Hey guys. I recently got back into ball pythons after a 4 year hiatus to get married and have kids. My husband and I are debating what style enclosures we want. I know my goals are to have a small breeding project going in 2-3 as I’m just starting to buy the snakes that will fit in with my project goals. Very, very small just for the improvement of those particular genetics. Quality over quantity situation. We know realstically even keeping it small we could/will end up having babies that don’t sell and we want to be ready for that possibility as well. I have bred other types of animals in years past and I don’t take bringing lives into the world lightly. He’s my handy man and will be building whatever we end up doing, but we also aren’t opposed to buying a unit. Any recommendations on racks/enclosures would be fantastic with pictures being a bonus. OR if anyone can recommend a professionally built unit that we can buy one level at a time we also aren’t opposed to that. We usually like to build stuff we want though so we can customize it! TIA!
Welcome back!
If you truly are going to do a small breeding program, I would buy a couple of PVC rack systems. There are many companies making these. BlackBox is a popular, relatively new kid on the block.
If you end up exploding well beyond a small operation, I would invest in some rack and tub systems such as what Freedom Breeder makes.
If you take care of your equipment, you can always resell the PVC racks.
If you truly want to build your own racks, there are plenty of YouTube videos on the process.
I will give them a look for sure. Yeah, definitely will be keeping it extremely small for a long time. We plan to buy a bigger house in the next several years and we don’t want to have to move an extremely large collection. We thought it may be smarter to stay small until then at least. Thanks for the advice!
I would not limit your BP breeding dreams because of that. Plenty of people move their entire collections. Several years is a long time to stifle your dreams and might cause you to lose your passion. Maybe as you build up your enclosures, keep in mind that you might be moving them in the near future. Based on that you might use temporary things like tape instead of permanent things like glue, nails and screws.
That’s great insight! I appreciate the advice! Thankfully we plan to stay relatively in the same area we already are so maybe it wouldn’t be a horrible move if we kept things easy to take apart🤔
Another rack company to add to your list is “Next Level Displays”. They’re more well known for their top of the line display cases but they also make some of the best plastic racks as well. I prefer them over most other options because they utilize freedom breeder tubs, which are a nice upgrade over vision tubs IMO. Built in cup holders are a must, grey is better for ball pythons, and the overall quality is better.
If you can afford it financially the best option would be to go straight to freedom breeder. A single stack of 70 series tubs would be a great start and easy to move. Being a single stack you can roll it through doorways without removing each level. If you ever decide to stop keeping ball pythons the resale value is much higher on steel racks. You can keep baby ball pythons in 70 series tubs with adequate hides inside. I’ve raised many ball pythons this way. It’s not the most efficient in terms of substrate etc but when your numbers are 10 or less that’s not really a factor.