Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have seen some of prices online for rack systems made from plastic and melamine wood. They are kind of high especially when it comes to the shipping part. How easy is it to build a rack system? I would need one that coould hold 10 adult california kingsnakes and 1.1 of western hognoses. Also I would like have heat in it. is heating one simple with flex watt heat tape? I have never built one but today I went to home depot and saw the melamine wood that people use to build them. They didn't have any flex watt heat tape. all they had was some heat chords to keep pipes from freezing in the winter so I figuured I could get flex watt heat tape somewhere else. My snakes are still 2003 babies. It looks like it would cost me less to build one than buying one already made? I would like to put them in one when they get bigger. My main concern is with the heating I also never have wired anything so I would be afraid of electrical hazard and fire. If anyone has any step by step pics on building a rack system and also tips and pics for wiring one for heat it would help. I am thinking that the 28 qaurt to 36 quart rubber maid sweater boxes should be plenty big enough.

thanks,
john

Building racks is very easy. I'm still kicking myself almost 20 years after getting into snake breeding that I did not build them earlier.

You ask some good questions and I encourage you to go back just two, possibly three pages back in this forum. There are some excellent threads with links that you will find helpful.

For california kingsnakes I think you can get away with 28 qt. rubbermaids or possibly 32 qt. sterilites. Any box bigger than these will add a lot of complexity and money to the project. However, I certainly won't criticize you if you want to provide them more space. Cal Kings are sort of on my personal threshold of what I fill comfortable keeping in a standard 28 qt. rubbermaid. Ultimately you have to do what you feel comfortable with, though.

Read the other links and figure out what info you still need help with.

I'll leave you with a rack I built cheaply out of 1/2" plywood (sides) and melamine shelving. I had screws and stuff laying around so I only had about $40 in this rack.

At the time of this picture I was not housing snakes in it. Instead I had put all of my herp supplies and mealworms in there temporarily.

Also, note that the rack holds seven 28 qt. rubbermaids or 14 half-sized rubbermaids.

Most commercial racks are not only more expensive, they also often only hold 5 rubbermaids.