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Screensize: 640 x 480 800 x 600 1024 x 768 1280 x 1024 UserName: Password: Format Mode: Basic  Help  Prompt  Format: Font Andale Mono Arial Arial Black Book Antiqua Century Gothic Comic Sans MS Courier New Georgia Impact Lucida Console Script MT Bold Stencil Tahoma Times New Roman Trebuchet MS Verdana   Size 1 2 3 4 5 6   Color Black Red Yellow Pink Green Orange Purple Blue Beige Brown Teal Navy Maroon LimeGreen Message: * HTML is OFF * Forum Code is ON Smilies [quote][i]Originally posted by Se7enS1ns[/i] [br]Hello all, long time no speak - how are we all? At the request of Mr Kelfezond, I'm posting this here which I wrote over at the dark side yesterday - let me know what you think! I've had a fascination for snakes and other reptiles since I was fairly young, but it wasn't until I was much older that I eventually acquired my own snake, due to various reasons - amongst them I specifically remember thinking / assuming that snakes would be expensive to house due to their heating / lighting requirements, plus the cost of mice / rats. My uncle was like a kid in a sweet shop on xmas day, as he finally got to handle a snake (well, seven actually) for the first time in his life. Amongst the thousand or so questions (Can they bite? Are they poisonous? etc) he asked how much they cost to keep. This reminded me of my own preconceptions prior to buying my first snake... Now obviously, there are going to be a mass of variables in trying to calculate this, so I'll make some pretty rough assumptions (including getting liberal with rounding), and base this on one Royal Python of juvenile age, housed in a 3 foot vivarium. Here goes: Vivarium - Vivexotic VX36 (3 foot) = £60 Pulse Proportional Thermostat - Microclimate B2 = £35 Ceramic Holder - generic = £15 Ceramic Bulb - 100watt = £17 Heat lamp cage - £13 Digital Thermometer x 2 = £15 Analogue Hydrometer - Exo Terra = £3 [b]Total so far = £158[/b] Ok so now we get to the first set of assumptions - décor. As this is for one snake, obviously we want that brand new vivarium to look pretty, with a couple of hides, a big rock effect water bowl, a big bit of java root bogwood type climbing thingie, and some sort of fake plant...you know you all set up your very first vivarium with expensive exo terra stuff, you don't have to deny it, you're amongst friends here... Hides, one for each end - Exo Terra Caves = £10 Large water bowl = £8 Java Root Wood - Approx £15 Fancy Rocks - per Kilo = £2 Trailing Ivy fake foliage - Dunelm Mill bargain = £1.50!! So now you'll have something that looks all nice and new and "natural", for the grand total of £194.50 - [b]let's call it a nice even £195[/b] (plus the cost of your chosen snake on top). This, within reason, should do an adult Royal Python for life (aside from outgrowing hides), and assuming everything is looked after, the annual maintenance cost should be pretty much nothing... apart from maybe a new bulb once a year (£17 per year), and substrate... So, my substrate of choice is Orchid Bark, which I buy in 70ltr sacks for £22. I buy in bulk because I have a handful of snakes, but to be honest, I'd probably buy this much even if I had only one snake, so let's run with it. I do a full clean out every 5 weeks, and I use about 7.5 litres of substrate per time, give or take, so as near as damnit, I'm using one sack of substrate per year for one snake. So, once ceramic bulb per year, and one bag of Orchid Bark, that gives an [b]annual cost so far of £39[/b], on top of the initial £195 for setting up the vivarium Now this is a tough one - electricity. I happen to know what I'm paying for electric, which is 16 pence per kilowatt/hour (pre payment meter, flat rate). Using a handy little calculator to work out the cost of running a 100 watt ceramic for 24hours a day, gives a daily cost of 38p - multiplied by 365 gives an annual cost of £138.70. Now this is based on the bulb running at 100% capacity, constantly - which I know it doesn't. So, after observing the flashing light on my pulse stat, it seems to be on for about 6 seconds out of 10, roughly. On this basis, I'll make the assumption that in my relatively warm snake room, the bulb is working at about 60% capacity in order to achieve a constant 32 degrees Celsius. This will be less in the summer, and more in the winter - right now it's pretty mild, so I'll stick with 60%. So, that gives an [b]annual heating bill of £83.22[/b] bringing the total annual bill so far to £122.22 Now for feeding - now simple economies of scale dictate the more you buy, the cheaper it gets, but for the sake of argument, we'll say that you just have the one snake, and you're buying a months worth at a time. We'll also say that as this is a juvenile Royal, we're feeding on a 7 to 10 day rota. Again, for arguments sake, we'll average it out and say that's 40 feeds per year. My favourite local petshop sells large rat weaners at 5 for £5.50, so that's £1.10 each. [b]That gives an annual feeding bill of £44[/b] - add this to the current cost gives a total bill so far of £166.22 Well, aside from a few bits a pieces such as cleaning materials / F10, batteries for the thermometers etc, that's pretty much everthing. So that about £195 for a decent initial set up, cheaper if you're a good bargain hunter, and then a further [b]£165 or so per year to heat and feed one snake[/b]. Not too bad eh!? Now obviously this is for one snake with some fairly loose assumptions in order to avoid unnecessary complication - calculating the annual bill for additional snakes should be relatively simple if you work out how much food you buy in one go and how much that works out to be individually. The electric bill is going to be relatively static, so multiplied per snake, unless you're running a rack, which will be a bit cheaper (my rack works out to be 28p per day currently), but I reckon on average it's going to be something like +85% per additional snake, give or take. Cheaper than a having cat!! [;)] [/quote]   Check here to include your profile signature.