Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hey Frank, about the Retes Stacks, in response to the post by grounds below, you brought up my name and the relation to the stacks, even though it wasn't in the first post. why, i don't know, i think you just love to bait me sometimes you OB : )

i would think you of all people would understand the context of the stacks discussion. have you even read the "Retes Stacks" FAQ at our site?

as every good keeper should do, we took the idea, the THEORY, of "your" stacks, and applied it to our situation. like it or not, your name is forever(?) associated with a layered basking setup. it is easier for us all to refer to such an idea as a Retes Stack, as opposed to everyone coming up with their own name for the same idea. so it is your name. accept it. learn to love it. appreciate it for what it is, a respect for your experience and theory.

but our stacks are not your "stacks", and i make that clear on our site. if anyone would bother to read the whole piece, as well as the rest of the FAQ on husbandry at our site, it is WHAT WORKS FOR US and our particular situation.

the stacks are a great idea, but i need them to be the same size, interchangeable, easy and inexpensive to make, and i need to fill one hundred 10 and 20 gallon tanks with them. they need to get pulled to wash, some need to be four high, some need to be six high, they must all work together.

so we made them square, just wide enough to fit in a tank, and set the spacing between them so that they would work with all of the monitor species we work with. they are also jammed against one end of the tank, effectively eliminating all access but to one side.

by adding holes in the stacks, the monitors have more access up and down, yet they remain dark after level one (the holes are offset, and don't line up) and frankly, IN OUR SITUATION, you ABSOLUTELY DO get a better temp gradient as you move down through the stacks. it drops 10-15 degrees down through each level. without the holes, IN OUR SITUATION, it was blazing hot in the top two levels, and a lot cooler underneath.

our stacks allow me to set up a baby monitor in a 20 gallon tank, with a 125F basking spot, and an 83-85F ambient temp. works great.

they are an adaptation of your original idea. there is no possible way i could equip 100 tanks with "whatever wood was laying around" in "whatever configuration it falls into".

we have taken our same approach and recut the stacks to work in snake situations as well. smaller colubrid stuff. guess what? works great again. and if i have to describe it to someone, it is a "Retes Stack". modified.

when folks talk about Retes Stacks, let's talk to them about the theory, the basking, the temp gradient, the hide, and let's not bicker about their (or my) intrepretation.

i try very hard to share info with the widest audience possible. especially the beginner keeper. the problem is, folks lack context, and forget to convey details, so some wiseacres think that we wanna be "know-it-alls" or we don't know what we are doing, or we recommend bad or loopy ideas.

we use DG because it is the best soil that i can find available 50 TONS at a time. there are many different grades of DG, i really can't name one other keeper that has found the same fine grade that we have. lots of folks have found the WRONG type, have poor success, and then gripe that i am dumb, or don't know what i am doing (or some expert here on the forum tells them i am dumb).

yet we have hatched eggs IN THE DG soil, and the stuff we have burrows great. in our FAQ, i tell folks to experiment, look around, try lots of soils, and find the one that works or them. maybe no one reads that part.

"eating meat makes baby monitors aggressive" - completely out of context! yet repeated here often! you must remember that our caresheets are meant to be useful to every level of keeper, but they are MOST OFTEN read by new keepers. and new keepers love to keep animals in poor setups, with poor temps, with a poor diet. my goal is to try and lead them down the path of most likely success.

if you are really an expert keeper, you should KNOW what an acceptable, nutritious diet is. with new keepers, i feel lucky if they don't offer treats like bacon and peanut butter.

but let someone post "meat=aggressive" with no context, and "experts" tell them i am the one full of crap. au contraire, i just want the uninformed keeper to stick with a steady, nutritious, affordable, predictable, diet.

i take the responsibility of giving out advice VERY SERIOUSLY, and i stand behind it. anonymous keyboard experts throw out garbage all the time, with no repercussions as to what that advice leads to. i try and tailor our info to appeal to the widest audience possible, to ensure the widest success.

so back to the Retes Stacks. if you feel someone is "not getting it", or not applying it right, address the theory of the stacks, don't badmouth me on the sly (and you are always so sly, or so you try to type it : )

and please, understand the context of why we have done the stacks, or other husbandry techniques, the way we have.

i'm not trying to take credit for your ideas, i am trying to help the plethora of newbie monitor keepers out there that keep buying these "disposable" animals. that shat is hard work!
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robyn@proexotics.com

Pro Exotics Reptiles

If you bothered to read, hahahahahahahahahahahahaha, the person in question, was questioning STACKS, I assume he was refering to your site as to where he got the Idea, SO I referred to stacks that are strait up with holes in them, as Yours, Robyn stacks. Althought they were actually used and build by Allen Rapashy before you. But he did not publish them on a commerical website.

The person in question, called them Retes stacks, with holes??????? Holes are not retes stacks. I corrected him. I do not want credit for holes and strait up. You can have that. So yes, I am very familiar with stacks, even before you used them.

As I said, an old hifi player would work just as well as yours, full of holes. Mine too. In my opinion from seeing many hundreds of wild ackies in holes and crevices, they only want one hole. So they can plug it up with their tail. You know, evolution and such, the spiny tail deal.

