My homemade rack and it's inhabitants. (DUW)

There is a good amount of curiosity as to how I house multiple snakes. The most common method used is called a "rack". Simply put, a rack is some type of heated shelving type, that contains some type of tub. There are various commercial made rack systems made to do just this, typically sized for certain model tubs, and meant so the tubs can be used without lids, the next shelf being sized to cover each tub. Here is a link to Animal plastics, a good quality rack and cage maker to see a few common options. They are made all kinds of ways, with different sizes and heating options.

I don't like housing adults of any species in racks, as they have very little height in most cases. There are allot of smaller rack companies that will make racks to your size specifications, but then it can start to get very costly. So I opted to build my own. After some research I purchased a heavy duty outdoor shelving unit, 4'W x 2'D x 6'H. I enclosed it in melamine. I purchased to sheets which come in a standard size of 4' x 8'. I cut them to fit, one for the back pannel, and one to cover both sides. I used 3 strips of 11" flwxxwatt heat tape, wired and plugged into a thermostat. Here are a couple of shots of the finished product.





The way I did this, and the tubs I am using, provide me with options as to the actual temperature in each tub. I use Really Useful Boxes, I love them. I use dry erase markers to note things on the tubs, until I get them to a permanent record. Left to right, top to bottom, the inhabitants (and junk) are:

Top shelf: various extra containers, water bottle, and feeder insects. On the right side are my adult leopard geckos, a high yellow male, A bell albino female, and a midnight blizzard female.

Next shelf down: The angry twins. Kali, a 75% jungle/25%coastal carpet intergrade female, then her brother Indra, a 75% jungle/25% coastal jaguar carpet intergrade. Beside them, and pushed all the way back against the heat, is a tub with multiple containers of leopard gecko eggs.

Next shelf down: Dulcinea, a caramel jaguar coastal carpet python. Then Coriander, a caramel coastal carpet. Then Saffron, a jungle carpet python.

All of those, except the geckos, are in 32 litre Really Useful Boxes.

Next shelf down: Tyanna, a coastal carpet python intergrade, of unknown exact lineage. I know she has some coastal in her, & I think some Irian Jaya, and maybe some jungle. Then two small containers with the first two baby geckos of the year. Then an extra bag of HatchRite. Then there is Monty, A Suriname red tail boa.

Next shelf down, the arboreals: Ironic I know, but this she is a solid couple of degrees cooler. Eos, a green tree python, Biak x Aru cross, in a 50 qt rubbermaid roughneck. Ruby, a very young Northern (Suriname) emerald tree boa, in a 9 litre RUB. And Nova, a young green tree python, a Lereh x Jayapura cross.

Here is a shot of what it looks like inside the shelving without tubs.



And the only real pic I have from building the thing, this is the piece of melamine that is on the back, 6' x 4', after wiring and attaching the heat tape. With a cat being very nosy as to what was going on. And before you ask, yes, we used a rolling pin to smooth the heat tape down.



And some pics inside a few tubs...

This is monty...



This is Eos...



And this is Nova...



So that is a quick run through of my rack system and tubs. Thanks for looking!