Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Does anyone have any experience with the "colonial" type racks? There are some pics of the ones Bob Applegate uses on his website, but basically they have 2 or more rows with average sized enclosures that are connected, but can also be sealed off. All of these enclosures connect to a larger community area, that can also be closed off.

The logic is the snakes can move around as they desire, but can also be seperated when desired. Also people claim that if you set multiple females up with a single male he can go from female to female with out the keeper having to switch him off.

Anyone have any opinions on this? I like that the snakes can move around more freely rather then sit in a single tub, but I also am a follower of don't house snakes together.

Heres the link:
http://www.applegatereptiles.com/about/facilites2.html

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"The band is just fantastic, that is really what I think. Oh by the way, which ones pink?"

I built one or two cages like that, but did not really use it in the way that Applegate does. I basically built a cage with one row of lidless rack built underneath. IIRC I had room for three boxes, one was used for water, one was a moist hide area and the last was a dry hide area.

From a construction standpoint I'm not sure the extra time, space and material was worth the small benefit. I did like changing the water, however. But I don't think you're even considering that.
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Current snakes:

0.0.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java locale (green)

0.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Malaysian locale (green)

1.2 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java local (green)

2.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Seleyar locale (all black)

1.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Celebes locale (Black & Tan)

I was thinking about a similar set up. A 4 X 18 cage with 4 seperate tubs underneath. A simple plugable hole would allow access. Sould be pretty simple, just extend the sides of the cage to add the shelf to hold the tubs. I really like the idea of giving the snakes the extra room. I have a few Hondurans over 4 ft and I feel like they are cramped in their current rack.

I am mostly concerned with leaving them all able to access all the areas, even though I doubt canabalism would be an issue I am still nervous.

Also I can build it and simply switch out the different snakes into the larger area on different days.
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"The band is just fantastic, that is really what I think. Oh by the way, which ones pink?"