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.