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Rack quetion

R

Rick McKinney

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Hi,
I'm new to this forum, my first posting. I have 5 Leo's all from Marcia out at Golden Gate................and their great and so is she.
I have kinda two questions. The first, I'm looking to get a small rack and like the one from Animal Plastics, and I was wondering if I should get belly heat or back heat? The second, I want to separate on of my Uhmmm, how do you say, Horny boys from his girl friends and until I get a rack set up, can I put him into a Rubbermaid 12quart and stick a Zoo med UTH to the bottom, without it melting or causing problems.


Thank You All
--Rick
Outside of Boston
 
Hi Rick-

First off the racks I have from Animal Plastics are great, you will like them a lot. I recommend the back heat. That is what I have and my geckos are thriving in the racks.

Yes, you can seperate your male from his women by putting him in a 12 qt. for awhile, although I would not use one of those Zoo Med heat pads under it. Just go buy a human heating pad to put under the sweater box. They work great!
 
racks

Hey Rick, sounds like I'm gonna have some more 'great-grand geckos!' I agree with Kelli about the Rubbermaid and human heat-pad, although I would probably go for the belly heat. The reason being that my leos love to lay on their bellies right over the warm spot of their enclosure, and when I take a hatchling out of the deli-cup for the first time they will just lie down flat on their tummies in the palm of my hand for the warmth. But, as long as they have a good thermal gradient of at least 15 degrees from front to back, I'm sure that is just fine!

BYW, how many of you use Animal Plastics for your racks?
 
I just bought one.

Hasn't arrived yet, though--they had some problems with their supplier getting shipments of materials to them. They ran a discount, to compensate. So long as it's here before the eggs hatch, lol.
 
I sell for Animal Plastics, and I use them myself. Been quite pleased. I've been dealing with them for almost a year.

I was also selling for Jungle Habitats for a little while, so I consider myself to be very familiar with the competition.
 
Animal Plastics Racks

I would also recommend Animal Plastics. Their website is www.wantapet.com. They are located in Des Moines Iowa, so I was able to pick up my rack in person. They are good people to deal with. I have yet to plug mine in yet, but I just received my rheostat today!
 
Marty,

All orders placed through me are shipped direct from Mark (mainly because it is much cheaper that way, especially to west coast customers of mine). The only difference is while I won't blatantly undercut Mark [I honor all promotions he runs] I will offer my own specials from time to time. And one of those specials I am running is a discount to all Fauna Members to support this site!
 
Just giving information

Not trying to step on your toes. I really don't care where he buys his rack. I personally like to deal directly with the person who makes the product. I usually get better service and tend to get a better price than I would from a reseller. And if it is the same price, then I feel the money should go to who actually labors to make the product. Either way it's the same rack.
 
Marty,

You are not stepping on any toes, don't worry.

I am not a reseller. I am one of three affiliates that sells for AP on a continous basis. There is a big difference.

As I said, I can offer my own promotions but other than that I am required to match prices with Mark. And you're right, many customers feel it is much easier to go direct. That is fine with me and I encourage many of my customers to go direct to Mark for specific reasons. As long as its mentioned that the customer is someone I advised, I get credit for the sale.

I have been working with Mark and promoting his products for about a year now. It has been a pleasure.
 
just a note on heat

The "back heat" model actually does provide belly heat! LOL I know it sounds contridictary but true! My racks from AP are heated with heat cable routered into the rear of the rack, located near the bottom of each slot. Well, the heat actually radiates to the bottom of each shelf, and when I shine my Raytek on the "floor" of the cage it is 90 degrees on the warm end. I am guessing this has something to do with the plastic material they use.
 
Plastic

I got the belly heat option on mine. I am very impressed with the quality of the plastic. It reminds me of the plastic that they used to use on those big 3-way speakers. Real thick and sturdy.
 
I love AP, I started out by buying 2 T1's for my gecko colonies and love them. But due to me wanting to buy more cages than I have space I am selling the T1's and going to there racks. I already have an S11 and it is awsome.BTW anyone wanting some T1's email me...But anyway I would also get the belly heat....
 
