Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Like I posted earlier I am looking for an adult female brazilian rainbow boa, but so far from looking for one for about three weeks I have found two unlikely choices. Now I am wondering if there is nothing else available if I should bother resorting to a Wild Caught adult.
I understand that I would need to take it to the vet to check for parasites and quarantine it before introducing it to my male for breeding. Has anyone purchased a WC before? I want to also keep it as a pet, and being able to handle it is key to me, otherwise it is a hassle to try to avoid being attacked. I guess it would be dependant on the snake but would WC have more of a problem with this due to growing up without handling?
All in all, am I desperate enough to buy one of these if I can't find anything by November after the Sacramento and San Jose Reptile Shows?

-----
Jess
1.1 adult brazilian rainbows
1.0 normal corn
1.0 african brown house snake
0.1 hypo Boa constrictor
0.1 normal boa constrictor
0.1 normal ball python
1.1 crested geckos

Oodles of mice
1.1 paranoid parents "too many snakes!"

If there's one thing I've learned about keeping reptiles it's that it takes patience. You just have to wait a long time for everything. I read your last post and I think that any option will work. It just depends on how patient you can be and how much money you want to spend.

The female from the pair you spoke of sounds like she may be ready to go next season. However, she comes with a higher cost and an extra mouth to feed. Will the seller let her go alone?

I might consider gambling on the three foot female. 2 1/2 yaers and three feet is small but not unheard of. If she's healthy you could beef her up and have her ready to go for the 2007 - 2008 season. If she's a good looking animal it may be worth the wait to have nice breeder stock.

I was thinking about going the wild caught route this year as well. But I specifically wanted to do it to introduce some new genetics into my group. I'm really not against it but here's the thing. You pay 160.00 for the animal and then bring it right to Berkely Dog and Cat for exam/treatment. There's another 200 - 250. In addition, there's no guarantee your wild-caught animal will be ready to go this season. She may take a while to recover from any infections and she may take time to acclimate. In my case, I'm working with a very rare gene and that's where the value is. If you're breeding normal brazilians (nothing wrong with that), you want to be producing the nicest looking babies as possible to make your clutch competative with all of the other great babies that are being produced. In my opinion, wild caughts are generally not as good looking as captive bred.

Breeder females show up with some regularity. Keep your eyes on the classifieds. If you are patient I'd bet you'll find something by fall. Have you checked the Vivarium yet? You may have to spend a little more with them but you will be assured of a nice animal. Even if you do find a female by fall, there is no guarantee she will acclimate well enough to breed this season.

There's no need to be desperate in this hobby because we will all always have to wait for everything. The worst that happens is that you don't produce next season. So what? You'll be happier if you plan for a more long term breeding program. Don't stress. Get the nicest animal you can for the long run. Especially if you're interested in a pet as well as a breeder. Don't settle for a seasonal fix.

Sorry for the long rant. I love snake talk.
-----
Mike Lockwood
www.tooscaley.com

I understand after having a litter that you now have been bit by the bug. Been there, still there even!!

If you rush getting "something" to breed this season you might not even have any success and you could end up with something less than desirable.

WC is a big risk, Like Mike said initial costs PLUS vet visits and most likely treatmenst for an animal that was not selectively bred for anything. Could be nice looking but most likely not and could be a mean/nasty snake.

Be patient and you will get there, maybe not this season but eventually!!
-----
Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
10.22 BRB
10.15 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

..I am always preaching about taking the long view and being patient breeding snakes. This seems to be especially poignant working with some of the subspecies of Rainbow Boas. My Isla Marajos may die of old age before I figure out how to get them to reproduce. However,...Jess is young and patience is not a trait usually associated with young people. I have bred lots of wildcaught BRBs but none of them were ready to breed just a few months after I got them. Some of the snakes in my breeding collection were wildcaught. I got some good imports and some rough ones. There is the possibility that someone who has good proven adults or three year olds that are big enough will decide to get rid of them to make room for higher dollar snakes. If snakes like this are going to become available the classifieds here and the shows are the place to find them. Like Mike said keep watching the classifieds and something will eventually come up. If we all keep our eyes open we may see the right snake for Jess at one of the shows. Who knows we may find that very interesting snake that we have to get for our own collection.
Jeff

>>I understand after having a litter that you now have been bit by the bug. Been there, still there even!!
>>
>>If you rush getting "something" to breed this season you might not even have any success and you could end up with something less than desirable.
>>
>>WC is a big risk, Like Mike said initial costs PLUS vet visits and most likely treatmenst for an animal that was not selectively bred for anything. Could be nice looking but most likely not and could be a mean/nasty snake.
>>
>>Be patient and you will get there, maybe not this season but eventually!!
>>-----
>>Thanks,
>>
>>Dave Colling
>>
>>www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com
>>
>>0.1 Wife (WC)
>>0.2 kids (CBB)
>>
>>LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
>>10.22 BRB
>>10.15 BCI
>>And those are only the breeders
>>
>>lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

I'm going to a show in Denver this weekend and will keep my eye open. Jess, If I see something I'll make sure to get you the seller's details.

