Do you have to put your brooder babies to bed every night?

[subhanalah]

I see I also forgot to answer your other questions. The CHE is an old one, but still seems to work pretty good (they do burn out over time) and is a 100 watt. It's about 18 inches from the bottom of the brooder. I would completely do away with it now if I could. That thing is HOT, and now I'm worried about them fluttering into it. They don't flutter inside the brooder, only when I bring them out to play they flutter outside of the brooder, but I'm sure that's not going to last long! They mostly just scratch and eat the pine dust when inside the brooder.

 

[ten chicks]

What i did for my chickens when they were chicks was i had small roosts for my orpingtons,which they would roost on at night,covered the side of brooder they slept on,never had any peeping,they slept all night.

For my silkies i used a pink guinea pig litter box(filled with sand)all 6 silkie chicks slept in that until they could no longer fit in it,they absolutely loved that thing. They would be all snuggled up in litter box,never heard a peep out of them,slept all through the night. My silkies did like it very warm in brooder,much warmer than the orpington chicks, I also covered the side of brooder they slept on.

Both my brooders had a metal lid over top(used a fireplace guard screen)i used this as a safety precaution against heat lamp falling accidentally. If lamp had fallen/broken,it would only fall on metal lid and would not have been a fire concern,but i also had smoke detectors beside both brooders just in case, Thankfully,never had any problems.

 

[Sonya9]

I didn't think it was that special so I haven't made a thread for it, lol. I just took my 10 years of herpetology/herpetoculture and applied it to my chicken brooding. The thermostat is a (used to be called A-life, now it's like zilla or something) simple dial intended for use in a reptile enclosure. Cant remember the price, but they are super cheap compared to my actual reptile enclosure thermostats.

That is exactly what I did too! First time having chickens but I have two albino flame garters in separate enclosures, after having snakes for a few years one does collect a lot of heat lamps, dimmer switches, and other stuff. Using one of their old heat lamps, a dimmer cord, and was using the Zilla thermostat but it goes "on or off" too often and I wasn't worried about things getting too hot.

My chicks are 2 weeks old and I am glad they can tell me if they get too cold (unlike snakes). I check on the temp at night but sleep in a room close by so if they started peeping loudly due to getting chilled I would hear it. I don't have central heating in the house so the temps can fluctuate. I have to admit I eyed my nice wood snake cages and thought how they would be perfect, ready made chick brooders but if I did that (put the male and female together in one cage) i could end up with a ton of baby garters this summer and we don't need that!

After reading the brooder threads and hearing how people keep changing the height of their heat lamps to regulate the temp I was surprised, in the reptile world we have all of that automated and easily managed.

 

[subhanalah]

Nevermind. Lol

 

[Sonya9]

Nevermind. Lol

What were you going to say? Something like no worries the chickens will take care of the baby garters for me?

 

[subhanalah]

Well, that does happen to be the case, but I was going to bring up how I also use Rubbermaid/sterilite containers for snakes. Just doing some chicken math for snakes!

ETA I don't condone feeding live snakes to chickens on purpose. Totally different thing if they find them wild in the run/yard/coop/pasture.

 

[Sonya9]

Well, that does happen to be the case, but I was going to bring up how I also use Rubbermaid/sterilite containers for snakes. Just doing some chicken math for snakes!

Yeah...but the snakes are in glass fronted display tanks where we can watch each other all day long. Garters are very curious and active during the daytime, they wouldn't be pleased about losing their view and being moved to a tupperware container (and they are eye candy for me so I love to have them near the computer desk as I work from home).

Chicks have a decent brooder in an old dog crate so they aren't suffering!

Video of them eating trout...

 

[Sonya9]

Just wanted to say I much prefer using the CHE and I am so glad you mentioned it!

Instead of the chicks being awake at all hours of the night now they settle down and sleep. They can see out of their brooder during the day, at night I cover the brooder to keep the temps from fluctuating (and block any light from activities in the room) and yes, they do seem to chirp and "call" before falling asleep for the night, they also cluster near the front of the cage while calling and falling asleep as if they want the security of me being near as darkness falls (that only started when the constant red light was replaced).

Much more natural for them to get a good nights sleep and eat during the day as that is what they will be doing when they are old enough to move to their coop.

 

[subhanalah]

Yay! I'm so glad you switched and that it's working well for you! My babies are so needy (my fault) during the day that if I had a constant light on them, they'd never let ME sleep!
Also, I meant to comment on how COOL your video is of your garter! When I first started keeping snakes, they were notoriously hard to get feeding in captivity and I see yours eat from tongs! They sure have come a long way!
What do you think about ribbon snakes?

 

[Sonya9]

When I first started keeping snakes, they were notoriously hard to get feeding in captivity and I see yours eat from tongs! They sure have come a long way!
What do you think about ribbon snakes?

I don't know anything about ribbons (though they are discussed on the garter snake forum). Garter snakes are the easiest and funniest little guys! Mine were captive bred and the breeders get them well started on frozen pinkies before shipping so they are all good eaters. Plus they can even eat certain types of grocery store fish like salmon and trout if you run out of pinkies (they will also eat gold fish and other stuff that will eventually kill them).

Most folks keep them in display tanks because they are so active all day and such a pleasure to watch. They are also communal so you can keep several in one cage if you like. They come in every color imaginable and are so easy to keep, they need full spectrum light and of course get heat lamps during the day but they aren't tropical so they can handle much lower temps at night. No special night lights needed (except for babies) and no worries that if the power goes out the snakes will die!

If you ever consider garters here is the main garter forum, small forum with a very dedicated group of regulars. http://www.thamnophis.com/