What a nice rack..........lol

Hi all,
Thanks for the great feedback. I did order one, I ordered the one with indirect belly heat (they recomended that one) the indirect belly heat is heated from the back at the bottom. Of course, my concern is I want the rubbermaid one and he tells me that Rubbermaid has discontinued the 12 qt ones, so I'm goingto run to Wallmart to see if I can put my hands on a bunch of them, other wise I'll have to change my order to the steriltes.
There is a wait on them filling back orders, hopefully it'll come before my two Blizzy eggs hatch.

--Rick
Outside of Boston
 
A bit of an odd question, but...

For those of you that utilize the rack system, what do you primarily use as food? The reason I am asking, is that I plan to get a rack as well, but normally use crickets as the food source. It seems that crickets will be a royal pain having them climb up the side of the sweater boxes and out the ventilation holes or the tops. I could easily swap to meal worms, but was just curious really. :D

Thanks
 
Rick,

Just what it sounds like ;)

Tropical (i.e. non pest variety) species of roaches make excellent food sources for insectivores.

I use lobster roaches, which don't fly but they can climb, for my leopard geckos. I have a few colonies of some nonclimbing flightless species of roaches that are building up as well.
 
Best tub size / model ?

I'm thinking of getting some racks. I've got over 150 leos and a house full of tanks with over 100 eggs in the incubator more coming and babies hatching daily. From what I gather, animal plastics is the way to go. What size tub is optimal for single adults, for hatchlings?

Also, do I need to purchase some kind of rheostat for the rack or would it come with some type of built in temperature control. Maybe I wasn't looking in the right place, but their website didn't seem too clear on this point.

-Alice
 
I know Steven will give me a hard time about this ;-)

I have Boaphile racks and they are awesome. I also have a 5 stack enclosure combo and they are awesome too.

check them out if you get a chance.

Terry
 
This is a great topic, i've been wondering some of the same things but now that i've read through it i have a few more questions bogging up my mind LOL

First, are Animal Plastics and Boaphile the only ones that make racks? No Canadian suppliers that anyone knows of??? I had checked out Boaphile a long time ago but was told they only had back heated racks and i didn't think that would work. Thanks Kelli, its good to know that back heat does translate into some bottom heat LOL. I would buy from either if it wasn't for the money......put it all in Can. funds and well.......i might as well buy a few of those Sunglows from TUG LOL.

Now as for using a human heat pad instead of a UTH......i've got a few questions? Why do this? Wouldn't a rheostat or thermostat help prevent any over heating? I'm confused because doesn't the bins in a rack sit right on top of the heat tape (talking about bottom heating of course)? So whats the difference between using an under tank heater vs. heat tape when it comes to using plastic containers? (i'm only talking about the affects of the heat, not the use of racks for space, i'd rather use a rack with heat tape). Are the bins that come with a rack, or the ones you buy able to withstand the heat from the tape better than from an UTH?

I ask cause i have huge plastic containers that could be divided into sections. Using an under tank heater placed in the middle/underside it could heat one end of each section. My only concern has been with the possibility of outgassing from the plastic of the containers due to the heat. I haven't found that with the setup i'm currently using but i wanted to know if anyone else had this happen.

Currently i have my 4 AFT's and one baby leo in small bins sitting on an wooden frame with screen stapled to the sides, thus the containers sit on the screen. The UTH is attached to the underside of the screen. I couldn't find a piece of glass large enough that had been tempered or i would have used that instead. The bins sit butted up end to end with three in a row totalling 6......if that makes sence...so one end of each bin has a spot on the large UTH.

I wanted to get some heat tape and use the top of my 8ft gecko unit. I could put quite a few containers up on top and build another level to hold more. But i'm not confident in my wiring abilities (nor is my family) so to buy a rack with the tape already installed would be best.

Thanks for any input :)
Red :)
 
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