Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm looking to modernize my setup. Since I will continue to work solely with pinesnakes I would be interested in hearing/seeing what others are using to house their adult pines. I was considering building enclosures but with so many commercially made products I may skip building my own and consider purchasing some. Any thouhgts, ideas would be appreciated.

Rich,
I'm currently using Boaphile Rhino Raxx and they are working out just fine. Since I've just officially got back into pits after a 5 year hiatus, I'm facing the same dilemma you are. I may go with the 4x2 Boaphile caging, as I've heard great things about them. Just my two cents. Watch for pics of some black pines I picked up from Russ P. The male is 18 inches with only two rat pinks in him since he hatched! I've never seen lodingi that huge. I'm real excited about getting back into pits, and may just get back into working with pines exclusively like I did for so many years. On my wish list: TRUE locality mugitus, and Carolina Northerns. Best of luck in your search for caging, keep me posted.
Mike Collalto

Hey Mike, welcome back. I took a 4 year hiatus. Sold off all my older model Boaphile racks as well as the large style Animal Plastics brand. I used those for most colubrids but had heavy 3.5' wood and glass enclosures I kept adult pits in. I hear some are using the Iris tubs within rack systems with much success. I believe Boaphile, Animal Plastics and Monster Cages all make a good rack for those tubs. I though may go for enclosures in the 3' and 4' sizes. I believe Monster Cages will custom make any size you want.

Russ P has some nice black pines. I actually contacted him recently in regards to them. He also sent me a link to his enclosures on kingsnake. He made his own. They look to be a pretty good setup for pines. I may revisit this. He also acquired some very nice sized tubs that he will be building a rack to contain.

There are some people working with very nice TRUE locality mugitus. Being that I reside in Florida though I am somewhat restricted with doing much with them. Morphs though are open game. Only one morph that interests me and it is those high red speckled albinos. Hard find these days.

Welcome back and I will keep you updated. I'll make sure to keep my eyes out for your black pine pics.

Rich,
Would you share that link to Russ's home-made racks. I'm always looking for new ideas. I am using home-made racks from a design by "RainTree Herps", simple and cheap, 2x4 and pegboard but I like to see other ideas in case I am missing something that would be good for my snakes. I am actually starting on a new set for 12 tubs in the next half hour.
Raymond

...to the Raintree Herps "homemade rack".

Raymond,

Sounds similar to Russ P's design. I was hoping he would have posted to this thread but I did find his e-mail and link on this subject.

"There are five enclosures in one. They have pegboard on the back. I had an Amish carpenter cut grooves in the two side boards for the shelves to fit into. Then just drywall screwed the shelves in, screwed on the pegboard back and glued on the plastic tracks for the plexiglass."

"I bought some large tubs last year to incorporate into a simple rack. They are almost 4' long. there are photos of them. I have not built the racks yet. They may be large enough for pines. They sell at Walmart around Christmas time as Christmas tree tubs."

Melamine cages with sliding plexiglass fronts. They are 55" long by 19" deep by 9" high.

Pic Link...

http://gallery.pethobbyist.com/photo.php?id=346793

That is some serious old school, Rich. Reminds me of the racks that we had in my high school biology class!!

I bet they work freaking great, too.....all the old school stuff works great. I wonder about some of this new space age stuff. If it ain't broke then don't fix it!!

Nice rack
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--Brian Scott