sleeping pattern was different from the lizards, it made things a little easier to tolerate. Then I moved into a nice big house where there was the 'family' room which was for adults and sub adults. And a third bedroom was the baby/snake/gecko room. The second bedroom was the feeder room. And I had the biggest one for myself! That was pretty cool while it lasted. I'll get something even better soon. But for now, the barn works.

[garweft]

They used to have their own room, but then we had a baby. So know they are downstairs in what used to be the diningroom.

[loye]

I keep my snakes and baby leo in my bedroom, and I keep my two older female leo's in the living room. When I have rescues, they all stay in my bedroom w/ me as well. All the empty tanks waiting for homes stay in the basement out of the way and get brought up as needed, but my dogs run the house as they please :)

[Clay Davenport]

For the last 8 or 9 years the reptiles have had their own room. Formerly it was a garage that was converted to living space by the previous owners. I put in a sub panel and dedicated heat. I have now reclaimed that as a garage to have a place to park the motorcycles, and moved the reptiles to a spare bedroom which I also wired heavily with extra circuits. When I go to sell the house I'm sure the prospective buyers are going to be wondering why there's that bedroom with the double gang outlets every four feet.

The rodents have their own building seperate from the house. I don't see how you guys can stand a rodent colony in the house. I moved a mouse rack inside one winter, that lasted 2 weeks lol.

When we were first married, we shared our bedroom with about 50 snakes, and there were reptiles in nearly every other room of the place as well. It's great when you can finally get them all in one room together. Everything about keeping them is easier having them in one place.

[catawhat]

Clay, the only reason I can stand to have rats in my house is because
1) enclosures are spot cleaned daily
2) weekly complete clean out
3) daughters pets so they kind of have to be around, lol.
4) don't use pine or aspen, have switched to Carefresh and notice a huge difference
5) they don't smell as bad as mice, lol (tried the mice- no way ever again in the house!)
6) we only have 5 rats except for when there are babies

At some point I will have to have a larger colony, but not for at least a couple years. At at that point I hope to have moved into a larger place that fits my needs better and allow for small building dedicated to rats/rodents.

[Clay Davenport]

I can see how you can make it work with just a few rats like that.
When I moved that rack inside, it was a mouse rack housing 100 breeders.
I did a complete cleaning every TWO days and the stench still started permeating the house.
The reason they were moved inside was at that time I didn't have heat in the building I was using. I ended up framing a small room within the building just to geet them through the winter and now have an 8x10 building just for the rodents insulated and heated.

I agree though, mice are far worse than rats. I still contemplate making a cage and keeping a rat or two just as a pet, although that violates my pets vs feeders rule.

[Leighanne]

You are right Clay, its a tough spot to be in but then again you will learn SO much about your feeders which is better for your Snakes! Rats are awesome pets! They shoulder perch and groom you like your one of their own, give kisses, so much affection gained there. They have their downsides though especially the I love my Snakes but I love my pet Rats to. There are ways around that though. Rats are SO much fun! I know...I'm a dirty traitor. :(

[catawhat]

No, with 100's of rodents, there is no way I could have them in the house either. As for having them as pets, I had rats years before I got my first snake. Then when I got a snake I had to quit keeping rats, shut that part of myself off- too hard to get attached to the little buggers and then feed them off.
My daughter and I do play with our rats that we have now every day, which does make feeding the babies off a little hard but... At some point it will most likely become that we only have a couple males that we consider pets and the rest will be strictly breeders, especially when it gets to the point that I have to raise the feeders past fuzzy size.
Leighanne, do you find that males are more affectionate than females? My boys are sweeties and the females are nowhere near as sweet. Wonder if it is b/c they see me as the evil "you took my babies from me thing".

[Leighanne]

Well I honestly haven't had any males. I haven't had to breed any yet, Thankfully! I have two female Rats and two female small mice. Really it doesn't have anything to do with the gender its all about where they came from and how they were raised.

HoneyPuff came from the worst pet store around here. I bought her and Ash and Ash died two days later. I also found out later when calling around for mice sizes for Lickity that they breed there own there. HoneyPuff was probably breed and born there. When I got her she was in a small ten gallon that didn't even look like one with about 8 other Rats. These are small Rats but she was almost full grown. They picked her up by the tail. I can tell she wasn't socialized and thrown around. After Ash died a week later I got Rayne and began the socializing process. Rayne came from PetCo which is the golden egg around here for Pet Stores. I can tell she was socialized and loved on at the store. Not as many Rats in her cage and much much cleaner. So HoneyPuff and Rayne are totally different.

