I want to know if it’s worth building a rack or buying a rack for our Ball Pythons?
I’m currently looking to start off with a rack for hatchlings as our adult snakes are in vivs and planning on staying in vivs. However future adults would be in a rack with good height, width & length.
If building a rack, I was thinking of something like an IKEA wardrobe as can get extra shelves, but wasn’t sure if this would last with the boxes sliding in and out etc.
I haven’t been able to find many sellers (I’m in UK) for racks and I want to make sure there is plenty of room for the little hatchlings (when they arrive).
Is there much of a price difference?
Any advise, either for buying or building a rack would be great.
Thanks
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I have built my rack for my adults with a wardrobe from IKEA and am in the process of building my hatchling one with a different one from IKEA too.
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Thank you. This is definitely something I’m looking at.
My husband wants rubs without lids on but I’m not sure with that
We had a Euro Rack for our lot. Had smaller rubs up top for the yearlings we had, then 33l for smaller royals and then bottom 50 etc You can change sizes etc with a euro rack so I think they’re fab!
We also used smaller rubs separate to this for a couple yearlings who took months to eat and were fussy. We built a rack for them and some others using covered dark wood wooden boards from b and q. Unfortunately wasn’t great and eventually the weight of some snakes made it bend a bit… So I would say make sure you have something in the middle of the rows to give you extra support!
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I built my racks using contiboard (melamine chipboard). If you use the right thickness there is no risk of sagging. I have a 20 year old one that is still in use, so they handle the tubs sliding in and out well…
The only problem is they can get very heavy if its too many levels. It was difficalt getting them upstairs to my snake room.
So splitting it up into a few smaller units is a good idea.
If you do build one, and however you do, I would suggest two on each level. and as elisha9 suggests a brace in the middle of the two.
I like two on each level because you can be confident the temperatures are the same in each.
Its a bit better insulated too compared to one on each level.
With 3 or more on each level, the middle ones are always going to be warmer then the outer ones.
That’s unless you live somewhere where you don’t need additional heating.
As for price, I think the IKEA wardrobe suggestion would be cheaper.
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Thanks, I will speak with my husband about the ideas.
I don’t suppose anyone has any pics of their racks?
That are home made? Or just racks?
I only have a few at the moment, I stopped keeping snakes for a few years and sold most of my racks and vivs.
This is the first unit, I am building another to go on top.
It fits 33lt Rubs and my old contico 25ltr
This is the 20 year old one. As I said, 3 wide is a pain to balance temperatures but I manged it in the end… Its for smaller tubs
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Here’s a rack I built. I used a premade metal frame and added wood pieces to the side. I used pegs in the wood to hold the shelves up and they’re adjustable. I used a threaded axle with nuts and washers in the middle as a brace. If I made it again I would make recessed heat tape but overall I think it works great.
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I have a way to avoid the hassle of recessing the heat tape.
Or to adapt the rack you already have. You may know about it already though.
I use cheep adhesive plastic floor tiles to raise the bits where the heat mat/tape is not.
That gives a nice flat bottom with no rubbing on the heat mat/tape.
I use heat mats, cant relay get heat tape here. But they are much the same thickness i believe.
Also the plastic floor tiles are available in a few different thickness.
You can see it in action in my top picture.
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Thank you, that’s a great idea! I added square dowels but they just caused more problems and I’m going to remove them.
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