Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've been keeping my tubs' lids secure with strips of velcro. Sounds good, right?
It works, too - however, in a recent move, one of the velcro strips fell off and a snake escaped somewhere in a full garage.
NOw, I'd like to figure some EASY way of wiring or securing the plastic lids. Can anyone think of a metal ring or some kind of clip that'll hold those dang things solidly and forever?
(Maybe I'll just glue the dang things shut. That way nothing will EVER escape.)
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...and I think to myself, "What a wonderful world."

You know those paper clips used to hold huge stacks of paper? The ones with the folded black piece of metal, and the two silver loops that can either be folded back or forward? Those work well for securing most container lids. It takes a little experimentation to figure out what size, how many, and where to place them, but they're not expensive.

-Kat
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"You keep WHAT in your freezer?"
"Mice. And rats. If that bothers you, I can call them 'cows' instead."

Oh sure you could glue 'em but then you would still have to combat the teleportation abilites of a hatchling corn... I'm telling you people, they can access alternate dimensions or something.

Anna

Why not just build a lidless rack system where your tubs fit snugly up against the wood of the shelf above it? It is quicker, more efficient and more secure.

It is also hard to serilize if you get a sick snake in that cag since the roof is the top of the cage and can't be taken off. It is also an easy way to get escapes if it isn't made perfectly since too loose leaves a crack and too tigh often pinches the sides making a twist in the box resulting in a crack big enough for small snakes to squeeze out. If you use heat tape, it can warm some woods enough to let one cage get tight enough so the one above or beloow it to have a crack.

Lidless sliding rack systems are great, but not perfect. I went to sliding rack with a lid to reduce the problems. It is slower, but I find slower a good exchange for safer. If I'm that short on time, I'd just get rid of a coupole of snakes so that I could spend a little more time each of the ones left...lol.

Anyway, I got off topic here. If you want a way to secure the lid on the cage, you can try what I used to do back when I only had 8 snakes in the early 90's. I'd put the lid on the box, turn it upside down, and drilled a small home through the edge of the lip and the top at each corner. I shove a small bolt through the hole (make it a snug fit so that it doesn't fall out), enlarge the hole in the lid so it slid easily over the bolts, and then screw a wingnut down on each bolt to hold the lid securely. I liked it a lot, but it wasn't useful for 400 snakes....lol.

KJ

I have never even taken a woodworking class but have still been able to pull of building completely secure racks. I have only lost 1 snake from a rack system and it was from one which was built by some one else who did not do a very good job. I have never had any escapes from racks that I built myself. I do still have various containers with lids and those are the only containers that I have escapes from. I have had 2 such escapes this year. I do, however, also have one rack that requires the lids on the containers to be present for it to fit tightly into the rack. Those are also secure. I still prefer the lidless for simplicity. I would prefer the lidless even if I only had 5 snakes. In my experience it has been just as secure and it is much easier. Melamine wood is easily disinfected due to the outer layer of whiteboard which is applied to it. Either way, plastic tubs kept in racks with or without lids are far more secure and simple than jerry rigging the containers with books/weights/rocks/velcro/etc.... IMO

>> Melamine wood is easily disinfected due to the outer layer of whiteboard which is applied to it.

You've never had to remove pinworm larvae.....lol. Also, Melamine, when heated, release pretty nasty checmicals.

KJ

I am severely mentaly comprimised in abilities of the hammer and nail variety, but I still managed to build myself a lidless rack that works wonderfully. I did have one escapee, but he had help from one of the cats Our boy cat grabbed the lip of the box and pulled it out just enough to help the snake escape. After that I hammered on a couple swively stick so the boxes can't go past the shelf edge unless i move the sticks and have had no more escapes.

I even plan on building a couple larger racks soon, because I need more of them, and it was so easy to put together.
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Dianne
AKA IcedGoddess
0.1 Snow (Ruby)
1.0 Anery A (Breaden)
0.1 Amel (Edana)
0.0.7 Normal het-snow (no names yet)
1.1 Bloodred (Vlad the Impailer and Natasha)
0.1 Anery Stripe (Morticia)
1.0 Candy Cane (Kane)

1.3 Cats (Alexys{f}, Mikki{f}, Timothy{m}, Seven{f})
0.1 Child
1.0 Boyfriend
IcedGoddess Creations
Castle Serpents

I have wanted a lidless rack for a while but was worried about feline assisted escapes. I have a Leo Gecko that my cats are on a misson to destroy. They tore up one of his cages trying to get to him (he's okay though). I have a medium size two bedroom apartment with two kids so separating the animals is nearly impossible. Right now I have a small rack on top of a dresser that the cats can't climb on but I kept the lids just in case. Thank you for posting a way to solve my problem. I think if the snakes are not on the bottom level and I use the swivel stick method it may keep the cats out. Yay!
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Anna

Corns
1.0 Snow - Cornelius
1.1 Ghost(pastel) - Eek & Boo
1.1 Amel - Parker & Scarlet
0.1 Hypo - Nikko
0.1 Anery - Missy
0.1 Hypo Motley - Cordelia aka Cordy
Boas
0.1 Columbian (BCC) - Bella
Lizards
0.0.1 Leopard Gecko - Leo
Rats
0.1 Dumbo - Moon
1.0 Rex - Pluto
Cats
1.1 Siamese - Blue & Fiona
0.1 Gray DMS - Druscilla aka Dru
Horses
1.0 Thourghbred (Hunter/Jumper) - Morgan's Majesty aka Cody

if your cats are like mine, the swivelly stick will work nicely. with the stick going up and down he can't pull the boxes out past the edge of the shelf. For now anyway, I think I'm going to work on a swivel stick I can lock in the up and down position now thou, just because he's a tricky one, and he'll recruit the other 3 if he needs them I'm sure. Right now I just try not to turn the stick when he's in the room.

funny how smart they are except when you want to train them to do something usefull
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Dianne
AKA IcedGoddess
0.1 Snow (Ruby)
1.0 Anery A (Breaden)
0.1 Amel (Edana)
0.0.7 Normal het-snow (no names yet)
1.1 Bloodred (Vlad the Impailer and Natasha)
0.1 Anery Stripe (Morticia)
1.0 Candy Cane (Kane)

1.3 Cats (Alexys{f}, Mikki{f}, Timothy{m}, Seven{f})
0.1 Child
1.0 Boyfriend
IcedGoddess Creations
Castle Serpents

Now, K, why didn't I think of that?
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...and I think to myself, "What a wonderful world."