Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Actually, I have a couple of questions...I got a BRB about a year ago from a pet shop that had no clue how to take care of one...they had the temps way too high and no humidity. The poor thing was very dehydrated and had left over skin on it from 2 different sheds and was getting ready to shed again! When I got it, we thought it was dead at first cause the employee picked it up and there was no movement at all, no tongue flicker or anything, but finally it moved alittle. If I was thinking rationally, I would never get a snake in such poor shape, but it was so beautiful and I didn't want it to suffer any longer. It was about 15 inches long at the time. So I took it home, got the old skin off, got it in an appropriate environment and it started to do alot better. But I had a terrible time getting it to eat...it would take a mice pinky or fuzzy about once every 3 to 5 weeks for about a 3 to 4 month time period. Then I read a care sheet saying they like rat pinkies...as soon as I put one in front of her (prekilled f/t) she took it in a heartbeat! So now to my questions: Can you tell the sex of a BRB by looking at bone spurs? I read somewhere that males had small ones compared to other boas, and that they are not visible on females...there are no spurs visible so we (me and my fiancee) thought it was a female. Is this correct, or was the book wrong? Also, I'm worried about its size...even after eating harding now for over half a year it is only 24 inches long (not skinny, has a good body shape). Will it ever get "normal" size?? I've seen posts where people say their females are about 4 feet in the first year, and mine is now at least a year and barely 2 feet long! Sorry for the length of this post, but I wanted to give plenty of background info.
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-David

1.0 ball python (Pandora - don't ask)
1.0 argentine boa (Prometheus)
0.1 hogg island boa (Andromeda)
0.0.1 brazilian rainbow boa (Inara)
1.0 kenyan sand boa (Diablo)
1.0 nornal corn snake(Cypress)
0.1 amery. corn snake (Morgan LaFay)
0.0.1 banded cali. kingsnake (Cain)
1.0 tangerine honduran milksnake (Narcissus)
0.0.1 sandfish skink (Slick)
1.0 dog (Luke)

First off - size:

Yours with the feeding problems and poor care at the pet shop has started out slow. It still should be able to grow to full size, will just take longer. Look at it this way, for the first 6 or so months of it's life it did not grow much. So from a growth standpoint you could say the 6 month old was little more than a hatchling. So to get to a yearling size, it'll have to be 1 1/2 years old.

BTW, if you plan on breeding her, WAIT longer, let her catch up, don't use just age. Two and a half years is a minimum, some are just not to size by then. I would say yours will not be there at 2 1/2 and maybe not even at 3 1/2.

Sex:

Unless you know how to palpitate and feel for hemipenes in the tail, only two ways to determine sex. Take it to a experienced reptile shop/keeper for sexing. Or, put it with several others and see who gets gravid. Full grown males will tend to be a bit slimmer and a bit shorter then the females but unless you have several, no way to quantify. Both males and females have spurs, Males have longer curved ones, like a cats dull front claw. Females have shorter blunt ones, more like a cats dull rear claw. Both can retract them so in a filled out animal, very tough to tell. Yours being younger/skinnier might be able to palpate them out.

Lastly, there is a BRB subforum, look towards the top of the boa forum and there are several subforums. Come on by and say hi to the group. We have several very helpful, knowledgeable breeders always willing to help out with questions.

If you read this far, you deserve a pic or two:

This is Daisey, really really really orange, insane orange

Amber, one of my 2005 babies note the complete lack of crescents.

and Scarlett, check out her oversized crescents.

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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB, selectively bred from good stock)

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

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Thank you so much for your response! I was worried that due to the poor conditions it lived in while young and the feeding problems, that it wouldn't grow to their normal size and due to that possible have health issues down the road. I'll definitely check out the sub forum...I didn't even notice there was one! No plans to breed him/her at this time, although that's not out of question for the future. And thanks for posting those pics, those are so beautiful...IMO, no other creature compares to the beauty of snakes, especially the BRBs. Well, maybe women
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-David

1.0 ball python (Pandora - don't ask)
1.0 argentine boa (Prometheus)
0.1 hogg island boa (Andromeda)
0.0.1 brazilian rainbow boa (Inara)
1.0 kenyan sand boa (Diablo)
1.0 nornal corn snake(Cypress)
0.1 amery. corn snake (Morgan LaFay)
0.0.1 banded cali. kingsnake (Cain)
1.0 tangerine honduran milksnake (Narcissus)
0.0.1 sandfish skink (Slick)
1.0 dog (Luke)

David,
...GOOD JOB!! It sounds like you have done good with this snake. At 24 inches a BRB can eat meals quite a bit larger than a rat pinky. If you feed it larger meals it can grow faster and eventually catch up. Until they get about 5 feet long BRBs are good at converting food into growth and will not become obese unless you really push the food on them. Like the other Dave said, we have a Rainbow Boa forum and would welcome you over there.
Jeff

>>Thank you so much for your response! I was worried that due to the poor conditions it lived in while young and the feeding problems, that it wouldn't grow to their normal size and due to that possible have health issues down the road. I'll definitely check out the sub forum...I didn't even notice there was one! No plans to breed him/her at this time, although that's not out of question for the future. And thanks for posting those pics, those are so beautiful...IMO, no other creature compares to the beauty of snakes, especially the BRBs. Well, maybe women
>>-----
>>-David
>>
>>1.0 ball python (Pandora - don't ask)
>>1.0 argentine boa (Prometheus)
>>0.1 hogg island boa (Andromeda)
>>0.0.1 brazilian rainbow boa (Inara)
>>1.0 kenyan sand boa (Diablo)
>>1.0 nornal corn snake(Cypress)
>>0.1 amery. corn snake (Morgan LaFay)
>>0.0.1 banded cali. kingsnake (Cain)
>>1.0 tangerine honduran milksnake (Narcissus)
>>0.0.1 sandfish skink (Slick)
>>1.0 dog (Luke)

BRB's require more humidity than regular boas. You should have a rubbermaid or sterlite type tub full of fresh water in the cage so your snake can soak itself as needed. The tub of water will also help get the overall humidity up. BRB's also seem able to tolerate more soaking time than regular boas without developing any skin problems, so I would not be too concerned if your snake spends a lot of time soaking, unless your temps are a too high. They seem to prefer lower temps than normal boas, more like the low 80's as opposed to 85 to 90 for regular boas.

In regards to sexing, males generally will have larger spurs than females, but the most accurate way of determining the sex of a snake is by having it probed by an experience herper. Short of probing, on younger boas(BRB's included), you can easily feel a bump in the tail on males when you place your thumb on the underside of the tail just past the cloaca and gently apply some pressure as you slide your hand away from the the cloaca towards the tip of the tail. About half way between the cloaca and the tip of the tail, you will feel this bump. On females, you should not feel any bumps at all. But as I mentioned earlier, the best way is to have your snake probed by an experienced herper.

As far as the size of your snake goes, just be patient. Be glad that you seem to have it eating on a consistant basis. What you don't want to do is overfeed and possibly get into a situation where your snake starts to regurgitate its meals. With regular feeding of appropriate sized meals, your snake should get up to a normal size, it will just take a little longer in comparison to animals of similar age who did not have the feeding problems that yours did. Patience!