Rack/Bin Sizes for BP Life Cycle

[icius]

Hello all,

My son and I have been researching for about 2 months now to prepare for entering the hobby. We are still struggling with which rack system to buy and what sizes make sense for BPs throughout their life. Just to add some parameters around the question, we are planning on starting out with four BPs. Two morphs because we just like them (Coral Glow and Pied) and two from the Blue Eyed Leucistic Complex for a future breeding project.

All of the snakes we are considering are from 2015 clutches so they are all pretty small (120g or less). In trying to pick a rack system it seems to us that it would be prudent to standardize on one bin manufacturer. We're also trying to understand and make sure that we provide a good progression of sizes throughout the snakes' life without going too big too fast. To that end I put together a list of bins and sizes that seem to be favored by rack makers.

Sterlite


6 Qt Tub - 13 1/4L x 7 3/8W x 4 3/8H
15 Qt Tub - 16 3/4L x 10 3/4W x 6 1/4H
28 Qt Tub - 22 1/8L x 16W x 5 5/8H
32 Qt Tub - 23L x 15 1/2W x 6 3/8H
41 Qt Tub - 34 1/4L x 15 3/4W x 5 3/4H


Vision


V-18 - 18L x 7 1/2W x 3 1/2H
V-35s - 20L x 15W x 3 1/2H
V-35 - 20L x 15W x 5.3H
V-70 - 33 1/4L x 17 1/4W x 5 1/4H

I like the fact that the Sterlites provide a nice gradual transition in sizes and it seems like it would make sense to provide all five sizes at natural points in the snake's growth. However, looking at the sizes, a problem becomes quickly apparent. All of the tubs have different heights. This means a different style rack at each size. I'm not opposed to providing this level of variety if it is truly in the best interest of the snake's health and mental well being, but maybe this is overkill?

Swinging over to the Vision tubs, things seem to make a bit more sense. There are only four commonly offered sizes that I can see (well there is the V-15 as well but it looks so narrow, I wouldn't want to live in one if I was a snake). Also, at least in the two smaller size, heights are the same and length is very close to being the same.

Right now I'm leaning toward our first rack being an 8 tub V-35s rack. My logic is that we could fit both the V-35s and V-18 bins in there and have room to expand. We could then get a V-70 rack later once the snakes reach adult size and/or buy another rack just for V-18 if we are successful in breeding.

But...

Is the V-18 to V-35s to V-70 progression gradual enough? That's roughly equivalent to a Sterlite 6 Qt, 28 Qt, 41 Qt progression. Will we run into a situation where the snakes are too big for the bin they are in but too small to move up to the next?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

You can do vision but it would need to be V18 up until 650 grams - V35 not the short ones and V70.

V35S would only allow you a very short and useless transition because they are as short as V18 tubs which is why you want the regular V35 for males and smaller females.

I do V18 - Sterilite 32 Quarts - and V70, by using V18 I can house hatchlings up to 650 grams before switching to their adult racks.

[Drake Moonslayer]

I am not sure if I am doing this correctly because of who gave me the info. but I am using steralite clear view latch tubs.

6qt - from hatchling to about 200 or 300 grams
15qt - from there to about 1000 grams
32qt - from there on so far.

Is this right or should I be doing something different

Currently I have a rack that has been built to hold 18 32qt tubs or 36 15qt tubs and it is working great because the height is the same on both and the width of the 32qt is comprable to the length of the 15qt.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

I am not sure if I am doing this correctly because of who gave me the info. but I am using steralite clear view latch tubs.

6qt - from hatchling to about 200 or 300 grams
15qt - from there to about 1000 grams
32qt - from there on so far.

Is this right or should I be doing something different

Currently I have a rack that has been built to hold 18 32qt tubs or 36 15qt tubs and it is working great because the height is the same on both and the width of the 32qt is comprable to the length of the 15qt.

No you're good sizes I mentioned just allow to skip a size not having to use another rack with another tub size.

If you use sterilite, 6 quarts, 15 quarts, 32 quarts and 41 quarts is the normal transition.

Sent from my SM-T320 using Tapatalk

[SCWood]

No you're good sizes I mentioned just allow to skip a size not having to use another rack with another tub size.

If you use sterilite, 6 quarts, 15 quarts, 32 quarts and 41 quarts is the normal transition.

Sent from my SM-T320 using Tapatalk

I start everyone in 16 qt up to 500g, then 24-32qt up to 1200g, then 41qt 1200g+

[FranklinMorphs]

I use Sterilite 6qt for hatchlings, they if I'm holding them back, or they get too big, they get moved to Hefty locking handle stacker boxes. 15qt for males under 700gr, 34qt for bigger males and females up to their first breeding seasong(1000-1200gr) then the breeder girls get the 52qt hefty bins.

I went with the hefty's for everything over hatchlings as they are easy to get locally, well priced for how sturdy they are(between sterilite and vision, closer to vision) and they are perfectly sized so one shelf can be either a single 52 qt, a 34qt and a 15qt or 3 15qt tubs.

[icius]

Thanks everyone for the replies. I think I'm going to go with Deborah's method and do V-18 --> 32 Qt --> V-70.

To that end I have ordered an 8 bin V-18 rack from

http://www.dragons4you.net/

Hopefully that will hold us for a few months


I also have a Herpstat 2, 24 inch snake hook, infrared thermometer and 18 inch hemostats on the way.

So it begins....