Reptile dedicated rooms/sheds do's and dont's.

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Grunter023

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Hi all,
I am planning on very soon having built a dedicated reptile room outside which will contain nearly 100% of my reptiles. It will be a insulated shed with internal lined walls and possibly tiled floor etc. It will also have power,plumbing,reverse cycle air con (guessing refrigerated would work best?),security etc. It will also contain incubators and also rodents/woodies for breeding in the same shed/room. Purpose for this setup is ease of feeding/cleaning everything in the same place and mainly for a temperature controlled room - as I am sick of worrying about reptiles and breeding rodents and woodies in the heat.
A friend who is a builder is hopefully building it for me most likely outside of his work on weekends etc as I do not have a handy bone in my body and know nothing!

What I want to know is what are peoples suggestions on possible do's and do not's for such a setup. Has anyone undertook a similar project and are able to offer any advise or things they would have done differently. I want to do this right from the start and not half do it, and save having problems and regrets down the track.
Any advise would be appreciated.
 
I am sure you will get heaps of tips on how and where to build, what materials and whether to have the room or the enclosures set up on a thermostat, BUT if you only take 1 thing away from all the info you are going to get make sure you have a power failure indicator ( audible and visible) attached to the room, i found this out the hard way with a breeding stock of Selenocosmia crassipes when the power to my spider room cut out in the middle of winter my heaters went with it and i did not know for more than 24hrs, i lost over $1000 worth of Bird Eaters not to mention all their progeny. Remember Power Failure Indicator. :) .................................Ron
 
I will add a couple of things to the list you already have. A couple of extractor fans in the roof and whirly birds on the roof will help a lot to circulate air. If you are breeding I would also recommend having enough windows to get a crossflow of air for cooling the snakes in winter.

I hope you aren't planning to put mice/rats in the same room as the reps though as I can imagine the smell would drive the snakes crazy.
 
Thanks for the tips so far - I will be avidly storing all the information so I do this right. Yes I had planned on placing breeding rats and snakes in the same room (mainly due to the rats being able to stay alive from the extreme heat). Can anyone else with experience with housing them in the same room comment on their experiences?
 
look in the auction pages for a cool room coming up for sale
75mm to 100mm walls are best
they are ideal for reptiles
bigger rooms often sell dirt cheap if refridge gear is not working
power saw screws and silicone and job is done

possible problem with housing rats and snakes close together would be feeding response may be more noticeable
if you like handling your snakes better learn about tap training
 
i did have my rats in the same room but i had to take them out. All 10 of my pythons temperaments changed and i couldn't even walk next to the vivs as they would just strike like crazy even my most placid who has never struck at anyone started I've had her 5 years and this was a first in that time
 
Don't leave the door open for your three year old son to go in and play with the mice.
Especially when his kitten follows him everywhere.
 
A security system, high and low vents you can open for ventilation, LED room lights (possibly on timers), efficient enclosure heating (right wattage for size), and sink with hot and cold water and of course some good looking enclosures.


Rick
 
Are these cools rooms big enough longi? I don't want anything too small.
Are these cools rooms big enough longi? I don't want anything too small.

They come in all sizes
We bought a 10m x 5m x2.5m for $500 in Sydney
Best to look at wholesalers etc closing down
Restaurants and wine shops have them too but mostly smaller
Some farms have HUGE ones

Because they are properly designed as cool rooms to get down to low temps
they are easy/cheap to cool and retain their temps really well
 
Be careful not to over insulate as you will struggle to get night time lows. Obviously that depends on your location and what you are trying to breed.
 
Be careful not to over insulate as you will struggle to get night time lows. Obviously that depends on your location and what you are trying to breed.

High and low vents or doors and windows will allow for night time lows. Insulation is to keep out the extremes and stabilize the temps, heating and cooling systems will determine ambient temps.


Rick
 
Keep calling it a shed, people that say facility drive me nuts! rant over....
 
I should also maybe explain what I wish to keep in there and how I want the room and enclosures/racks to function. Room will be unheated as a whole. Animals kept will be most pythons. Geckos at this stage - rough knobtails and later Salebrosus leaf tail gecko (cooler species). Lizards such as beardies,central netteds and cooler species such us Boyds and Angle Heads. And Monitors such as Spencers and Ackies. So yes looking to cool with a air con (reverse cycle) in the hottest days and individually heat enclosures.
 
Its not a problem with winter lows. The big plus is that you can acheive proper temps at the proper time with minimal power output. Everything I keep in my shed breeds if I want it to.
I built my shed from cool room panels. I put lockable vents in, two sky lites with insulated hatch's to completely close off when needed, portable air con, alarm system, laundry tub (cold water only, a jug to boil water, and MOST importantly a sub main with circuit breakers for all of the power points, and a garbage bin. Flouro's for lighting.
The walls make great white boards.

I highly reccomend the cool room shed.
 
I have a cool room for sale at the moment 6 ft x 6 ft x 7ft with refrigerator motor that you can set to temp to keep cool $2000
 
You should be looking at adequately ventilating your rodent room to minimise of the smell/ammonia.

Octane
 
Like everything it depends wether you have money or time. New 50mm panel is only about $25m2 which is cheap considering it is self supporting so you dont need a frame. 75mm is aboout $35 per m2. It comes 1.2 wide and as long as you want. 75mm panel will span 6 or 7 meters insupported. For rats you want height (at least 3.6 meters) If you are clever you can harvest cool air at say 2am then lock up the shed through the heat of the day and so save on air-conditioning. If you rely on airconditioning you can have problems if power blacks out. My snake rooms are only 50mm and never overheat . On the odd 40c day outside my rooms might hit 30C but i turn all the heat off before any heat wave so i am starting with cool air.
 
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