BTS and racks

[dan bristow]

Hi everyone.
I am new here but not to keeping reptiles, having kept various animals from corn snakes to GTP,s and Anoles to Water Monitors. I recently have completely got out of keeping large lizards all together due to time/work constraints and decided to start keeping just Blue Tongues as I did have one years ago and remembered how easy they are to keep and what such great personalities they have!
Anyway, I got myself a Merauke, who is a boy, and I am now on the look out for a female to pair him up with, to give breeding these awesome animals a go! My problem is space. Since giving up the large animals, the dedicated reptile garage I had is now over run with other items and to be honest I'd rather not have him outside again as like to check on them a lot!
What are people opinions on keeping these in a rack system? I am based in the U.K so don't have quite the big selection of tubs that the guys in the states seem to have but the ones I have found are 34" long by 17.5" wide by 6" high with a window at the front. They are heated by 11" under tank heaters controlled via a proportional stat and have a thin perspex lid with a row of holes for ventilation so I could still light the rack/use uvb emitting strip lights above it( I would only buy one level of 3 tubs with the possibility of adding smaller ones on top for babies should I be successful, hence why I can use the light on top)
All opinions/advice is greatly appreciated! Many thanks
Dan

[Richard.C]

Plenty of people have good results keeping them in tubs,only downfall is i guess there not as eqsily observed than a traditional cage and as u mentioned findig big enough tubs

Yhe uv lighting above perspex lid will be of little use as the perspex will filter the uv out but for lighting it would be fine,dietry intake of calcium vitamin d3 is more important any ways

Ive never used tubs,but a few members here do and there results have been great

Welcome to bts.net

[Ophidiophile]

If you read the care sheet on this site, a minimum of 36" x 18" is recommended, so you're very close to that with your tub. What is important is that the tub is set up properly (just like any cage) with appropriate hides, basking areas, water access, etc. I have used Iris CB-70's (which are 36"x18") for sub-adult and adult skinks and smaller tubs for babies and juvies, however, I do think even larger is better. Obviously, more space to move around is important but a larger cage also allows for better thermal gradients. I'm currently modifying the lids of 52" x 20" tubs (Iris VE-175W's) to be screened (like the photos posted by Ray G. in another thread) and will be moving almost all of my adults into those over the next few weeks. So the bottom line is, I use tubs and have not had any problems thus far.

[dan bristow]

Thanks for the replies-I know 36x18 is minimum size, I was just more concerned height wise I guess, plus I was also concerned about supplying the basking heat from below as I have always used heat from above but I guess it provides the same end result-a warm place to rest themselves on! Obviously the under tub heat source will be on a thermostat, which in turn will also be connected to a back up stat in case of primary stat failure, so there is no danger of thermal burns.
I think I may order the rack then and go from there! Thanks again
Dan

[Dakota]

Rat breeder racks are perfect.