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I am looking into purchasing some freedom breeder rack systems and was wondering if anyone could give me some pros/cons of that type of rack. Are they more prone to escapes, rubbed noses, etc...? Thanks!

>>I am looking into purchasing some freedom breeder rack systems and was wondering if anyone could give me some pros/cons of that type of rack. Are they more prone to escapes, rubbed noses, etc...? Thanks!

I have a few levels of Freedom Breeder racks and I love them. In the medium and small racks the cages are opaque so you can't see your animals, but I have too many to stare at all day anyway. They are easy to clean, and the heat strips that come with them are great.

The only problem I have ever had was when my female checkered gartersnake gave birth and the babies crawled up out of the grate at the top. I found them all because the stayed on top of the grate of the level, but it taught me a lesson about really slender livebearing snakes.
My rubber boa and desert sandboa females gave birth in these racks with no problem (no escapes).

I love my FB racks and am saving up to get some of the larger levels for my kingsnakes and ringed pythons. I have never had a snake rub its nose raw using these racks.

The only concern I would have would be for venomous snakes or for aggressive lunge feeders, like Blood Pythons. Because you have to slide open the rack towards yourself, an overanxious snake can launch itself towards you expecting food. I have a young ball python who is bad about this. If he was a hot snake, it might be troublesome!

Just for reference, I have been keeping/breeding snakes as a hobby for over 25 years. During that time I have used aquaria, Vision cages, Neodesha cages, plastic shoe/sweater boxes, racks, etc. I am happier with my FB racks.
-----
Chris Harrison

...he was beginning to realize he was the creature of a god that appreciated the discomfort of his worshippers - W. Somerset Maugham

A friend of mine who has a dedicated snake room with extensive melamine racks started replacing some of those melamine racks with Freedom Breeders. That was last year, and the colubrids housed in the new FBs are doing fantastic. I know he is absolutley sold on the FB racks and will not go melamine again as long as a product like FB is available.

From my own experience, I don't have FBs but I do have some racks from BARRs (www.herpcages.com), and I really recommend them if FBs don't fit your room (FBs require lots of depth.)

I'd only be concerned if you were buying used. FB has had some quality control issues in their past, albeit only for a brief period of time.

I'm not sure when these quality control issues occurred, though. I recently saw something like the second batch of FB's ever made and they were awesome and still in use after all these years. They were old enough that they were made to hold commercially available tubs rather than today where they have tubs made specifically for their racks.

The racks I saw were tight enough to securely hold medium sized Mountain Kingsnakes and Eurasian Elaphe -- all pretty good escape artists.

Hey,
Jon Roylance has redesigned these types of racks from the ground up & it is better. Better casters, better powder coating, better fitting boxes, better everything. And cheaper ! Not only that, he is a great guy to work with. I'm working with him now & he is custom making me a bracket for the top rail of my design to hold a DBS 1000 that I think he is going to make standard (or should !!!).
You'll never regret getting one of his racks. In fact, I have never regretted spending good amounts of money on caging, except that I did not build it myself (good feeling when you do that). The other high quality enclosure manufacturer that no other cage manufacturer can touch is Habitat Systems of course. They are the WIZZARDS !!!
Paul Edwards