Building a new breeder rack

[tangooscarmike]

I am in the process of moving to breeding my leopard geckos individually. I just feel like they eat better, they are less stressed, and the fertility rate is better when I house them alone. It will also let me keep tracking of which pairings are producing better animals and which pairings are any potential slugs might be coming from. So, that is what I am moving toward. Let me know your opinions on the following setup.

I am wanting to use The Container Store Our Sweater Box container for housing my adults. The container measures 15.625" x 13.125" x 6.75" with the lid on. The floor space in the container is 13.25" x 11.50" and the interior height is 6.25". I will use them without the lid in my rack, but when I talked to the people at The Container Store they couldn't give me the measurement without the lid on.

I am going to use 48oz Polypropylene deli cup as my laying container/humid hide. The container measures 6.90" in diameter and 3.90" high with the lid on it. I figure that I can put an inch of damp coconut husk fiber in the bottom of it, cut a 2" diameter hole in the top of it, and put it at the back of the container over the heat tape and it will be just fine.

Across the front of the container I planned on using three of the small disposable worm feeding dishes from LLL Reptile as my food, water, and supplement dishes. They measure 3.50" x 0.75" and have the worm keeper / anti spill ring on the top of them. They will fit across the front of the container with no problems.

I am going to build the rack out of 0.75" plywood and construct it so that it is 8 containers high and 4 containers wide. I will put vertical supports between each tub so that the plywood does not sag at all. I planned on making the rack so that there is a 0.125" gap between the top of the tub and the shelf above it so that I can avoid making holes in the tub for ventilation. I plan on routing the plywood so that the 3" heat tape is at the rear of the tub sitting in a 1/16" deep groove. I will secure the heat tape with aluminum tape to hold it in place and keep the tubs from damaging the tape when they slide across. I may route channels for the vertical supports as well and glue them in place instead of using screws to hold them. All of the shelves will be held in place using pocket screws so that none of the screws will be visible from the outside of the rack when you are viewing it.

As far as sealing the plywood I am planning on using truck bed liner to keep it from being damaged by water and make it easy to clean and disinfect.

When I breed the geckos I plan on housing all of my males in the column all the way to the left and filling the rest of the rack with females. This will give me eight males and 24 females. I can house eight different groups of 1.3 animals and will probably breed eight different morphs to keep things simple. I just have to figure out which eight morphs I want to focus on. I will put the males in with their first female on monday, let them rest tuesday, put them in with their second female on wednesday, let them rest on thursday, put them in with their third female on friday and let them rest on the weekend. I figure that two passes through these females should get them all bred without an issue and keep my males from getting too thin and keep my females from getting too stressed out. I will also put the males back with the females in between egg layings to keep the fertility levels high.

I am trying to get this right on the first try, so any input from you guys is appreciated. I will make another post with my hatchling rack plans and yet another post with my mealworm breeding rack.

[101Mutations]

I am doing something very similar. Can't wait to see how yours turns out.

[wnateg]

Sounds like a well thought out plan.