Caging woes...

[Hypancistrus]

Alright, here's my situation guys... help me out!

I have at the moment nine snakes. These range from my small guys, a Children's python and a rosy boa, to some more moderate sized colubrids (corns, kings etc), my 3 BP's and finally my biggest-- a 5' male Woma Python who is probably still got a bit of growing to do. Right now I have them in glass cages, with hides and decor. I have these glass cages stacked using a metal rack like you might see in a restaurant. I like that I can light the glass cages easily, but the lights sit on top and interfere with opening the lids, and because the metal rack is close to the top of each lid, it can be a pain in the rear to get into the cages to feed and water.

In the past, I have used Animal Plastics racks and cages. The racks I ordered were tall 66 qt racks, so I could include climbing areas and decor, but their footprint was too damn small. So I sold those. I had the 421 cages, some divided, some not, and because my cages are in my basement, I had them add strip lights. Within a month or two of putting those strip lights in, they were destroyed. The snakes pulled them off the ceiling of the cages and then tore them apart, pulling the plastic covers off, etc. Destruction. So then I was left with these dark black boxes and no light cycle at all, which caused my snakes to go off feed.

I have always been a little wary of racks because I like to be able to see my snakes and as I said, decorate their tanks and light them. I still feel strongly about this for my colubrids, who are all very active. But I finally gave in and bought an Iris CB-70 rack by Reptile Basics for my 3 BP's. I just got it today and am going to be setting it up this weekend.

I still can't decide what I want to do with my other snakes, though. I thought about getting front-opening Exo Terras, but if I do that, I still need a rack, and to have the sq footage size I really want, I would have to get the 36"x18" ET's, which would require a 4' long rack. All of my available spaces are 6' spaces, so it seems a huge wast of space to have a 4' rack for a 3' tank.

So I need some help brainstorming other ideas. Has anyone ever heard of a good cage system that has LED or fluorescent lighting built into it that the snakes cannot destroy? What else could I do? I'd like to keep a few more species, but with my racks the way they are I am basically out of space. I feel like cages would give me more room and flexibility but not sure what route to go after the AP cage lighting failed so spectacularly. I was looking at Boaphile cages. Their lighting looks "sleeker" but I am not sure that it wouldn't have the same issue that I had with the AP cages. If anyone has any thoughts or advice I would love to hear it!!