My Wall Of Snakes

[Nanci]

Here's the new rack with a couple occupants. And a word of caution! I placed the thermostat probe where I thought I remembered I'd put it on the other rack, in the slot provided by the manufacturer, which doesn't even touch the heat cable. And then I set it at the same temp as the other rack. So this morning, I checked the temps with an infrared temp gauge. Everyone needs one of these! I was getting temps of about 119F with a thermostat setting of 88F. Ok, spot check the other racks. Around 80, 82, 84. Hmmm. Pull out the bin covering the thermostat probe, and there is the probe, taped directly on the heat tape! DOH!! So I moved the probe in the new rack to match...

 

[Tula_Montage]

Nice racks Nanci!

 

[Nanci]

Thank you! I wish I could afford to add back-up thermostats. I guess they don't have to be expensive. And with the heat cable, there _is_ a temp drop from the upper bins to the lower bins. But the air temp is way different, too, so I don't see how that could be avoided. Although people with Flexxwatt say they don't get that so much.

 

[Tula_Montage]

I have never used heat cable, I don't understand how it can distribute the correct temperatures evenly. I use mats in my racks, and pulse pro stats. No problems in 4 years

 

[Nanci]

It makes the back of the bin the warm zone, with the side that the cable runs down to the next level being warmer than the opposite side. I can see how individual mats would be nice, too. I like the Herpstat stats because they have a high/low alarm, which I got to hear in action the other night when I was moving Cali/Ruby all over the house so their mats were unplugged.

 

[RobbiesCornField]

Those are some great looking racks, Nanci! (And thanks for labeling!)

 

[Nanci]

They all have nice ID cards on the ends of the bins, just in case...

 

[RobbiesCornField]

They all have nice ID cards on the ends of the bins, just in case...

I just use dry erase marker. It works great on the glass vivs, too!

 

[Nanci]

I use the Cage Card feature of Degei.

 

[Nanci]

Like this:

 

[RobbiesCornField]

I'm going to download that program now... That's an awesome cage card!

 

[Hypancistrus]

Nanci-- where did you get those racks from again?? Tara and I are looking into racks and cages right now for the coming-oh-so-quick combining of the households...

 

[Nanci]

Robbie, and they just made that program free!!!

Lauren, they are Animal Plastics Economy Plastic Sterilite 66 qt. I think $230 or $240 shipped, with no bins, which you get from Target. These racks are not pictured on the website, you just ask for them.

 

[RobbiesCornField]

Robbie, and they just made that program free!!!

Lauren, they are Animal Plastics Economy Plastic Sterilite 66 qt. I think $230 or $240 shipped, with no bins, which you get from Target. These racks are not pictured on the website, you just ask for them.

Yay, Free! LOL.
The only thing they don't have is breeding tracking... I'd need to "upgrade" if I wanted that... Oh well... I guess I'll just use the calendar!

 

[LBoz]

That looks awesome, Nanci! It would be so great to have my kids all in one spot like that.

 

[Nanci]

It _is_ really nice. I was so resistant to racks until I discovered this model. But I still have eight (I think!) snakes somewhere else...

 

[LBoz]

Can you get that in a smaller model? I'm a recent convert to heat cable and love it. It would be nice to have that in the "six pack" model.

 

[Nanci]

Do you mean smaller bins/more snakes? Sure you can!

 

[LBoz]

No, just six bins rather than...how many do you have? I don't anticipate having many more snakes, and I have really large vivs for the few that I have on "display." I'd like a smaller rack just to hold my current six kids.

 

[Nanci]

Oh, I get it. That is three racks of five each. So you would have to get two, and buy four more snakes. The racks look a lot more balanced when they are in pairs.