Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm currently planning on bulding a bookshelf rack system for my leopard geckos and I was wondering if anyone knows how much cubic space (once the hides, calc dish, and water dish are included) is required? Put another way, what's the average sized container used in rack systems for both hatchlings and adults?

as long as you have 150 sq. inches per gecko (total). and it isn't completely covered with stuff it is fine.
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0.1 Albino Leopard gecko (Lex)
0.0.1 ball python (felix)
1.1 feral cats (Fuzzy, and Bear)

Thanks, that's exactly what I was looking for

heating it is going to be kind of hard though. how are you going to heat it?
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0.1 Albino Leopard gecko (Lex)
0.0.1 ball python (felix)
1.1 feral cats (Fuzzy, and Bear)

SInce it's only going to be probably 8-9 slots
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-three solo adults males in the top row with sliding doors
-2 female tanks the same way
-followed by 3 or 4 hatchling bins
-and then having my mealworm colony & supplies on the bottom row
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totaling 4 rows. I'm going to use underside heating with a dimmer for each row built right into the side of the setup. I haven't decided if I'm just going to control it with dimmers and check it frequently or with thermostats yet, but I'm leaning towards dimmers.

I figure if I build it right into the rack as I construct it things shouldn't be too difficult. Heck, I'm starting to think it would make more sense to just build it straight out of good quality 1/2inch plywood instead of using a bookcase...

>>heating it is going to be kind of hard though. how are you going to heat it?
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>>0.1 Albino Leopard gecko (Lex)
>>0.0.1 ball python (felix)
>>1.1 feral cats (Fuzzy, and Bear)

Correction: the males and females have hinged doors, oops...

no matter what remember that the top is going to be hotter than the bottom if you use dimmers. are you going to use Flexwatt or UTH's?
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0.1 Albino Leopard gecko (Lex)
0.0.1 ball python (felix)
1.1 feral cats (Fuzzy, and Bear)

Flexwatt with dimmers for every level. If monitored throughout the day shouldn't a rather steady temperature be able to be maintained? Plus I've decided to move the hatchlings to the top of the rack, they can use the excess heat better anyway...

make sure you get some good dimmers. Also make sure there is enough ventilation in the cages. Since you are going to use dimmers make sure you have pretty constant room temp.
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0.1 Albino Leopard gecko (Lex)
0.0.1 ball python (felix)
1.1 feral cats (Fuzzy, and Bear)