Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well I purchased my rainbow boa about 2 months ago. He's been doing great. When I got him he was no more then 20" long and by now hes well over 2 feet. Hes eating fuzzy's once a week and has become quite friendly and enjoys being held by me. Hes shed his skin twice now with no trouble at all. This past weekend I decided to buy him a couple new toys for his tank. I replaced his large granite pool with a more natrual looking one and a smaller corner tank model. Well since I placed the corner granite pool in his tank ( which is partially over a mat heater ) hes spent most of his time soaking. Which up until now, hes never really done. Only on occasion would I see him swim thru his larger tank, only to climb out quick and lay out on his branch. Is this more of an age trait? Or is this a sign that something might not be right in his habitat? The median temp of his tank just above surface Lv is 72 - 76*F with a constant humidity of 74-84%. He seems quite healthy and happy. Its just when you see your pet take on a new habit, it makes you wonder.

Thanks for any advice! I appreciate it.
-Chad

I keep a few brb's and in all but one enclosure I have my water bowl exclusively on the cold side. The one I have on the hot side he usually hangs on the lip of a small glass cup straddling the top of the cup and hangs half in and half out but only when he is about to shed. I have never seen any of my other snakes hanging out in the water bowl unless it is quick pass through but for these I have real big water dishes and I believe that is the reason they don't use them as much but they shed mine for me so maybe they don't need to soak and N.O. humidity has to be on their side too.
Bob

No worries on the water bowl thing, might just be that now it's over the heater the water is warmer, can you say hot tub?

I have many BRB's and yeah, for the most part they will hang out in their moss boxes but all will occasionally soak for long periods in the water bowls.

By Fuzzies, you do mean fuzzy rats? Fuzzy mice would be way too small! ;E
-----
Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

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

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

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

lol yeah I think mine started on smallish hopper mice when I got them as hatchlings. were up to adult mice in very little time.

As far as the soaking thing I have to agree with Dave that the temp is probably the attraction, unless the snake is going into shed cycle. Personally I have never seen any of my BRB's soaking in their dishes. Closest I've seen is them go strait from one side to the other briefly wetting their skin in the process.

By the way the dish I was talking about is the cool side one. I have a large cool side dish and a medium warm side one. I've never even seen them look at much less enter the warm one. this is probably because of the temp being so high though. The warm side dish is glass, overlapping the belly heater, and to the side of the heat lamp. Because I'm using 4ft long glass tanks(60 gallons) for each I end up with a 10-20 degree gradient, often 15-20, so the hot end can get uncomfortably warm for them at times.

Sean

Opps sorry. Yeah hes on Fuzzy Rats at the moment. There about as big as he can comfortably get down. I can see a bulge for about 24 hours after he downs them. So I figure that should be about right.
Here is a pic of his encloser >

Cool side with big bowl on the left, Rock cave middle, with grape vine branch over the top. Far right is the corner pool. I also put in some smooth river rocks to absorb heat from the under tank heat pads to radiate a bit more here and there. You can kinda see him spread out on top of the branch during this shot.

Tank from left angle.

Here is a pic of him soaking earlier

That water dish looks to be the appropriate size for that BRB to soak in. Not too deep, sides close enough that can be felt, not floating. Maybe just a perfect spot to soak!!!!!
-----
Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

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

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

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Probably not a problem. My BrBs will soak periodically in their water dishes for hours at a time. They seem to enjoy it.
-----
1.1 96, 04 Het Albino - "Suzie" & "Lumpy"
0.1 03 Poss. Het Albino - "Ami"
0.1 05 Super Salmon - "CreamSicle"
0.1 04 Anery Het Snow- "Squelchy"
1.0 04 DH-Sunglow - "Dwayne"
1.0 06 TH-Moonglow - "Gargamel"
1.2 01 BRBs- "Gobball", "Larva" & "Tofu"

Sean, I think I've seen you post this before (that your animals rarely soak).

Mine soak often. Sometimes for days at a time. My females are constantly soaking now. They do in the middle of every breeding season. I think it's to reduce their body temps to provide a more conducive environment for fertilization. My animals also regularly soak before they shed.

I keep my snakes warmer and drier than most do. I am wondering if this may be why they spend so much time in the water.
-----
Mike Lockwood
www.tooscaley.com

Yeah it could well be. Because I have a little more ventilation then most of the BRB people I've talked to I tend to do alot more regular humidity control(spray 1-2 times a week, each spraying being 1-1.5 quarts of water) as well as the evaporation dishes on the warm side. I also use a fairly thick layer of sphagnum moss as a substrate which helps the humidity alot. My cold side temps range (over hot/cold seasons as well as day/night) 65-80 and my hot sides 80-95 with a normal gradient of arround 15 degrees between the two sides at any one point.

The hot temps are higher then I would normally keep except they are in 4ft long tanks so there is plenty of room to thermoregulate within the 15 degree spreed. As it turns out they are in the midle about half the time and in the cooler side only a little more then the hotter side so I am not too worried.

I suspect that setups aside there is a significant individual animal prefference. Just like some people prefer it dryer and some more humid I think the snakes have a prefference as well. I am by no means going to remove the oportunity for them to soak just because they don't seem to avail themselves of it lol.
Also as I only have two BRB's at the moment I don't have nearly the sample size you do Mike for drawing generalizations.

Anyways always good to hear what works for different peoples snakes.

Sean.