Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've been thinking about getting some more snakes in the future, which will make it necessary to switch from glass tanks to plastic sweater and/or shoe boxes. I've seen several plastic containers that look like they'd make great enclosures except for one thing -- I don't trust the lids. They always seem to be too loose and move up and down just enough that a rat snake would have no trouble slipping out when I wasn't looking. Is there a certain brand of sweater boxes that has a tighter lid than the others, or do people use clips? How do people get around this problem?

I get Sterilyte boxes, which come with white tops and have blue handles on the end. These handles lock down to the sides, and I keep my boxes in a rack. These have been very dependable, and now that I have more and more snakes, they are eventually moving into more shoe/sweater boxes. I keep kings and rats in them of all sizes, except full grown right now.
Heres a shot of a rack I threw together. The Sterilite shoebozes are model #1884, hold 15 qts and cost $3. As I built it, I used a framing square as a spacer. I built it upside down. Top shelf went on to the sides, I flipped it over. So now it's on the ground like this "U" Layed 2 shoeboxes in it, put the framing square on those, then dropped another shelf down, screwed it in and kept going.

-----
Tom
TCJ Herps
"The more people I meet, the more I like my snakes"

Yes, many of the plastic bins are as you say. I find that when I stack 'em, I really only have to worry about the one on top. I generally place enough weight on it to secure it all around. I have several 50 gallon sterilites, which I really like for my larger ratsnakes. They are stacked 2 or 3 high with an 8 pound weight on the top. Duffy

Sounds like a good idea. I'm not very good at building things, so making a rack is not in my future. Thanks.