I tried everything to get HoneyPuff to calm down, she wasn't very pleasant to be around. I tried the dominance tricks to show her who was dominant, but guess what worked best? Shes been much better since the day I "trapped her into love." I caught her in the morning when she was trying to sleep and she was in her house and picked the house up and LOVED on her. She kept trying to push me away like "Hey! I'm trying to sleep!" With lots of affection she just doesn't know what do with herself. Rats are so much fun! SO smart, very clean. They are like little cats and dogs but a lot easier. Rayne is an Angel. I can bring any Rat hater in my house and show them Rayne and they are converted. Lets see...I've converted my Mom, my Little Sis, and three girlfriends. All who said they were disease ridden freaky things. They are the BEST of ALL Rodents in my opinion.

[Pink Lady Exotics]

I live in an old firehouse that's been turned into a 3-bedroom apartment (not counting the massive garage that isn't mine). My 12 snakes are in their own bedroom which happens to face the sun in the morning so it warms up nicely and keeps the ambient temp perfect. It's also storage for crap I didn't want to unpack after moving back up here, so as I add more to the collection and (hopefully) have babies this spring, they may expand into my bedroom. I was trying to breed my own rats but they ticked me off because they wouldn't mate, so they became snake snacks. :rolleyes: We've got 12 snakes, 5 cats, 1 dog, and an 8-month-old baby. :ack2:

[Ginger Ambrose]

The entire house is utilized at this moment. My room houses all of my Boas.
Three adults, and three babies. I also have my one non-feeding Ball Python in my room. The living room houses two additional Balls, & a rat nursery. The diningroom houses another Ball. the garage is the rat barn for now.
My dream of a dedicated snake room was within reach................. :angry:
then grown kids came home. So for now the snakes have the house.
I am planning a heated/cooled building for the rats this year. And maybe, I can have my snake room back (the dream) within the year.
The dog (15yrs old) has the run of the house.
And the betta is in the living room Forgot about him, LOL.
The people, husband, 4 yr old son, 18 yr old daughter, 23 yr old daughter & myself have the use of any area that is not being used by the rest of the animals.
I mean who really needs room to move? If you have alot of extra space then you do not have enough snakes yet. :rofl: :rofl:
LOL

[darkbloodwyvern]

I have reptiles all over the house....LOL.


I have mine in my bedrrom/living room. I have a room that is actually two rooms, but the fire regulations said a wall had to be taken down, so there is a big gothic arch in between them :D
I have one setup in my TV/Computor area and one in my bedroom room. My roomate has them downstairs in her basement room. we both technically own three snakes each, i just need my guy to get shipped in this month.

[Pintado]

I keep my 11 snakes 3 beardies, and 10-40 rodents in my classroom. Being a science teacher I use them to liven up the learning experience. This is great during the school year, but during the summer, they retreat to our house. We are playing with the idea of buying a portable building for the summer months.

Between the snakes, rats, and gerbils, we have lots of fun working out all the punnett squares, and it never fails we always we always get some surprises.

[Larry Suttles]

I have two snakes rooms that take up the upstairs loft of my house.

The rodents used to in house until I produced too many and stunk it up and burned up the heating coils and had to get all the ducts and vents cleaned! :( Now their in the garage

[inked1]

I rent a 3 bedroom apartment, but my 4 yearolds toys take up the extra bedroom, so I keep 2 balls in the living room, a corn, betta, and a dartfrog setup in the ding/computer room, and one cat that goes prettymuch wherever she feels like, and one cat that probably feels like going alot of places, but is too fat to get there. For the most part the cats leave the snakes and others alone except to sit snd stare at them.

[inked1]

I rent a 3-bedroom apartment but my 4 yr old takes up alot of room with toys, so I keep 2 balls in the living room, a corn, betta, and a dart frog setup in the dining/computer room. One cat that pretty much goes wherever she wants to, and another that probably wants to go alot of places, but is too fat to get there(he's on a diet). Currently looking at houses to buy and planning around more critters. My wife has told me that I can't get any more until we buy a house, so I'm hoping one comes along quick!

[Nickysticky10]

My ball python stay's in my room but he's only 3 feet long and he's a male so he won't get much bigger plus the fact that my snake cannot climb the best and the cage is to high for him to get out of plus the fact that there's a lock on the cage make's it sure he won't get out and if he ever did he couldn't go far he can't leave my room my room door stay's closed and he's WAY to big to fit under the door. I would never keep a full grown burmese python where i sleep in i would probobly keep it in a spare bedroom and have a good lock on the cage and have a lock on the doors so nobody can go in and out except you! I think its much safer that way and as for the red tailed boa's i might actully keep them in my room it all depend's on size a full adult cage could not fit in my room so it would most likly stay in our empty spare bedroom!

[Nickysticky10]

Just to say i usually wouldn't house anything that could kill me if it got loose in my bedroom! And for my age i wouldn't own anything bigger then a red tailed boa girth wise and length wise and nothing larger then a rat snake length wise.