Reptile Room progress.

As the title states we've gotten a bit of progress done on the reptile room. This past weekend we insulated the basement room's exterior wall which was giving me problems keeping the room warm enough. The next steps for my father and I include installing 6 electical outlets in that wall, and wiring a new breaker box solely for the room... after that we will be insulating the ceiling, and installing a hanging tile ceiling with flourescent fixtures plugged into timers for my day/night cycle...and of course to take away the cavelike feel. :)

On another note, I received my Reptile Basics rack today, so I unpacked it and dusted it off a bit....broke out the Helix t-stat...and have got the rack warming up to get my big guy and girl ready for their new home.

Here's some pictures!

In this picture you can see the entire space I'm working with (12x8x8) the entire room is 24' long, but half is going to be divided off by a wall and sliding door. You can also see Shogun's 40 breeder setup with the towel over the screen to help out the humidity....well that shouldn't be an issue for much longer. :)
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...8/6/Room01.jpg

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...8/6/Room02.jpg

And the new RB rack with Helix t-stat...definitely a breeze to set-up, just have to get the right temps dialed in.
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...BallRack01.jpg

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...BallRack02.jpg

Hope you enjoy!

Jason

hmm... i'm starting to think i need to be adopted by your family :P

hey pops... my birthday is coming up soon and i'd really really like a new reptile room addition to my house.


(some how i dont think it will work, just like the family i tried to get to adopt me so i could get a pony when i was little didnt:confused: )

Really coming along well Jason! It's very cool that you and your dad are doing this project together!

Dusty, don't worry. I can't seem to get Adam or Kara to adopt me either :tears:

:sweeet: looking good! for ball pythons a rack setup is ideal. setting up a room where you can control temps/humidity will benefit you and herps alot!!!:colbert2:



vaughn

Sweet setup Jason ... looks good.

BTW - check out Vaughn sportin the money smilies!! :P

-adam

Oohhh, it's hard not to be envious! I can hardly wait for the day when I can start building a snake house!

Nice racks!! How much were they, if you don't mind my asking? My reptile room is our spare bedroom, but most of my snakes are in tanks, as I can't quite afford a nice rack system just yet.

Thanks everyone! I can't wait until the project is complete so I can start collecting some more herps. :)

4th, the rack was 224.99 shipped to my house, I only have the one. I'm going to see how I like this one, and then I'm going to pick up a Boaphile plastics Ball Room rack to see how I like those.


I'll keep you all updated on further progress.:snake2:

Jason

Looks great Jason! Thanks for keeping up updated!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dusty

hmm... i'm starting to think i need to be adopted by your family :P

hey pops... my birthday is coming up soon and i'd really really like a new reptile room addition to my house.


(some how i dont think it will work, just like the family i tried to get to adopt me so i could get a pony when i was little didnt:confused: )

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The reptile room was more of an incentive for them to re-do the room.... they know I won't be around forever, and my dad houses his library of books in the other half of the room...eventually when I'm gone it will be his den. As of now it is the reptile room because snakes aren't allowed in the other parts of the house (mother's commandment :) ) and it's saving us and arm and leg on electricity.

Luckily my dad has gotten into reptiles...he likes my leo colonies, found the first eggs, and thinks my snakes are cool to look at. And mom, well she thinks the leos and my tort are cute...snakes...well she avoids them but puts up with them, bless her heart. LOL

I told her today that I'll be picking up another BP (pastel male) April 22nd at the Madison WI show....she asked if I needed it. I responded, of course I do (with a sly grin).:snake2:

But...you are right, my birthday is coming up! :gj:

Two weeks and I should have my first set of baby leos! Hopefully they pop out Blazing blizzards!

Well after setting up the RB rack yesterday with the helix t-stat, I let it run all day to tinker and find a constant ideal temperature. I decided to throw the big two into their new tubs.

I lifted Shogun's hide to find him snuggled up with a fresh, and complete shed...boy was he shiny!

Here's some pictures of them in their new enclosure.

Q in her new tub
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...6/100_1696.JPG

and...Shogun in his new tub, with a stomach full of rat.:partyon:
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...6/100_1700.JPG

Looking really good! :sweeet: Do you have any hides inside the racks?

Thanks!
Nope, no hides...I figure there is no need since the rack is dark enough to make them feel secure. I may add a hide down the road if they have problems feeding but as of now I don't think they need them.

Jason

Jason, looks like you're making some good progress there:sweeet:. Post some pics when you get to the next phase of your construction venture. Will you be using an oil filled heater for the room over all?

We'll be using a good sized electric baseboard heater to heat the room controlled by a thermostat of course, we had an old model that crapped out on us after approximately 10 years of use. We plan on running it to keep the room at approx 80-84F.

