Snakes and Racks

I have a four-tub forty-one quart Animal Plastic Economy Rack. It's wonderfully built and even looks good. I have a western hognose and nelson milksnake in two of the tubs now.

I was wandering what snakes do well in these (does anyone have a list)? The temperature inside can be sort of regulateded and humility can be followed easily enough. I am more curious about size of the snake, heard some people have BP's in these racks full grown?

I have bred balls in tubs as small as 28 qt in the past but i breed mainly in 41qt or cb70 tubs now. They do fine

Balls will do fine in 41 quarts. Thats what I have all mine in. I have the Boaphile rhino raxx and they are almost 3 feet long, and they said you can keep snakes of 5-6 feet in them.

Racks unless you have multiple t-stats to control each tier support a single temp range. The animals it houses would need the same temps. (milk snakes 76-86 d and 70-74 n but hognose 85-92d 68-75n) there is little to no over lap between these snakes with out multiple t-stats they should not be housed in a rack unless you have the necessary t-stats to control the temps of each tub. Same for any additional snakes.

I use the 41 quart tubs for my snake but igot a home built rack ( not the greatest built but it works for me). I like having the lids on my tubs prevents mold and such and proctects the snakes if they against the top as i drag tub out.
but I kept ball pythons, corns, black rat, and kehya sand boas in these type of tubs.

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Originally Posted by kitedemon

Racks unless you have multiple t-stats to control each tier support a single temp range. The animals it houses would need the same temps. (milk snakes 76-86 d and 70-74 n but hognose 85-92d 68-75n) there is little to no over lap between these snakes with out multiple t-stats they should not be housed in a rack unless you have the necessary t-stats to control the temps of each tub. Same for any additional snakes.

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I use heavy substrate and also I have a small heat-shield on the tape to get the 85 for Lactose (Nelson Milksnake). Made sure I could before I put him in there. Same for the Hognose, but she just needs the substrate to get 90.

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Originally Posted by RaskaNeil

I use heavy substrate and also I have a small heat-shield on the tape to get the 85 for Lactose (Nelson Milksnake). Made sure I could before I put him in there. Same for the Hognose, but she just needs the substrate to get 90.

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Sounds like you are asking for trouble to me...


What do you mean by heat shield? if you are reflecting or trapping the flexwatts heat down then you are significantly increasing the chances of heat tape failure and even fire.

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Originally Posted by The Serpent Merchant

Sounds like you are asking for trouble to me...

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I check them everyday and handle them. Still have all the tanks if something goes wrong, but nothing yet. I moved Lactose in there because he wouldn't eat and he's been eating for a long while so best I can figure is he enjoyed the change.

Duly noted though, I just wanted him to get some meat on his bones and will probably go into the tank again when he gets bigger.

EDIT: It's changes the direction the heat travels. Made sure not it on the flexwatt or impair it, I've seen what happens when flexwatt goes bad.

41 quarts is a bit over kill for Hognose snakes 32 quarts will be big enough, and for Milksnakes they work fine.

I currently keep Milksnakes and Bullsnakes in the 41 quarts economy line and plan on keeping my Hognose snakes once full grown in a 32 quarts.

Keep in mind that temp requirement of Milk and Hognoses differs.

I too would be concerned that the snake burrows into the substrate. Flexwatt is designed to have air circulation on at least one side so it doesn't get too much heat built up. I would be very very cautious about sandwiching the flexwatt like you have described. Perhaps a solution would be to wire the flexwatt parallel and add a rheostat to the sections that you need to reduce heat to that is a safer alternative.