Reptile & Amphibian Forums

What is the best and cheapest way to separatly house 100 baby colubrids? I planned everything about breeding except housing the babies. I don't want to build a rack, as my rack for the adults didn't come out well, I had one escape and I can barely open them (seems that the shelves bowed or something, causing snag in the middle and openings on either side). So, what is the best way to keep them, using minimum space and fairly cost effective?

Thanks

Nick
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It's just like the story of the grasshopper and the octopus. All year long the grasshopper stored up acorns for winter, while the octopus mooched off his girlfriend and watched tv. And then the winter came, and the grasshopper died, and the octopus stole all his acorns, and he got a race car. Is any of this sinking in?

A rack is the most efficient use of space and provides heat to each tub.

some quick thoughts:

As you found, wide can sag. Either provide center support or make two narrower units.

If you can't make rack to tight tollerances, use tubs with lids that latch. Sterilite has some that latch at both ends.

Route a recess for the heat tape.

Build it upside-down using actual tubs for spacers. Don't forget to add a little spaceso they slide in and out. Something like the back of a spiral bound notebook?
By building upside-down, you can make the sides longer than yoou calculate and then trim off extra or leave it for feet. If keeping extra height, don't forget to support bottom shelf

Don't know your finances but you could buy racks? Jeff Ronne at Boaphile has some nice ones, I have three of his 30 slot ones, very nice.
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Thanks,

Dave "Rainbows-R-Us"

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB)
4.12 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
1.0 Hypomelanistic BRB
0.1 Het for Hypomelanistic BRB
0.1 BCI "Elvira" normal from 1989
1.0 BCI albino / het-anery
0.1 BCI Hypo / het-albino
0.1 BCI Anery / het-albino
0.1 BCI Hypo (possible super)
1.0 BCI albino het stripe
1.0 BCI salmon hypo
0.1 BCI ghost

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

I'm not sure what went wrong with my adult rack, but I know it won't hold hatchlings, I had one adult escape. It was also quite a chore and I would rather buy one if I could find one. The boaphiles are nice but a little too pricey. I was actually thinking about this one for $320: http://pmherps.com/racks/hatchling48bin.jpg
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It's just like the story of the grasshopper and the octopus. All year long the grasshopper stored up acorns for winter, while the octopus mooched off his girlfriend and watched tv. And then the winter came, and the grasshopper died, and the octopus stole all his acorns, and he got a race car. Is any of this sinking in?

That 48 slot rack at $320 is a good price compared to the boaphile 30 slot @ $479 - $519 ea depending on qty bought.

Couple of differences you should think about, If I remember correctly, you were looking to house 100ish hatchlings. Two of the 48's would be 96, 3 of the boaphiles would be 90.

The PMHERPS does not include flexwatt or shipping. Also, not sure how well they stack, the boaphiles have a pin/socket setup so they stack very well.

Boaphiles = $1467 for 90 slots or $16.30 / slot

PMherps = $1000 (maybe a bit more depending on shipping)
($640 about $300 for flexwatt shipping)

definately cheaper but you will have to do the flexwatt yourself. Also, if I understand the website correctly, assembly required. And you know how you are with building stuff ;p
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Thanks,

Dave "Rainbows-R-Us"

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB)
4.12 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
1.0 Hypomelanistic BRB
0.1 Het for Hypomelanistic BRB
0.1 BCI "Elvira" normal from 1989
1.0 BCI albino / het-anery
0.1 BCI Hypo / het-albino
0.1 BCI Anery / het-albino
0.1 BCI Hypo (possible super)
1.0 BCI albino het stripe
1.0 BCI salmon hypo
0.1 BCI ghost

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Assembly required is much easier than measuring and cutting myself. Also, room is nicely heated, I don't provide supplement heat to my colubrids, just my boas and pythons. I just found another rack that will be cheaper and looks to get the job done. I'd like the boaphile, but money is tight right now. As long as they don't escape, it should be good enough. Now if only I could find a place to put them... going to have to sell some breeders too.
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It's just like the story of the grasshopper and the octopus. All year long the grasshopper stored up acorns for winter, while the octopus mooched off his girlfriend and watched tv. And then the winter came, and the grasshopper died, and the octopus stole all his acorns, and he got a race car. Is any of this sinking in?

the hatchling racks are pre assembled.. if you want to heat them, just tape flexwatt, heatwave or similiar pad to the back of the rack.. the racks are approx 24" wide, so it does not take much..
and shipping is pretty reasonable for them as well...
so 2-48 bin units would be no where near $1000 to aquire..

PMHerps

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thanks Paul
PMHerps - Captive Bred Reptiles
PMHerps.com

My numbers were based on belly heat.

From the PMHerps site:

These Rack Systems are...

