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How many Snakes do you have??

Sarah1228 said:
I can imagine! But doesn't the care get overwhelming at times?
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It can. I mostly feel it when, usually because of vacation, I have to feed all the adults in one day. Which really only takes- I don't know, four to six hours, and it's actually pleasant once I start. Or when something comes up and I have to feed 32 babies in one afternoon, late. They eat fast, and if I get home on time are very fun to feed- but if I get stuck at work or have an emergency appointment and get home late I can't just skip a day, because there is another group the next day, and the next day, and then if it's the weekend I run into the adult groups- so there just isn't as much flexibility as when there aren't 140 babies.

Oops, which reminds me, there's a yearling in my nightstand snake rack that missed the census!!

If I know a big feeding is coming up, and I can at least set the bins out the day before, or even better, do the water bowls the day before, that makes it much easier.
 
Sarah1228 said:
I can imagine! But doesn't the care get overwhelming at times?
Click to expand...

It can become a job if you let it. Do NOT get more animals than you have time to care for, or you WILL get burned out! I have an employee at my pet shop who is a huge reptile hobbyist, so I do have "hired help" when I need it. But honestly, I usually want to do everything myself. Even if he just spot cleans, I feel the need to recheck every drawer behind him.

And as your collection grows, you have to start really quarantining new arrivals. I picked up 5 new babies in Daytona, and sold/traded 29. Sounds like things would be easier now, right? Nope! The new hatchlings are in a rack of their own, my own holdbacks in another rack, and I still have snakes from Nanci and my Palmetto yet to come that I'm terrified to add!

As long as it's fun and I'm enthusiastic about it, I can handle numbers well into the triple digits. With a bunch of tessera compounds up to size next year and Palmetto and scaleless projects on the horizon, I think it will be fun for a while to come. :)
 
Nanci said:
It can. I mostly feel it when, usually because of vacation, I have to feed all the adults in one day. Which really only takes- I don't know, four to six hours, and it's actually pleasant once I start. Or when something comes up and I have to feed 32 babies in one afternoon, late. They eat fast, and if I get home on time are very fun to feed- but if I get stuck at work or have an emergency appointment and get home late I can't just skip a day, because there is another group the next day, and the next day, and then if it's the weekend I run into the adult groups- so there just isn't as much flexibility as when there aren't 140 babies.

Oops, which reminds me, there's a yearling in my nightstand snake rack that missed the census!!

If I know a big feeding is coming up, and I can at least set the bins out the day before, or even better, do the water bowls the day before, that makes it much easier.
Click to expand...

Honestly I just got exhausted reading all of that! My hats off to you all!!! I think the most I can imagine having is 5 snakes.
 
I think it became over whelming for my son but he has issues all his own. But we make it more of a family thing. So it doesn't really become too much for us to handle. I can't feed the big snakes because I am allergic to rats. So Mark takes care of them. But they all eat on different days.
 
elrojo said:
It can become a job if you let it. Do NOT get more animals than you have time to care for, or you WILL get burned out! I have an employee at my pet shop who is a huge reptile hobbyist, so I do have "hired help" when I need it. But honestly, I usually want to do everything myself. Even if he just spot cleans, I feel the need to recheck every drawer behind him.

And as your collection grows, you have to start really quarantining new arrivals. I picked up 5 new babies in Daytona, and sold/traded 29. Sounds like things would be easier now, right? Nope! The new hatchlings are in a rack of their own, my own holdbacks in another rack, and I still have snakes from Nanci and my Palmetto yet to come that I'm terrified to add!

As long as it's fun and I'm enthusiastic about it, I can handle numbers well into the triple digits. With a bunch of tessera compounds up to size next year and Palmetto and scaleless projects on the horizon, I think it will be fun for a while to come. :)
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Amazing! That is dedication.
 
