Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello everyone,

I'm new to this forum... wanted to say hello and hopefully get some feedback. I have a 2 1/2 year old female BRB. She is currently a little over 4 feet in length, and has been growing somewhat rapidly over past months. As of now, she is housed in a 40 gallon enclosure. I would like to purchase her new and hopefully permanent home in the near future. SO, my question is, what is an optimal sized enclosure for an adult female BRB? Size/dimensions, or type.... any info would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance

-I was considering 4x2x2 glass enclosure. Of course, I’d cover the top with plexi glass and use a uth (pretty much my current set up but bigger).

Hello to you too. I wouldn't use glass unless you really wanted too. IMO Glass is a good conductor but a poor insulator. For instance when an uth is on the bottom of a glass vivarium -just 1/4 of an inch off of the uth is at room temp. This has to has some kind of effect on temps inside the cage too. If a rhp was used from above that might work better or help eliminate the problem but maybe who someone who uses them can give us more insight on this matter. I would try to go wood or plastic with a controlled heating device. Hope it helps and she should slow down growingwise a little too after the four foot mark or so.
Bob

That large of glass cage would lose a lot of heat into the room. Unless your room is kept warm 24/7. I use both wood/glass cages and plastic boaphiles. Another bad point of tanks/lids is they take up a lot of room and when you get more rainbows (they are addictive) it will be hard to house more.

a few pics:

I know....that boaphiles in those pics are housing Boa constrictors, but work just as well for BRB's.
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

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

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

I can attest to the heat loss in the large tanks.

I use something similar to what your talking about, namely a couple 60gallon split top reptile aquariums. Depending on how cold the day is I can end up with a 20 degree gradient between the hot end and the cold end. Now the two BRB's I have in there currently seem to like it and I am using both a UTH and a heatlamp hood. In addition the room they stay in, while not always very warm, is one of the warmer rooms in the house. It has a large waterbed, a constantly running computer, and a couple of Trans Pecos Rat Snake setups as well all contributing to the heat. Especially since the TPRS are on the shelf below the BRB's.

Now if you have a well insulated and/or good heat/AC house then you probably won't get the temperature ranges I've had to deal with but regardless a 48x18x18 roughly will create a large gradient just from heat loss.

By the way Dave, what size/model of the boaphiles do you recomend for stacking BRB's and is there any chance of getting a schematic or layout of how to construct the wood and glass racks you pictured above? I like the setup and the look but am not sure of my reverse engineering carpentry skills lol. Mainly I ask because I am sure my BRB collection will grow faster then I initially planned on and while the vision rack work great for my colubrids I wasn't sure what was adequate when it came to rack housing the BRB's.

Thanks for the pics and any info,

Sean

Boaphiles - for raising up babies, I really like the 421 Condo, it's the same size as the standard 421D but has 4 doors and can be divided into 4 separate enclosures. Very handy for babies of different sizes. Beyond that, a 421T is minimal (421 with two doors and can be divided into two cages). Or to replicate my wooden cages a 422T (if he makes one) would be great. I don't think the 421T would have be enough room for a full grown adult. My oak cages have the same floor space but with the height, I can put the large water bowl on top of the hide thereby making it a split level or two story cage. For a single boaphile, staying with the 11.5", the 321 would be a better choice with 6 square feet of floor space.

Oak cages - I don't have any schematic or layout, just a cut list. The second stack was made with improvements from the first so I'll stick with that one. I designed the entire cage around a 22" x 22" floor space. Works very well with newspaper size so there is paper going up three sides, aids in cleaning. If the poop does not get on the wall, you don't have to clean the poop off of the wall! Each level is a single unit, left and right cage built as one cage. Being a woodworker, paid attention to details most will miss or never see like the sides of the cages were all cut from one piece of plywood and numbered so they would go back together and maintain the grain lines when stacked. Used dado's and rabbits for all case joinery. Along with pocket holes and biscuits for strength. All internal surfaces of plywood were laminated with formica. Front frame made out of solid wood as were the doors. If you want more details, we can take it off line.

