Last weekend I built a new shelf (rack) system for my geckos. I made it from sheets of 3/4 inch melamine. I had to buy 2 sheets at Home Depot and have them cut them into 16 x 48 inch pieces. It would have been great except that they didn’t cut them all the same width and didn’t even cut them square! Anyway, I used my router to make some grooves (dados) in the upright pieces and then cut the shelves to 36 inches. So the rack will hold 18 of the 16 quart Sterilite brand boxes, 3 bins on each shelf.
To make the plastic bins I used sixteen quart Sterilite plastic boxes and melted air holes in the sides with an inexpensive soldering iron. (if you do this make sure you do it in a well ventilate area – like outdoors!).
I bought the 4 inch wide FlexWatt heat tape from Reptile Basics and a Johnson Controls thermostat. I soldered the cord to the Flexwatt, but it might have been worth it to order it with the cord already attached. Seems to work great at keeping the bins at 90-92 degrees F.
I started out the week with only 3 geckos in the rack. But on Wednesday the SHTCT female I ordered from Supreme Gecko arrived. I turned on the heat tape on the second shelf and now had 2 empty spots on that shelf.
Off to the Manchester Reptile Expo
The New England Reptile Expo was in Manchester NH on Saturday so I took my daughter and told her to help me find 2 new gecko. Drove up in the pouring rain and arrived at about 9:45. Overall I wasn’t too impressed with the Leopard Geckos that were there. Didn’t find any amazing ones. Olivia found a male tangerine with a great carrot tail and a very dark “normal” female. Then I saw a large Mack Snow male that was a ‘proven breeder’ and a pair of Bell Albinos. The male Bell had snake eyes and looks cool. So ended up getting 5 new geckos.
The rack is only half full so I might add a few more…