Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,

I am new to ball pythons but not new to the hobby. I have been looking for new housing for my ball pythons. I know many of you have used or currently keep both racks and cages. Which do you prefer and why? What are the pros and cons of each? Also if I were to use ball racks would I have to use a hide box even though it is dark and secure 90% of the time? I am thinking about going with the racks from boaphile are they good? any other places that are better to buy from? Your replys and thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

It's not pretty but it works...3 hours and $45.00 and I made this one this afternoon. Now this is just for my ball python hatchlings until I can get rid of them. Of course I still have to buy some heat tape and a thermostat. I have had my snakes in just cages for years, and I think they look better. I have them decorated and they look good inside. I'm planning on building racks for the other side of the garage, which I'm turning into a reptile room. The racks are more space efficient and probably easier to clean. Maybe some of these guys with more experience with both can give you more insight, but this is a start

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1.1 Jungle Carpet Python
1.1 Ball Python
1.1 Corn Snake
0.1 Gray band Kingsnake
0.1 Desert Kingsnake
0.1 Pueblan Milksnake
1.0 Bullsnake
1.0 Rhodesian Ridgeback
0.1 Spouse
8 ball python eggs due any day now!

np
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Kyle Stevens
Royal Variations

Many a false step is made from standing still.

We use Animal Plastics rack systems. So far we have been very happy with them and the way they were designed. Never used boaphile racks or cages.

I like rack systems bc it's easy to house a large number of snakes in a minimal amount of space and it's a lot easier to provide a clean, secure cage for them with proper levels of humidity and heat. We don't use any hideboxes for our balls and they seem to do just fine with the darkness of the racks.

Here are a few pictures of a few of our racks. Please excuse the quality of the photos.

Hope the pictures help.
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Morph Evolutions
www.morphevolutions.com

GREAT looking set up!! I've got an AP rack and am having trouble getting humidity above 55-60%. What do you do to increase and hold higher humidity?

Thanks!

Tim

I use the Vision Racks and love them. Good luck,Ron

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The Crawl Space

Three solutions:

1. Put a larger water dish in the box
2. Put the water dish in the back of the box over the heat cable (make sure to use a smaller dish for this so your BP can still warm him/herself)
3. Get a humidifier for the room

I've had issues with TOO much humidity in AP racks, so I think that if you try these suggestions, in order, you will be able to boost the humidity.

Finally, I think you may need to ask yourself these two questions:
1. Is my hydrometer accurate?
2. If my BP is giving complete sheds, eating fine, and showing no respiratory problems, do I really NEED more humidity?

Hope this helps.

Matt Hennek

Thanks, we're pretty happy with them. Lot nicer then our old melamine racks I built. Course a lot of that was probably due to me building them lol.

The other post had good info about how to fix the humidity. Something also to consider are the size of holes in the boxes and how many. We only have a few holes we don't drill a ton, so that's just something to consider.

The best advice I heard was just like he said. If your snakes are shedding well and eating well, no reason to change it. If they are having problems shedding I would obviously look for a change.

I would call Amanda at Animal Plastics to see if she has any ideas. She's been very helpful to us. Let me know how it turns out I would be interested to hear. I would also check to see what the humidity is in the room cuz that will play into it.

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Morph Evolutions
www.morphevolutions.com

I use alot of AP racks and I have no problems with humidity. First let me ask you this What tub and rack are you referring to? and also what is your substrate? I have used just about everything out there and if you are useing any king of aspen bedding or something like that then that alone will suck all the humidity from your cage. I have always found myself comeing back to good old newspaper its cheap and works well. Also as far as the air hole issue on the long racks like the cb 70 and sterlite 33 inch tubs I only use a few holes in the front. But on the smaller tubs such as the 28 quart racks I was haveing a little trouble at breeding time because what ever I had my heat tape set at that would be the temp of the hole tub. So to fix this I ended up drilling alot of holes in the face of the tub to let alot of that heat out that way my heat tape was 88 degrees and the front of the tub was the same as my ambient temp. But over all I am very happy with my AP racks and cages Paul

n/p