Racks, tubs, or tanks - housing questions for Ball Pythons

[nor_cal1980]

Hi there! I am just starting to build up my collection of BP's ... about to purchase 2 more now which will make a total of 4 ball pythons for me! I live in a small one bedroom apartment and the tanks are taking a lot of room... and since I want to keep getting more and eventually breeding I want to move to a rack system or tubs.
For adult size ball pythons what size sterilite containers do you (bp afficionados) use?
I would like to avoid buying or building an actual RACK but am interested in possibly stacking sterilite containers on a shelf... but I have no idea how I would do the heating etc. which is why I want your input!!

I do not treat my snakes as breeders, but rather as pets (I name them, take them out frequently and play with them) that's why I am having a hard time with the thought of moving them to a tub... I feel like they will be so unhappy and bored (my snakes like to roam around their tanks at night and climb on the branches etc)... anyone else have the same feelings about this as me?

Anyway so if I get a bunch of sterilite tubs to put on a shelf (I have one of those metal ones similar to this:


how would I do the heating, ventilation (hole drilling- how many, where, how big) etc.

Also how do you guys measure the temperature/humidity in sterilite containers?

Any/all advice is much appreciated!! Thanks.

When i started keeping snakes i was in the same exact boat as you. I live in a one bedroom also. I started out with aquariums but as my collection grew there was no way to house all my snakes that way. So i switched over to tubs and eventually built my own rack systems. At first i felt bad for putting them in tubs also but the more i've learned about snakes, especially ball pythons they actually do much better in tubs. Snakes feel more secure in smaller areas. Tubs also do a much better job at holding in heat and humidity. The size tubs you are going to want to use all depends on the size of your snakes. I keep mine in 25 quart sterelites with hides on both ends of the tubs. All my ball pythons range from 180 grams to 300 grams so they're still small. Once they're full grown i will be moving them into 41 quart sterelite tubs on a different rack. 41 quart is standard for adult females and 32 quart is usually ok for adult males. Some people keep all there adults in 32 qts but i think they're too small for big females. You can heat the tubs w/ regular under tank heaters but the best way would be with flex watt and a thermostat. You can probably get all the flexwatt and a ranco thermostat for the same or less then buying individual uth's for each tub. I started out w/ a herpstat pro proportional thermostat but recently picked up two ranco's for alot less and they work great for heating tubs. There are alot of different set ups for keeping snakes in tubs. Since you dont want to build a rack your best bet would be to run three or four inch flexwatt in the back of the shelves on the unit you have. Plug in to a thermostat and get some appropriate sized tubs with latching lids. There are alot of good vids on youtube with people showing how to set up exactly what you want to do. I would definetly check that out. Here's a link to my channel .http://www.youtube.com/user/1980norcal
I have alot of vids showing how to set up tubs,simple racks and how to set up and use flex watt, just click on the " see all " tab in the uploads section... Sorry i rambled so
long....hope this helps