Here you find some tips and tricks I picked up over the years.
The incubator I use:
I use an old refrigerator as an incubator for over ten years now.
Refrigerators are build to isolate the temperature inside. If you don’t plug in the power cord and use a heating mat plus a thermostat you’ve made yourself a great incubator without too much hassle.
It is handy to use a thermometer with a wired sensor, you can read the temperature inside without opening the fridge door.
Defrosting:
I use a cooler to thaw frozen mice and rats. I do that in two steps; Thaw first in room temperature water. Then heat in hot water. I use the cool box because it insulates and seals well, so that the defrosting goes relatively quickly
Magnet:
I close my terrariums with homemade closures of bent iron wire. I wear a magnet around my neck during cleaning the terrariums and hang the closure on it. This way I never have to look for the closures.
An additional advantage is that I never forget to close a terrarium because in that case the closure is still attached to the magnet.
Take the bypass:
I can’t remember the reason why they gave me that bottle of wine. The wine wasn’t that special but I liked the package a lot. I decided to make a bypass out of it that can be opened or closed. And it worked out well so I decided to make several more. I use them to bring couples together or separate them during the mating season without handling them.
The pictures show you how I made them:
