Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a small setup that contains 15 shoe boxes for babies. Well.. if things go as planned this year I am hoping I will need more. So my question is, what do you use. I know there are Boaphile, Animal Plastics and the list goes on. I am looking for what you use and what you think of them. I dont want to purchase and then find out that I should have or could have bought better.

So... please tell me what you think and pictures of the setups would be greatly appreciated.

For example, I have a Boaphile sweater rack, and my opinion is that I would prefer Belly Heat instead of the heat sandwiched down the back. Seems that if the room is not really warm, I can not get enough heat to transfer to the boxes. Because of this, I wish I would have purchased or added belly heat.

Thanks
Shawn Morelan

Shawn I found that although the Boaphile Blanketbox rack doesn't quite provide as much heat as I may want, they do keep the animals perfectly healthy. Keep in mind they were designed so the boxes don't need airholes - airholes will make lower temps more common due to air exchange and heat loss. I have heard that covering the back with a towl, sheet or something taped on to insulate would work very well.

The Sweater box rack I have from Boaphile (clear boxes, not standard) provides MORE than enough heat! ALL my babies and yearlings are always glued to the front of the box and clearly visible because the heat from the back is strong. In this case,it heats the entire box, so the belly heat isn't needed.

These are my experiences and opinions.

Hope that helped. thanks, Joe
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'Tis not the stongest of the species that will eventually survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change' Charles Darwin
Thanks and take care - Joe Rollo

I had 3/4 inch melamine racks heated down the back with 11" heat tape and I pushed the back of the rack against a wall. They also would not get warm enough in a room kept at 70 degrees. I switched them all to belly heat and now they heat very well. I have heard that the Boaphile racks and cages dont heat well unless they are in a warm room.

My advice would be to check out animal plastics. they use 1/2 inch plastic and hold heat very well.
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Jaremy Douglas

I have the 27 hole shoe box rack and it works great. A quick look at price difference. A 20 hole Boaphile is 358 bucks. A 27 hole Animal Plastics is 275. Now I'm not sure if Boaphiles come with the tubs or not, but either way, add 27 dollars to the price of the Animal Plastics for the tubs, and your still saving some money, and getting a very good rack. The heat routered into the back panel works very well with the shoebox racks. Oh yeah, in case you didn't notice....the price savings also includes 7 more bins. With shipping, my cost per rack was 327 bucks to my door. So, price per bin comes to 12.11 for Animal Plastics and 17.90 for Boaphiles. The biggest difference in the two shoebox racks I can see is the price as they both will hold shoebox tubs and come with heat, both black....The Animal Plastics can be disassembled though if need be and put back together with ease. I don't think you can break down a boaphile rack. But, not a big deal in my opinion considering how often are you really going to even think to yourself...."wish I could take this thing apart". I'm sure either way you go, you'll be satisfied. I just chose Animal Plastics in the end, and have no regrets. Take care!