Reptile & Amphibian Forums

It kills me to see people putting baby snakes in deli cups (with inadequate heat and no hides). And, for the most part, the comercially available hatchling racks are crap. Either they don't have heat, or they use huge shoeboxes, or they are just badly built. All of this prompted me to build a few of these for this season. Already I love them!

Each tub is 12 long, 3 wide, and 2 high. There is a groove in the back of each shelf housing heat rope. This allows me to house 20 hatchlings in a 14 inch cube with belly heat! The rack maintains a 10 - 15 degree difference front to back. Right now I have a few built out of plywood and a few built out of melamine. But I was thinking about making some out of some type of plastic. I am considering starting to make them for sale.

tell me what you think. Any suggestions?

....where you explain where you got those tubs? Those are awesome man! I like the design overall. How did you plan for ventilation into the tubs? Did you leave clearance on top or did you provide holes in the tubs themselves? I think it looks great and it's a good "bookshelf" size rack. This makes it real convenient to keep because it live anywhere you put it.

If you plan on selling to the public I'd stick with wood to give you a real good advantage over the plastic products. Once you factor in plastic prices you are probably right back up there with the "they want HOW MUCH for THAT!!???" Or you could offer either one to make sure you're not excluding anyone from your potential buyers.
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Tom

"The more people I meet, the more I like my snakes"

The tubs do have a small gap but for obvious reasons its pretty tight. Enough space to breath but it holds lots of humidity. On the ones I use I drill lots more holes. right now I have a few more in the closet! How many people can just pic up their 20 hatchling shoebox rack and toss it in the closet during the off season?

Right now its a time issue with the wood. Finishing lots of wood adds lots of working time to each one. Right now the cost of the tubs is the most prohibitive thing. If I start producing these I would get tubs custom made.

Those tubs are interesting. Where do you get them?

Thanks in advance.

finding the tubs was the biggest issue. It took forever and I finally found these at the container store.

The Container Store Website

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Tom

"The more people I meet, the more I like my snakes"

Hey I like that. Where did you get the tubs? How much would you sell a rack like that for? Derek

I like the long/narrow boxes for hatchlings. I think plastic is a good idea as it will reduce labor time, which is really where a lot of the costs in racks/cages add up.

Sagging can be an issue which can really cause problems in hatchling racks with their tighter gaps. You might need to make the racks hold few tubs per shelf to cut down on this.
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Current snakes:

0.0.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java locale (green)

2.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Seleyar locale (all black)

at $50 PER TUB
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Thanks,

Dave "Rainbows-R-Us"

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB)
2.7 Brazilian Rainbow Boa (adult breeders)
2.5 Brazilian Rainbow Boa (sub-adult from 2004)
4.8 Brazilian Rainbow Boa (sub-adult from 2005)
2.1 Hypomelanistic BRB
0.1 Het for Hypomelanistic BRB
0.1 BCI "Elvira" normal from 1989
1.0 BCI albino / het-anery
0.1 BCI Hypo / het-albino
0.1 BCI Anery / het-albino
0.1 BCI Hypo (possible super)
1.0 BCI albino het stripe
1.0 BCI salmon hypo
0.1 BCI ghost

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats