Plastic tub housing

Well, I recently got my first BP and now I'm already planning on getting more snakes. I understand that plastic tubs are the most inexpensive and easy way to house snakes. I have all sorts of questions that any answers would help.

1. What size container for hatchlings? What size container for adults?

2. How many airholes are needed on the tubs?

3. Where are the airholes best placed at on the tub?

4. What's the best way to secure tub lids?

5. What's the best way to heat tubs?

6. What's the best way to monitor temps for multiple plastic tubs?

7. What's the best thing for making airholes?


That's it for now. :) Thanks in advance!

Here's what I do...

1. Shoebox for hatchlings, 32qt and cb-70 tubs for adult males and females

2. Number of airholes will depend on a few things - the humidity in your room, the size and placement of your water bowl, and your choice of bedding.

3. When I do put airholes in my tubs, I put them in a line along the upper half of each side of the tub.

4. You can either purchase tubs that have locking lids, use binder clips or a heavy object, or what I prefer is to use a lidless rack system and get rid of the lids all together.

5. If you have just a few stray tubs you can go for under tank heater pads run on thermostats or rheostats, or if you have a good amount of tubs, especially in a rack system, the most popular choice would be to use heat tape plugged into a thermostat.

6. If you use a rack system the temperatures will be pretty similar to each other. Usually the top tub is warmer than the bottom tub because hot air rises, but if you get a digital thermometer to go in one of the tubs you can get a good idea what the average temps are. A temo gun could also be a good investment, that way you can quickly reference your temperatures in each tub whenever you like.

7. A drill or a soldering iron.

If I end up buying a rack system online, will I still need to drill holes in it or do most of them come with holes in the tubs for ventilation?

Would someone be willing to take some pictures of their rack systems - inside/out - for their hatchling sizes and adult sizes. I'm trying to get an idea and I'm a very visual person. I'd really appreciate it. Thanks!

If you go to the caging forum or DIY forum and do a search there are tons of people with different variations of rack systems and tub setups with picture tutorials on how they made them. I know I've gotten quite a few ideas on a rack of my own from people on this site

I'll take a look then.

I've been browsing the internet and found some pic tutorials on other reptile forums. I'll look here to find some too.

Soldering Irons work the best IMO. Using a drill could crack the plastic.

Unfortunately I only have an answer for your last question. I had a tub that I use as back up for Pandora in case I need to take her out of her tank for whatever reason and the thing I used to put holes in it was this cheap wood burning pen I picked up at Wal-Mart for $10. This might work for you if you don't have a soldering iron or want something that doesn't get as hot but does the job. The first day I got Pandora I wanted a collection of BPs. Unfortunately I don't have the money to house any more at the moment, but I'm glad you're able to do this!! :D
Good luck, I'm very excited to see your new collection

I don't know if I'm allowed to link to other sites here, but here is a DIY that I found that looks inexpensive and easy (I'm no Bob Vila).

Does this look big enough to house adult BPs?

I like that I can put smaller tubs too, so they can work their way up to adult-sized tubs.