Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Here are a few pictures of a rack that I made that I consider hot safe. It is a lidded rack system and the lid is held on by the cage sliding into a metal channel, so there is no way that the lid can be lifed off of the cage while the cage is in the rack. For more security I've thought about running a locking bar across the rails... (and it is heated with belly heat)

The only way I would consider that hot safe if if you added the locking bar with a key only you had. Until then I dont see the difference between a normal snake rack and that.
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Jon

The difference is that this one is lidded. It is frustrating (and dangerous) to slide a cage out of a lidless rack only to have a snake crawl out of the cage and back behind the rack.

With this setup I can slide the cage out, move it to a handling area, then work with the snake.

Locking individual cages (or the entire rack) wouldn't be a hard task. This is just a prototype that I made for the ones I'm making for myself in the future, adding a locking system is near trivial.

It isn't a bad plan for a prototype and I can see how some modifications would make it quite a secure system. I would still certainly put a big limit on what species which are suitable for such housing. When factoring in strict husbandry demands of many venomous snakes and their individual abilities which make working with them a challenge (ex. large or fast elapids)...it is hard to make a rack system functional for multispecies needs (which is why I believe vision gets so much business for enclosures known for problems like humidity loss and "sagging" . I like your efforts though and I agree with how it offers a better situation than an open top rack. Looks nice.

I have no idea how the smile face got in my post and it was not intended. Not that your rack didn't make me smile...I just didn't intend to place it there.

Now that I have my prototype done I'm actually using it to house colubrids. I'm making others of different sizes etc for various venomous snakes. Obviously I wouldn't try to put a mamba in one of these racks, but for some of my small snakes (coral cobras, copperheads, pigmy rattlesnakes, other small rattlesnakes) I like using these kinds of setups.

Mambas being your most extreme example obviously. The venomous snakes I thought of which might work well in the rack were corals and small rattle snakes as well. But there are still many small terrestrial snake perfect for the rack with size and ability but when you factor in climate demands it may be difficult. (ex. Cerastes (both crotalus cerastes subspecies and cerastes cerastes)) Their sensitivity to humidity and delicate needs of high temps and security might not be best for a rack (maybe they could be...just a thought). This is why I made the combination comment. Good luck.

Other than the aforementioned locks, it's hard to judge how stable that whole system is from the pic. As long as the system was stable (i.e. very difficult to tip over) it looks good.

-AzAtrox

Locks on the system or individual cages may not be necessary if the set-up is in a locked room or loccked separate building. Check with your governing agency if there is one in your state.

I personally prefer front-opening cages for the larger snakes like C. adamanteus & Naja. A lidded container like yours that has a lid that slides off would be safer than a snap-off, to my mind. I would also prefer a clear lid, so that I could lay eyes on the critter before taking the lid off.

~~Greg~~

Another handy addition would be little handles on the blue lids. This would allow you to use one hand to hold the lid down while you unclip the lid with your other hand. You can then hold the lid's handle with the tongs and remove when ready.