Cool, best of luck with it all... Remeber you will also need a rocking chair in there as well :P...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ARamos8

Cool, best of luck with it all... Remeber you will also need a rocking chair in there as well :P...

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Rocking chair. Check!:sweeet:

Well I finally got to working on one of my melamine racks for a bit tonight. I had the urge to work with power tools and cut stuff up, so here's what I got accomplished in about an hour.

Its my 18 tub Leopard Gecko rack using 6 qt. Sterilite tubs obviously. :) I marked up the side panels for assembly, but ran out of time tonight to predrill the screw holes so I don't crack the melamine...so final assembly will have to wait for tomorrow morning.
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b1...f/100_1741.jpg

Side view:
http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b1...f/100_1742.jpg

I really like doing custom stuff, but it never comes out as clean as I would like....so I think for larger racks like 32qt. and CB-70s I'll go with the vision racks or Animal Plastics. I've heard pretty good reviews on the new Visions from a few different sources, and the price for them is quite reasonable. Those however will be in the future, many other snakes are in the works, as well as a few Boaphile cages. :)

I'm just happy its moving along.:banana:

How does the melamine compare to 3/4 oak plywood. Is it cheaper.

I actually never compared prices of the two, I wanted the pre-finished white look for the rack. I can tell you it is a heck of a lot heavier than ply. Just the little leo rack already weighs a ton!

C'mon JBall don't you know that Herp Room Project = No Sleep:P.

Might I make a suggestion and add a set of wheels to the bottom of the racks or pick up a small hand truck to move those scale condos around...LOL:D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ARamos8

C'mon JBall don't you know that Herp Room Project = No Sleep:P.

Might I make a suggestion and add a set of wheels to the bottom of the racks or pick up a small hand truck to move those scale condos around...LOL:D

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Family Sleeping + Power tools at 2am = things thrown out on the lawn. LOL

Casters are in the works already for this rack. :)

It won't take me too long before all 18 of those tubs are filled. I have my eight adults, and just tonight I found two more leopard gecko eggs! So 6 total eggs in the incubator!

A few hundred clutches more and it will help me pay off an albino male ball python.:P

*A bit off topic*
I find it funny how so many people still don't realize the huge reptile pet market out there. A customer where I worked asked me out of curiousity what kinds of pets that I keep. So I started rambling off 4 ball pythons, a tortoise, 8 leopard geckos, and 4 leopard gecko eggs incubating. She says to me, why do you have leopard gecko eggs? So I explain that I have a small breeding project. Then she says to me, "who would want those? Reptiles can't make very good pets." I tried to explain that there was a huge market for reptiles around the world...she still didn't want to believe me. Finally she gave me the weird "you're creepy because you own reptiles" look and walked away.:irkd:

At that point I was getting quite irritated so I headed in the opposite direction. Some people.

Well I had a slow Friday night tonight, everyone in my house out of town so I decided to bust out the tools once again to finish the leo/hatchling rack.

Well here's the finished product!

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b1...f/100_1749.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b1...f/100_1751.jpg

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b1...f/100_1752.jpg


The spot on the bottom of the rack will be for a feeder roach colony once I get a few more leos.

May I add that this rack weighs a ton!

:) Enjoy!

Jason

am wondering if melamine is good to racks. i think marine wood is better for huminidty reasons. but is more expensive.

I haven't heard of any problems with melamine racks due to humidity. All of the DYI rack sites, write-ups that I have seen suggest using melamine. I really don't feel that humidity will be an issue for this leo rack, I use humid hides in all of their cages, so I rarely mist the cages.


A major plus for me was the laminated surface that I could wipe down to clean if need be. Another plus was that it already has a finished look to it vs. would that you would have to stain/paint.

Jason

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ozone

am wondering if melamine is good to racks. i think marine wood is better for huminidty reasons. but is more expensive.

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Melamine is fine. I have some melamine racks that are 12 years old and look just as good as the day I got them.

-adam

Cool! Yer lucky to have such a supportive/helpful parent :) My reptile room used to be a dining room in its former life!

We plan on working more on the room this upcoming weekend, the breakers will be going in, outlets installed as well and the wall to divide the room.

Right now I'm saving up some for another rack. And the empty slot on my RB rack will hopefully be filled by next weekend if I can find a nice ball python at the WI herp show.

Just a quick leo update, I found two more leo eggs tonight laid by my Tremper albino female. My females are cranking out those eggs for 06'. I've currently got 8 eggs in the incubator with 2 Blazing Blizzard hopefuls, as well as some Tremper albino hopefuls, I'll even be happy if they all hatch out as normals. The possible BB eggs are due in 20 days, and then the next few clutches about 2 weeks apart. All incubating for a mixture of males/females.:)



Jason