sterilite containers

I notice a lot of ball python owners use simple sterilite containers for caging. I was wondering how secure are these tubs? I do know that the snake especially BPS are extremely happy when they feel more secured.

I haven't had any issue with any of my snakes escaping from the tubs. Depending on how you have them set up, they typically come with locking lids (or if on some racks, make sure they sit snug enough with the shelf), and have a sort of lip around them that prevents a proper sized gap from opening, if the snake ever pushes (none of mine have). This is experience with BPs, a very young burm, a rainbow boa, a baby dumerils, and a very tiny children's python (Who sometimes hangs out at the top near the lid, but has never been able to find a way out.

Ok I just want to make sure my snake can't escape! Also can I use a UTH to heat up the tub, and just hook it up to my rheostat? I know that some have had issues with rheostats, but I have not. I think its because I know the accurute temps of my room. Once when I save money I would love to get a rack system with a thermostat, but I've got other things to pay for at the moment, and I no longer want my snake housed in a glass container. Please all comments are welcome expect mean ones:oops:

Yes you can use a UTH to heat up a tub. You just need something to regulate the UTH with. I use bungee straps on my tub to ensure that the snake cannot escape.

Mine have the locking lids, and I use binder clips along the unsecured front'back sides. I've seen people also use luggage straps which work just as well.

x2 bungee cords!

I had my little baby sand boa escape and since then I have used bungee with no problems.

Rheostats work really well as long as your room temps are completely stable. One of the breeders near me uses only rheostats and almost never changes them but his rooms are at 80º and change only a degree here and there. If you have variable room temps rheostats need to be adjusted as soon as the room does. It generally creates a seesaw effect temps too high, adjust, too low, adjust,and back to too high. Just be aware of that problem especially using tubs! They have no thermal mass to create a buffer between the heat and the snake, if the heat pad is at hits 99 the tub will be 99 a second later, unlike a tank that takes 2 or 3 min to alter. Sudden spikes can cause issues in tubs that are not noticed with other systems. Tubs are difficult to get a true thermal gradient in tanks are not so difficult due to the way glass heats and cools temperature gradients becomes much more difficult. I have not managed a gradient in my rack I only have a hot spot and a cool spot no real gradient.

I use luggage straps to secure the lids.

well I made my own rack and everything was perfect for months and then I bought a baby pied .... put him in his own tub and 12 hours later he was gone!!! I had left too big (talking millimeters here) of an opening inbetween the shelves and the tubs. So all little BPs get lids and then they go lidless...

So is it more difficult to maintain basking, cool side, and ambient temps in tubs? :confused:

Snakes don't bask........ The only thing you need with tubs and in general is belly heat. Ambient temps are good, but not necessary, and they certainly don't need basking (they are nocturnal). As long as your have some sort of UTH with a thermostat or rheostat, I'd invest in a temp gun to make sure the hot spot doesn't exceed 93*, and you should be all set. They hold ambient and hot spot temps well. Better than glass tanks that's for sure.

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Originally Posted by Druzy

So is it more difficult to maintain basking, cool side, and ambient temps in tubs? :confused:

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I actually have a heat mat on both sides of my tub. One for the warm and the cool keeping it around 80. I use a dimmer on the cooler side. I use 4 large binder clips to keep my tub locked down.

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Originally Posted by LGray23

Snakes don't bask........ The only thing you need with tubs and in general is belly heat. Ambient temps are good, but not necessary, and they certainly don't need basking (they are nocturnal). As long as your have some sort of UTH with a thermostat or rheostat, I'd invest in a temp gun to make sure the hot spot doesn't exceed 93*, and you should be all set. They hold ambient and hot spot temps well. Better than glass tanks that's for sure.

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This is awesome advice. Tubs are far better then tanks. I just recently figured this out myself. No more tanks for me ever again.

Yeah I know that they dont bask. Just didn't know how to word it, and everyone knows what your talking about when you say "bask."

I also thought they were a lot better than glass tanks. The glass tank is nice for viewing, but thats all. I live in AZ and its almost impossible to maintain 60% humidity espicially during the summer. And with the glass tank my UTH wont allow my tank to reach 93-95 without a secondary heat source which is a red light bulb that sucks all moisture!

If anyone can post pictures of there tubs it would be greatly appreciated!

Here' mine and they work out awesome. I used a metal rack $40 from Walmart, 34 qt tubs from Walmart with lids, wood boards for the bottom of each shelf, flexwatt taped to the bottom of the wood. I now use this as my quarantine rack, but they fit 2 med RBI hides and a water dish inside them, so the bp feels secure but not cramped. For a young bp I wouldn't suggest anthing much bigger than the 34 qt...I made the mistake of getting huge 110qt tubs at first thinking they are about the size of my tank....yeah my bp stopped eating lol. Smaller=better.
I actually have a 4th one on top now too :)
http://i51.tinypic.com/k34wnl.jpg

Thanks for sharing your photos!

If you don't feel like using clips or bungee cords then get a melamine book shelf and nail the shelves close enough together so the tubs slide right under the shelf above making it impossible for the snake to lift the lid :)
http://i968.photobucket.com/albums/a...amineshelf.jpg

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Originally Posted by Druzy

So is it more difficult to maintain basking, cool side, and ambient temps in tubs? :confused:

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Not really difficult, just different. Actually, PP/PS tubs may be easier for you to control than glass, or melamine. You should tailor your setup based upon the actual environmental conditions where you live, and the temperature at which you keep the room(s) that your reptiles are in: how well it's insulated, reliable HVAC, weather conditions (what happens if the power goes out, will they overheat, or get too cold?) .

With rack designs that are more open (Freedom Breeder, ARS, Fusion, Animal Plastics economy line) you'll want consistent room temps in the high 70's to 80 degrees.

Enclosed racks (Animal Plastics, RBI) hold heat better, and are more suited to maintaining cool side temps in rooms that are kept at lower temperatures, or the temperature fluctuates.

Either design can be suplemented with a low wattage flexwatt on the cool end, controlled by a separate thermostat (or one thermostat with multiple probes).

Whether you use binder clips, straps, or tight fitting racks, you will absolutely need something supplemental to keep the lid closed. Snakes are escape artists.

I guess I wasn't quite as clear as I could have been tubs have no insulating value. They will drop temps almost instantly when heat is removed. That means that you get inefficient heating there is no weigh to hold heat or to heat slowly. Tubs heat fast and cool fast that depending on the space can make ambient temps a bit interesting. That also makes it very difficult to build a GRADIENT although I am not sure you actually need one. I have absolutely noticed different behaviour when there is a good gradient. So not to be misunderstood a gradient would be at the hot spot 90º an inch off it maybe 89.5 a inch farther away 80 and so on my one conventional tank has a true gradient on about half a degree an inch. My rack has a hot spot of 90 and when you move off that it drops 5 degrees an inch so in 2 inches it hits 80 and holds there. That is not a gradient just a hot spot and cool spot. Tubs can solve a humidity issue but can cause a heating one, they are simply not better or worse just different. Tubs do really well in 80º rooms but not so well in 60º ones. Personally heating a whole room up in winter is very expensive (a herpstat a month more expensive) and seems a total waste of power.

If you don't believe me about the tubs not holding heat take a lid of any tub or heavy container hold your hand under it and check the temps take you hand away and check it again and see what the difference is. I just did this with a tub from the rack and got, 88.6 with my hand and 76.1 with out. They hold heat very badly My best enclosure drops 2 degrees an hour with out power. So 5 hours before I start seeing 80º, when i had tubs it was like 10 degrees an hour. Slow to heat =slow to cool. Fast to heat =fast to cool.

Ambient temps are very important they are under valued and not paid as much attention to as they should be. Snakes have long lungs (well ok long and short) The lung is a massive organ that runs 1/2 to 2/3 of the body. Cool air = cool core, no matter how warm the hot spot is if the air temp is cool the animal cannot get the core warm. The reverse is true. Tubs can be hard to keep the ambient temps controlled either too warm or cold, unless you heat the room to an acceptable ambient temp, 80 is the typically acceptable one.