Racks for BRB housing - I made these racks around the Iris CB110 tub:


If I remember correctly, the inside floor area was about 36" x 18" or 4.5 square feet. I have not housed any BRB's in them yet but am housing subadult Boas in one and it's working fine. Gut feel is it will work just fine for my adult BRB's
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Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

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

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Hey Dave - I am getting ready to build a rack around iris 110 (and some ve175s.. but that is a different story all together).

Anyway, If I remember correctly, you had posted a journal sometime back on how you built yours.. do you still have that information on your computer someplace?

Any ideas would be appreciated!

BTW, you can email if you prefer not to make a huge post on it again, bogart6868@aol.com

Thanks!
Tim
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photos.xtremecombatsports.com

Dave I wasn't going to comment but since the 110's came up, I thought I would let you know that I was gonna use these and had no idea you used them too,lol
Bob

Only thing I could find was one on some smaller sterilite tubs but principle is the same. I have a spreadsheet I made that will create a cut list based on how many high you want to go. Let me know and I'll run it. I made mine 10 high, just short enough to go through a door but WOW they are heavy!!

none of the pic links still work

Hey for anyone interested. I'm building two 20 slot racks for Sterilite 1754 tubs.
When I went to Home Depot for the melamine, I was pleasantly surprised, they had a whole stack of new,
undamaged shelves. I bought 10 each 8' x 15 7/8 shelves and a full sheet of white vinyl 1/4" for the back.

Both racks Will have belly heat and will be built using cabinet maker methods.
Each rack has 1 slots or 11 shelves.

First evening I sliced up 6 of the shelves into 24 23 1/2" shelves. That's 20 shelves, 2 tops and two pieces to cut up later for fillers.
The 20 shelves needed to be routed for the 3" heat tape. I used my table saw set up with a dado cutter to cut the slots.
took 4 passes to get the slots wide enough. I also routed the ends so I could thread the heat tape through the whole rack.
Phew, nice stack of pieces.

Second evening, I cut the sides to length 10 x (6.25" tub plus .75 shelf) = 70" plus top and some extra for toe base = 76"

Also drilled pocket holes in bottom side of all 20 shelves and 2 tops

Next step will be to cut spacers and assemble starting with the top and working down.
This way the surplus length on the sides will be left at the bottom. once done installing shelves I'll size the filler for the bottom and install it set back a few inches from the front as a toe space.
I'll post more pics as I progress.

Time for assembly, first up is attaching the top. I clamped the heck out of it to keeo the top from shifting while I screwed in the pocket screws.

Then for the second shelf I stood up the top and sides (upside-down). I cut some spacers to hold the shelves the correct distance apart. Again I used lots of clamps to hold everything just right while I ran in the pocket screws.

Here's how it looked with more shelves installed.

And finally, here they both are assembled and in the snake room. Still have to run the heat tape and add the back but mostly done.

All in all was pretty easy and I think they came out great. Helped having the right tools.
-----
Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

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

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Oh yeah, big difference is you will have to use sheet stock melamine instead of pre made shelving and edge banding if you want clean edges. I can walk you through the whole build process if you like.

np with the long posts, I really do enjoy helping you guys (gals too) out!
-----
Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

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

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

http://picasaweb.google.com/Rainbowsrus/IrisRacks
-----
Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

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

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Thanks for the info Dave..
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photos.xtremecombatsports.com

4x2x2 is about 120gallons.. the last time I checked, a tank that size was 300-400$. For that amount, you can easily get into a nice PVC cage (i.e. boaphile). The snake will be much happier in there - and it still has a clear front so you can see the animal. These will help w/ heat and humidity, plus give the snake a more secure feeling.

As for size, I keep my adult brb's in VE175 Iris tubs that are 50"x24"15" and they have more than enough room. Dave keeps his in 2x2x2 (I think, correct me if I am wrong Dave) and does well with those..

I would say those are min/max sizes though. Anything in between would be fine.
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photos.xtremecombatsports.com

www.herpcages.com

check out the 36x24x12 150$

thats more than enough room. i use these and they are awsome.
and shippign is usually cheap.