One thing I would like to add to all the great advice giving so far, is quarentine. Even if you do find a nice adult female rainbow you deffinitely need to quarentee her for 2-3 months to make sure she is completely healthy, free of any parasites etc. It being august now, that would mean waiting till early or late November and maybe you can still get into a late breeding with her.

I personally think it is best to be patient, wait for the adult or subadult female you really like to appear in the classifieds or reptile shows. Get it vet checked, quarenteed up to weight and breed her in the 07-08 season. Frustrating true, but better in the long run, no risk of contaminating your entire boa collection with mites or some other more nefarious disease. And the extra weight would increase the odds for a nice big healthy litter with few or no slugs or stillborns.
-----
PHLdyPayne

Yes, unfortunately I am young and VERY impatient. Just three days before I found my first babies, I was complaining to a breeder friend that I didnt think anything was happening, my female wasnt gaining much weight, and everytime I asked someone if they noticed a difference, they couldn't tell. Im really the only one who looks in on the snakes.
I am trying to be as patient as possible, and have actually found a couple other snakes and decided against them knowing that in the end I wouldnt be happy with what I jumped at. More than anything I've learned to really explore my options before I settle with anything. It was a hard and somewhat costly lesson to learn, as I went through the same thing with my male, but I wasn't in any rush. I began by buying a $100 male baby at the San Jose show last November, then found a two year old male that was a darker color, but still not big enough for breeding. A week later I found my male on craigslist being offered from a guy in berkeley who had raised him as a pet and took impeccable care of him, even took him to the vet a couple weeks before putting him on craigslist. Although he is a bit hard to handle at first ( i think the guys daughter tried and failed to hold him too many times)Noah (the rainbow boa) is to date one of the best things ive ever spent $200, not even an ipod could beat this guy!
Fortunately all of my angst paid off with six gorgeous and perfect (in my eyes at least) babies, and one slightly imperfect but still extraordinary eyeless snake.
I am also quite fortunate because I was born to the greatest mother ever, who not only got me my first snake about 15 years ago for Christmas (while she was still posing as Santa) and is also stating that if my stepfather tries to take snakes that he has very little of a claim to, that we'll hide them from him before he neglects them when he states he aims to care for them. I dont want them to end up on craigslist for $10.
And in case he is determined to take the snakes that are his money makers and my passion, I will bounce back, its just hard to lose something I've worked so hard towards and he has only commented on and demanded payment for his slight interest in the profit my passion brings. Jerk.
Sorry if I've ranted, but let me assure you that I am still loooking for an adult female, but Im going to calm down and take my time and if I fail to find another female, I'll just wait until next year.
I was also wondering, has anyone crossed a Brazilian to a colombian? I would like to see a picture of a baby if someone has. Are there any other crosses that are interesting?
One more thing, I currently have a yearling hypo redtail and I must say that she is a monstrosity, I have seen the adult females of the red tails and I have no idea why I spent $225 splitting the cost of this snake with my stepfather. I look at the different morphs of the rainbows and I cant wait until their stuff hits the popularity fan big time. Not to offend any breeders of red tails, I just like to be able to handle my snakes as well as breed them.

-----
Jess
1.1 adult brazilian rainbows
1.0 normal corn
1.0 african brown house snake
0.1 hypo Boa constrictor
0.1 normal boa constrictor
0.1 normal ball python
1.1 crested geckos

Oodles of mice
1.1 paranoid parents "too many snakes!"

Jess,

One other thing to consider...

My experience with Erycine boas is that you can produce babies in the same amount of time by buying a cb baby and raising it as you can buying wild caught adults and trying to get them cycled and settled enough to breed successfully. I had this conversation with Dave Barker and he said the same thing is even truer for pythons and boa constrictors. Wild caught boids generally take 3-4 years to settle in and breed in captivity.

Yes, there are exceptions, where a wc female produces babies her first or second year in captivity, but for every one of those there are cases like Jeff's where a long term captive wc NEVER reproduces in captivity. I had a pair of wc adult Eryx tataricus for 6 years before I could get them to breed.

I think you ought to be able to find a well started yearling. I would bet that is your quickest route to babies.
-----
Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas