Help in building a new snake rack system.

Hi.Iv been in the hobby of keeping & breeding Ball Pythons for about 5 years now.
I always kept my snakes in large Vivariums as I thought that it is the best way.
But in time to time Iv realized that smaller,darker places do better.The snake feels more
secure in a smaller,darker place so it keeps on feeding breeding & doing much better.
Now Iv decide to destroy all my large units & instead build some nice rack systems.
So this time I'm making sure not to repeat the same mistakes & to keep in mind
everything that I learned from my own experience.I made a lot of research & came with
lots of conclusions.THE ONLY THING THAT KEEPS ON TROUBLING ME IS THE SIZE OF THE
ADULT TUBS.PLEASE I NEED TO HEAR AS MANY OPINIONS AS YOU CAN GIVE ME.
I NEED TO KNOW THE SIZE OF TUBS YOU USE FOR YOUR ADULT BALL PYTHONS
BUT WITH A GOOD REASON & GOOD RESULT.This thing matters a lot to me because
this space is where my snake is going to spend all its remaining life.As always thanks a lot guys.

I use these for my adults: http://www.amazon.com/Sterilite-1960...qid=1412267282. They are about 6" high by 17" wide by 35" long. I do not know if they are available for sale in Europe.

I use two different size racks for my males and females. The females get housed in 41 quart sterilite tubs and the males 28qt.
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/10/03/eteha6up.jpg

They both work perfect. Only thing I would suggest is pay the extra to have xpvc. It's worth is weight in gold

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I just built my first rack too. My tubs are 7in high and 17x24 though all my snakes are only a few months old. When they get bigger I will probably make another rack. I second the recommendation to use pvc board! It is awesome and easy to work with though it's pretty darn pricy.
http://i168.photobucket.com/albums/u...ds/image-2.jpg

I also use two different sizes.

My males are in 28qt drawers, I bought the rack at a show its nothing special, I just wanted to get them out of my real drawers where I keep my females.

I build my own female racks based off of a rack a friend built for me when I first started out.

The rack itself is made of melamine caulked at the seems, wood puttied and painted on the edges. It holds 5 drawers and takes two full sheets of melamine and whatever you want to use to keep heat in the back (I just use the paint to seal this surface so the melamine isnt really necessary). I put castors on the bottom for easy moving because it is pretty heavy.

The drawers are the large concrete mixing tubs you can find at home depot that measure 3'x2'x8". They have no ridges on the inside which makes cleaning really easy, they are PVC and opaque. The animals seem to enjoy them.

I keep hides in most of them but the snakes that don't have hides don't seem to mind. All in all we have had no health issues and our biggest female has put on 2300 grams in 2 years living in it so she at least seems to be ok with the set up.

I have used both flukers pads and flex watt (with soldered connections) they both work just fine though I haven't compared efficiency in any way.

I control heat with a herpstat 4 from spyder robotics.

Thanks to all of you guys

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Velrys

The drawers are the large concrete mixing tubs you can find at home depot that measure 3'x2'x8". They have no ridges on the inside which makes cleaning really easy, they are PVC and opaque. The animals seem to enjoy them.

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<thread hijack>
I got one of these free from Home Depot because it had a cracked corner. I cut out the cracked area, filed off any sharp edges, turned it over, and my largest boa uses it for a hide.
</thread hijack>

I made 2 of these to house 18 snakes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EYC-UE2qsg. I alsohave the back bottom lined with heat tape with a VE-300 t-stat from reptile basics controlling temps. The only thing different I did was use a sheet of corrugated plastic. It was the same price as the "white board" that he suggested in the video but will never need replacing due to humidity. It's light weight, easy to move around and everything cost right around $300. (including tubs, screws, etc...)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by scooter11

I use two different size racks for my males and females. The females get housed in 41 quart sterilite tubs and the males 28qt.
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/10/03/eteha6up.jpg

They both work perfect. Only thing I would suggest is pay the extra to have xpvc. It's worth is weight in gold

Sent from my SM-N900P using Tapatalk

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Hi. I really like your setups .But I cant find sterilite tubs that can be shipped to europe.
Do you live in europe & is the brand of your tubs sterilite ?I live in Malta & everything is so limited.
Again thanks for your help & wish you a great season.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by garygenetix

Hi. I really like your setups .But I cant find sterilite tubs that can be shipped to europe.
Do you live in europe & is the brand of your tubs sterilite ?I live in Malta & everything is so limited.
Again thanks for your help & wish you a great season.

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thanks, i love it. im not a big breeder at all, just a guy with a small(yet growing, haha) collection of ball pythons. i love the way they came out. i have a spare bedroom and its become my little slice of heaven. you can tweak the dimensions depending on the size of the tub. they're all sterilite tubs since they're readily available and inexpensive. i also have a grow out 15qt rack made of 3/4 in oak faced plywood as well. im not sure what kind of tubs you have in Malta, but im sure there must be something similar in dimensions as it is a very popular size. the 41qt tubs are roughly 34 1/2 x 16 1/2 x 5 5/8 without the top. the 28qt is 22 x 16 x 5.5 without the top. I'm sure there must be something that is available to you that is close. let me know what you have in that ball park and ill try to help and see how it can be tweaked.

actually, i didnt think to post this in that last message, but here is the thread with the details if it helps.

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...art-xpvc-build

Quote:

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Originally Posted by scooter11

actually, i didnt think to post this in that last message, but here is the thread with the details if it helps.

http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...art-xpvc-build

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Wow you just did a great job there & an other great job explaining everything step by step.
you just said & made everything I wanted to hear & see.But I'm still finding it really hard to buy tubs.
Can you pls tell me from where did you buy does sterilite tubs?Was it online or from some local store
in your country?Maybe they have a website/store & they can ship them to me.I will really really appreciate
if you send me a link or at least the name of the store,maybe I could contact them.
Even Though I already really appreciate your help & I'm really thankful.

No problem. I bought mine at a store here in the US, Target. They also have them at home Depot, Lowe's hardware, Walmart and I'll see if I can find some more. I'm not sure if they ship outside the us or if they have stores outside the us. I tried looking at the website but couldn't find anything. Also some of those sites sell them in multiple packs and it's a little cheaper. I bought the 28qts in a ten pack from target. Also try emailing sterilite themselves. They can tell you if any places outside the us and maybe around you carry their products.

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