I am not saying tubs are bad I am not saying better either. Just different tanks can be hard to keep humidity in but they produce a even heat and off set an uneven heat pad, they heat slowly but cool slowly too. You keep saying tubs are better and will solve all your problems the tubs won't solve your problems you solve the problems all you are talking about is trading one set of problems for a new set of problems YOU still need to solve them either way.

Tub, tank, rack, or enclosure it makes no difference, the person whom sets up the captive environment makes the difference, the type of enclosure does not.

Personally I place higher value of even 'gentle' heat and mass than humidity. I am ok with a humidity range of 50-70 but am unwilling to tolerate much more than a 1 degree range on temperature. (set at 90 89-91 I can live with) In my quite cool home tubs present a heating issue that the only solution I found was to toss lots of cash at it (heating dollars). That is in an old drafty house where it hits -25ºF sometimes in the winter and summer rarely gets over 89ºF Did you look at a sideways tank? it solves most ambient temps tank problems and humidity as well, with the same cleaning properties of glass. Tubs are an answer but not the only answer.

First off I never said that tubs will 100% solve my problems. I did say I hear more pros then cons with tubs over glass tanks. I’m not even completely sure if I’m switching to tubs or not? I just want to get all the information about tubs beforehand. Even if I decided to switch to a tub I wouldn’t even put my snake in it until I Frankenstein with the tub. The only reasons why I would ever consider switching to a tubs is behalf of the snake comfort. I always like to do my research before purchasing. Just as I did when I purchased my snake, but now I’m considering a new habitat, so I’m taking the notes.

I am just trying to present every issue. There are so many that seem to have the notion that x will solve problems and then they spend time and money only to have new problems. I ment that as a bit more general comment. Something else for you to think about,

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...arium-Solution

I have 2 tanks, one upright and one turned one. An animal plastics rack (5 drawer) a vision enclosure a sly plastics enclosure and a custom made plastic (multiwall polycarbonate) enclosure. All have perfect temps ambient and spot and humidity that is between 55-65%. I had tubs as well. I don't believe one is better than the other. For me tubs were very costly to maintain, so I got rid of them. Everything is personal and every set up is different. Everything can be made to work and work well but each requires different treatment and people only have the skills they have and can't always find the solution for a problem.

There are lots on this forum that are exceptionally pro tub and I feel that I need to counter that sometimes The german snake keepers I know all use tanks with bioactive substrates and would be anti tubs if asked. I try to offer pros and cons and debunk the false information that floats around.

Thank you so much for all the info!!!!! I love the fact that you include the pro and cons. Please feel free to give more info.:)

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Originally Posted by LizardPants

Not really difficult, just different. Actually, PP/PS tubs may be easier for you to control than glass, or melamine. You should tailor your setup based upon the actual environmental conditions where you live, and the temperature at which you keep the room(s) that your reptiles are in: how well it's insulated, reliable HVAC, weather conditions (what happens if the power goes out, will they overheat, or get too cold?) .

With rack designs that are more open (Freedom Breeder, ARS, Fusion, Animal Plastics economy line) you'll want consistent room temps in the high 70's to 80 degrees.

Enclosed racks (Animal Plastics, RBI) hold heat better, and are more suited to maintaining cool side temps in rooms that are kept at lower temperatures, or the temperature fluctuates.

Either design can be suplemented with a low wattage flexwatt on the cool end, controlled by a separate thermostat (or one thermostat with multiple probes).

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Ok so from the information that you've gave me I believe my best bet would be the enclosed racks (animal plastics, RBI). My house can get pretty cold.

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Originally Posted by Druzy

Ok so from the information that you've gave me I believe my best bet would be the enclosed racks (animal plastics, RBI). My house can get pretty cold.

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If your house is cold then yes it would benefit you having closed racks.