Racks-- Reptile Basics

I have their sweaterbox rack with dividers and love it. Im buying a cb70 rack from them soon!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Hypancistrus

Thanks for the review. Did you ever drill the holes? Did it help with the humidity?

Thanks for the update. I just went ahead and ordered an Iris CB-70 rack with a Ranco thermostat. I've had a Ranco on my other cages for some time and really like them. At one point I had all my snakes in racks, but found that I prefer keeping the Colubrids in cages where I can see them when they are out and about (and mine often are). With the BP's, even in cages, they hide in their caves and rarely leave, so I don't feel badly having them in racks.

Since we will now have three rack slots, we also went ahead and picked up another BP. Got a male mojave coming next week.

There's always room for one more!

---

I used a large nail and a blowtorch to melt holes, rather than drilling them. Each tub has 14 1/4" holes across the front of it now, about 1/4th the height of the tub from the top, and the humidity is averaging between 60% and 85%, depending on the weather (I live in the High Desert of Nevada, so low humidity is more of a concern than high, usually). Mostly, it's holding in around 75%, and I'm getting great sheds. My largest female's tub gets higher humidity, because she insistently pushes her water dish to the back over the heat tape every day. Temperatures are holding strong at around 89f. on the hot end, 75f on the cool end. The snakes tend to hang out in the middle, and shift back and forth depending on the time of day or night. Over time and with use, the tubs are sliding in and out more smoothly than they were, though they still catch sometimes and have to be maneuvered a bit - pull on the lip, push on the base - to get them all the way in. I've got the BP's in tubs split by dividers, so two to a tub (with no access to each other!) on newsprint, and my Kingsnake in the full bottom tub by himself on aspen chip. Everyone seems happy except for my little tiny captive-hatched boy, Lue, who is being a brat about eating. I recently crammed his cage full of filler to see if that would help, but I can still only get him to eat by putting him in a butter dish with a warmed up f/t mouse for a couple hours. No zombie dances - they scare him. No live - they scare him. Quiet, dark, solitude, and forced proximity, and he'll eat - sometimes. If I leave it in front of the hide he's in, he leaves and goes to another hide. Pesky little bugger. That's one problem with the divided tubs in the sweaterbox rack. It's very difficult to restrict access to a smaller area inside it. The space for each snake ends up being long and narrow. I think I would like it better if the tubs were broadside, instead of lengthwise, in the rack.

I use a large Rubbermaid tupperware container with Weathershield locks. It prevents them from escaping but is great for keeping in humidity. I drill the holes and then cut off the balled up plastic so the snake doesn't scrape itself. I don't ever need to mist or do anything special for humidity, and the snakes like the smaller area (feels more secure) but they also have a little more room than they would in a bin. I like having leafy plants in the containers too.

Sorry to bump an older topic but I have the same rack coming today. I am wondering do the 3 tubs NEED holes drilled through the front? Or is it not air tight to where the snakes will be fine without any holes? The ambient temps are around 78%. Gonna put thermostat to 90%.

I have a few of these and much prefer them. I also have some of the dividers, I used some black non toxic silicone to adhere the ends together to assist in having to reassemble every time. As for the holes in the tubs for humidity/ventilation, I used a soldering iron, places perfectly round holes with smooth edges. Lastly, I trimmed, or rounded the feet on the bottom rear side of the tub to help with the tubs catching on the groove lip, not perfect but better.

When all said and done, after a few simple modifications I am very pleased with this rack/tubs combo.