I never said yours did not work for you. Yours only do not work WELL for me, hahahahahahaha. You see, I copied nature, not just a reasonal facimile thereof. Your copy of my copy is one copy to many, for me. You and I sir, have different agendas. Your doing it to sell ackies, you know, only make them to sell them. I do it first to see what the heck ackies are, then if they make lots of babies, i sell them, thats if i dig up the eggs. Which matters none.

You see, I can go on and on about nothing that matters too. The point was and is, ones strait up and with ugly holes, are not mine, so they must be yours(by default, unless Allen claims them) Ones that look and function like trash piles are mine. Thanks for the chance to set you strait, hahahahahahahahaha FR

P.S. I have never been to your site, actually I once tried to go to your old site, but somehow it didn't happen. Since then, I have no need to go there. I already know how to make a stack, Retes or otherwise.??????? please do not take offense, but I would rather learn from nature then a reasonal facimile.

I feel responsible to offer my thoughts and experiences, when someone asks ME, what I think, I offer what I think. I hope, you offer what you think when someone asks you. Surely as nice and smart as you are, I do not want you speaking for me. I want you speaking for you.

If I offer my experiences and opinions and they happen to be successful and you offer your experiences and they happen to be successful. That gives two successful opinions for the reader to work with. I really feel that is a good thing. The reader has a choice. As you referred to, there are many opinions posted here that are based on, lack of experience and results(trying to be nice here) So as in the past, our two opinions are at least something that may work if applied correctly. Something the readers to choose from, you know, like ackies in a Retes stack.

If someone askes me about DG, and I feel that its not the best or even bad, or somethings better, I will indeed say so and try to offer a better choice. If someone asks if the holes are good and I think they defeat some of the intended purposes of a stack, then I will explain what I think. If someone asks why you force your monitors into nest boxes, then I will tell them to ask you why. Then I will explain what I offer and why. I know, we are both suppose to report our OWN experiences. Please respect that.

Even with the above, if we respect the intelligence of the people asking, then I must assume they have the ability to make a choice. I happen to think, keeping monitors is more about the ability to make decisions then following a recipe.

You give recipes, i hope to make people think, I do have the feeling that between both of us, we may indeed be better then if we offered the same thing. Between our different approaches we cover more bases. THATS WHAT FORUMS ARE FOR, you know, to see different opinions.

Personally I think its a fool who thinks its one way or another. Particularly when there are hundreds even thousands of ways, about half being right and about half being wrong. For dang sake, pick one of the right ways. ANY ONE. Anyone of the right ways is better then any one of the wrong ones.

About you saying I am being sly, I laugh at that, if you think that was sly, just wait until I am intentionally being sly, you know, like whos experiences are you reporting, yours or Jimmys, now thats sly.

I have always respected you, because of what you have done, So please do the same. We are not suppose to agree, that does not make anyone better or worse. If you feel what I say is a slap against proexotics, then you better work on proexotics and not with me. I have been doing this before you and proexotics, and most likely I will be doing it after you. So please I have earned my opinions. The benefit of us having different opinions is, we have different opinions. Remember the cat and all the ways to skin it. hmmmmmmmmmmmm is that a bad thing to say on a pet hobbyist site? FR

As i feel the "stacks" i developed were a precurser to the "stacks" of the so-called "inventors"? . I pile up worthless books written by so-called experts who's advices change back and forth, i drill multiple smaller holes in them, this causes 2 effects, makes the books worthless in transmiting silly information into gullable carbon units as well as provides a better gradient for monitors to kick out eggs like Pez dispensors in 4x6 enclosures that somehow are larger then 4x8's and 8x8's. Just some Humor, no need to take it serious

You've quite the gift for getting your point across, while still being respectful. Pretty cool.

I'd just like to say I have read, and enjoyed, your website a few times. I think its a human condition to only take in information *selectively*, be they newbies or old-timers.
I did catch the part about the holes being staggered, just as I read the parts of the website that say 'find what works for YOU'.
You know, its like the only 'safe' way to post about monitors is to say stuff way too ambiguous to be of any use for a newbie. Lots of disclaimers and crap...
You try, with your caresheets, to give some actual direction, a starting point. Dummies who quit reading at the first care sheet they read, won't be in the herp hobby all that long anyways. Its tough to stick your neck out and be that starting point, but you do a real good job.
Even if its thankless sometimes, LOL.
Goon

Robyn nice post! Just take the credit for YOUR version of the stacks and call them PE Stacks!!!

P.S. Love the website, keep up the great work!!!!

JPs T/P Stacks are the best. Just look at all the fluffy white insulation. Hahaha

This is of course a joke. I only use these for one thing and it has nothing to do with my monitors haha

Take care everyone and laugh a little
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"Don't just use something because you read it worked, use that something because it does work. If you are to listen to anyone listen to your monitor."

I aint named them, I just know the lizards use them. I build one box, just like the stacks are made (without the hole)and cover it with a whole lot of dirt. I guess they aren't really stacks since they are only one level. I will call them caves.

Scott
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Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.