Building A Snake Rack

Hi, just to start out I'm pretty new to the forums. I want to get into breeding ball pythons, and in doing so I have decided to build my own rack instead of purchasing one that is already prebuilt. I used to have king snakes, corn snakes, ball pythons, bearded dragons, and crested geckos so I am not too new to caring for reptiles. However, I have never really successfully breed any of my snakes and have only taken a few unsuccessful shots at breeding my beardies when I had them. With all that being said, I have a few questions about building my snake rack and getting good BPs for breeding. I've decided on getting this rack along with a thermometer and thermostate, and using heat tape the heat the rack. I also planned on enclosing the rack with particle board or something similar to it. I am also wondering if I should pick up a female first, since they take longer to reach the desired weight to breed, or get a male, or just go ahead and get both at the same time. Any suggestions or information would definitely be a huge help! Thanks!

I don't know much, but if you want to breed soon, you can find proven breeding females.

I just bought a female normal. 2000+g

Breeder rescued her.

If you want a hatchling, and to raise her up, I'd buy her first. Girls usually aren't big enough to breed the first couple a years.

Girls should be about 1500g before breeding.

/this is from what I've creeped around on here

Partical board should not be used in racks. It is filled with toxic chemicals and does not deal with humidity well.

PVC sheets or melamine would be much better.

Getting a female first is a good idea.

I would reccommend a better t-stat than that to run your rack.

Also yes buying females first is a better idea. Id get like 3 females and raise them up for 3 years to breeding size. Then find yourself a nice 2gene male to breed to the 3 of them. You could get the male when the females are 2 years old bc usually a male takes like a year to mature.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Mike41793

I would reccommend a better t-stat than that to run your rack.

Also yes buying females first is a better idea. Id get like 3 females and raise them up for 3 years to breeding size. Then find yourself a nice 2gene male to breed to the 3 of them. You could get the male when the females are 2 years old bc usually a male takes like a year to mature.

---

What thermostat would you recommend?

The hydrofarm will be ok, but proportional thermostats like the Herpstat are much better.

http://spyderrobotics.com/