Constructed from high impact plastic, Lightweight, yet very sturdy. .
Many are a Modular design, start small, expand later... easy to clean…
3” or 4” Flexwatt (you supply) can be threaded inside each shelf so boxes won’t snag…
Available in kit form for low shipping costs, very easy assembly..

That indicates belly heat and possible assembly required

so, my basic calculations:

2 racks $320 each or $640
100ish feet of flexwatt at $2.60 or $260

just those two get you to $900

Now add shipping both for the racks and the flexwatt, and some incidentals like two power cords, maybe some aluminum tape etc and I can easily see it getting somewhere near $1000 for two.

It's all a moot point since Nick doesn't want heat which makes yours and other racks without heat much more cost effective.

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Thanks,

Dave "Rainbows-R-Us"

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB)
4.12 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
1.0 Hypomelanistic BRB
0.1 Het for Hypomelanistic BRB
0.1 BCI "Elvira" normal from 1989
1.0 BCI albino / het-anery
0.1 BCI Hypo / het-albino
0.1 BCI Anery / het-albino
0.1 BCI Hypo (possible super)
1.0 BCI albino het stripe
1.0 BCI salmon hypo
0.1 BCI ghost

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

If these are just the typical corn, rat, king, milk, etc. hatchlings then a lidless rack is hard to beat. Only notable exceptions to this would be for some of the smallest milksnake hatchlings which are very good escape artists. Also things like baby house snakes are supposed to be good escape artists, or so I've been told.

What kind of hatchlings do you mean?

Another choice is to build a rack around those Phillip shoeboxes. But not a lidless rack in this case. Those Phillips boxes have a deep/straight lip on the lid that overlaps the box by quite a bit. What you can do is build a "sloppy" rack where the gap between the top of the lid and the upper shelf is about 3/16". The reason why it works is that if the snake pushes the lid up 3/16" the box is still secure as the lid is still hanging over the box.

This is still one of the prefered ways to keep tiny hatchlings and/or hatchlings of venomous species.

The kicker is that you have to find the Phillips boxes.

You can still use the lids on readily available shoe boxes but then you have to build the rack with pretty tight tolerances. But like the previous reply stated, this is really not that difficult.

I'm going to have a few clutches of peublan milks. One of the adults managed to escape from the lidless adult rack I built.

Where can I find the Philips shoeboxes?
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It's just like the story of the grasshopper and the octopus. All year long the grasshopper stored up acorns for winter, while the octopus mooched off his girlfriend and watched tv. And then the winter came, and the grasshopper died, and the octopus stole all his acorns, and he got a race car. Is any of this sinking in?

Pueblans are good at escaping, no doubt.

What city/state are you located in? Maybe I know somebody who can help.

If weight is not a major concern a locally built melamine rack is hard to beat for price or quality.

Search for Phillips boxes in the forums. There have been several posts on how to order them. You need to do so in bulk but that is not issue for you, given you need 100.

I live in Lancaster California. I tried to find melamine at home improvement stores to build my current rack out of, but couldn't find it so I used MDF board. I would also like to find some PVC board, but couldn't find that either. I'd like to be able to see them first to decide, as opposed to ordering them online.

Thanks Chris.
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It's just like the story of the grasshopper and the octopus. All year long the grasshopper stored up acorns for winter, while the octopus mooched off his girlfriend and watched tv. And then the winter came, and the grasshopper died, and the octopus stole all his acorns, and he got a race car. Is any of this sinking in?

I do not recommend PVC for species that are escape artists. That is unless you're a pretty skilled builder. Melamine weighs a lot but is still a good choice for racks. And it's almost always a better choice for hatchlings.

Sorry, I don't know anyone in Lancaster. One thing to consider it having melamine cut for you buy a professional cabinet shop and assembling the rack yourself. Use a melamine spacer to set the distance between the shelves and it's pretty easy.

Here are some pictures of spacers for reference.

The first picture shows how you check the spacers to see if they are the proper height.

www.finegtps.com/Images/rackspacers.jpg

The second picture shows how the spacers are used to keep the distance between shelves set. I used to build all of my racks upside down but they can also be built on their sides. It does make the glue easier to apply and less messy.

www.finegtps.com/Images/rackass2.jpg

I think a cabinet shop would also cut the spacers for you. You might have to go back more than once to get them right.

Note that I do recommend a cabinet shop over a store like Home Depot or other similar store.

Check out these links for hatchling racks. All affordable.:

www.herpcages.com

www.coolcrittersbylj.com/id25.htm

www.reptilebasics.com/store/home.php?cat=251

Thanks, great links.
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It's just like the story of the grasshopper and the octopus. All year long the grasshopper stored up acorns for winter, while the octopus mooched off his girlfriend and watched tv. And then the winter came, and the grasshopper died, and the octopus stole all his acorns, and he got a race car. Is any of this sinking in?

Check out the vision products racks. They look pretty decent for the price.

Denis