Not dedicated so much as paranoid! I had a burm left on my store's doorstep with mites a couple of years back. I caught it right away and treated his impromptu enclosure with Ivermectin. Still, mites made it from my storefront, to my back room grow outs, and all the way to the breeders at my house. I do not know how. Well, I do, but it seems SO unlikely. I got rid of them, but it was a PAIN. I've never had a horrible reptile disease such as crypto, but I have seen how quickly parasites can spread. Anything more serious than mites would be heartbreaking.
 
elrojo said:
Not dedicated so much as paranoid! I had a burm left on my store's doorstep with mites a couple of years back. I caught it right away and treated his impromptu enclosure with Ivermectin. Still, mites made it from my storefront, to my back room grow outs, and all the way to the breeders at my house. I do not know how. Well, I do, but it seems SO unlikely. I got rid of them, but it was a PAIN. I've never had a horrible reptile disease such as crypto, but I have seen how quickly parasites can spread. Anything more serious than mites would be heartbreaking.
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Wow...I can't believe someone just left it on your doorstep! I'm glad you got rid of them too. Yeah I can only imagine on how quickly that can spread. But they're lucky to have u!
 
Oh, well I own a pet shop! I probably average a burm, 6 iguanas, 10 red eared sliders, and .5 rock pythons a year. :laugh:
 
My husband and I's collection of permanent snake residents is 11 with 3 more to arrive this month and 6 baby Rosy boas, who will be available for new homes soon. I'm probably not keeping any of them. Have 3 corns, 2 Rosy boas, 1 garter snake, 1 Honduran milk, 1 Tricolor Hognose, 1 Western Hognose, 1 Mandarin Ratsnake and 1 Thai Bamboo Ratsnake. The ones coming are 2 sand boas and a female Thai Ratsnake to match my male. Especially where both of us share the work of caring for them, that is a very manageable number. Planning on adding a few more down the road and breeding a few of them, though mostly we are just interested in having one of a large number of species we like.
 
Did reading this thread make anybody else do some chores?
 
We just reduced our collection by nine...10 of our 15 hatchlings were picked up today, and we received a boa in exchange.

Other than that, we have two boas (a dwarf Sonoran and a hypo red tail); and thirteen corns...eight adults (2 charcoal, a bloodred, a lavender, a normal, a snow, an ultramel anery and a ghost) and five babies (two we'd planned to keep and three that are non-feeders) We hope to level out at two boas and 10 corns :)
 
elrojo said:
But honestly, I usually want to do everything myself. Even if he just spot cleans, I feel the need to recheck every drawer behind him.

And as your collection grows, you have to start really quarantining new arrivals.
Click to expand...

This is an almost universal feeling, I discovered when talking about it at Daytona! I'd rather have someone just sit and talk, or hold babies while I clean, than actually do anything to help.

I quarantine _and_ test all newcomers with a PCR test for crypto. Yes, that adds $100 to the price of all snakes and visitors. The peace of mind is well worth it.

I _thought_ I had mites once, and treated EVERYTHING/EVERYBODY three times. But since I never really saw anything moving, only black specks in one water bowl, I believe I was really seeing specks from the cork bark.
 
Walter Smith said:
I was just in the snakeroom and took a head count.

From personal 2012 keepers on up to breeding adults = 216 + 2012 hatchlings for sale = 293, for a grand total 509 :eek1:

Hopfully the Repticon Memphis Show I will be vending next weekend will bring down the number of for sale critters :rolleyes:

Walter
:crazy02:BOUT' CORNS !!
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I've decided not to step in this thread.
 
Oh come on Dave share lol.

I have just around 100 snakes. All corns except 1 boa. Only about half of them are keepers and the rest are hatchling that will be available soon. I want so much more though. Just out of room and money for now. Went to the FIRE Show today and I didn't come home with anything living, but man I wanted too so bad. I was good though.

I also have 10 cresties.
 
My Creamsicle is in his blue stage right now. So I've been tending to my gecko and king snake. I'm sure everyone else's days are that times a million! Lol
 
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