Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've been thinking about buying a rainbow boa and would like to start with a female. I've seen adults in the $250 range and babies $100-150. Some babies are the same price as adults. The adults seem to be about only $100 or so more. Is it worth buying a baby female and raising it for about 2 yrs vs just buying the adult? Is this the best time of the year to buy? I have bps and there seems to be a larger buyers market there aren’t as many people selling rainbows. Should I wait until next season? I've seen rainbow boas in a local pet store for around 350 up, which I’m not willing to pay for "normal phase" boas that I know they probably bought for 100 or less...

on a side note I’ve been thinking about a tree boa or python vs a rainbow boa. I've been keeping snakes for years and I really want to get some insane colors... I have some bp morphs but they’re not that exciting, they’re less “exotic/appealing” compared to the colors of rainbows, gtp and emeralds which are off the chart beautiful…

those are the going prices for normal brazilian rainbow boas. I paid $300 CDN for my 4 year old male BRB and about $225 CDN for the female as a baby several years ago...the prices haven't changed much here in Canada in the 3-4 years since i bought my first BRB.

Those are typical prices for BRB's, they've settled around $100 - $150 for babies and $200 - $300 for adults. That's for typical BRB's. Brighter cleaner animals will command a higher price.

IMO babies ar ethe way to go, you'll rarely find an extreme adult for sale, while high end babies are available every year. If you do find a high end adult for a reasonable price, snap it up. Beware of WC though, those "can" be problematic. And should have a vet check which will raise the actual cost significantly.

Adult females would be most readily purchased after breeding season when breeders such as myself are replacing a more normal one with a higher end female.

All that said, I bought this one as an adult, not well cared for. Has not bee a great breeder (one ok size litter in two years) but her babies are outstanding. This is year three and looks like she may be gravid

Savannah:

This one was bought as a baby and looks to be gravid for her first time this year:

Daisey:

I also had the opportunity to purchase a trio from Howard, the breeder who produced Daisey including her parents. He didn't know which female produced her but since I have both, no biggee. These opportunities are few and far between.
Fred, Wilma and Betty

My only other adult purchase was a very special one. A WC gravid female dropped a small litter of 8 babies. In it was the wildest looking striped hypo baby I've ever seen. I bought the entire group, mom and 8 babies. A fresh hypo line and a possible one of a kind stripe line.

Eve the WC female and Genevieve, the striped hypo:

Lastly, if you want to produce "off the chart beautiful" babies, IMO you would be better off starting with "off the chart beautiful" parents. IMO, the babies colors will be in a typical bell curve distribution with the mean being the average of the parents. The higher the average color of the parents, the higher the average color of the babies AND the higher the top end of the curve goes!!

So if you're in a hurry to produce some babies, go with adults. If you want to produce screamers, then only buy screamers. Typically babies but if you come across a screamer adult then go for it!! I myself have paid 2x "normal" prices for the right baby. If you're really serious about getting screamers then get on breeders wait lists so you'll be higher in the picking order.
-----
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:
20.28 BRB
16.18 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

np

....that this person wants a BRB? CRBs are much better and cheaper and just as extraordinary in color! Go CRB!!!

-----
Scott

Reptiles
--------
1 Colombian Rainbow Boa (Rocky)
1.0 Ball Python (Sultan)
0.1 California Kingsnake (Leota)
1.0 Eastern Painted Turtle (Yugi)
0.1 Red/Gold Bearded Dragon* (Irwin, R.I.P.)

Other
-----
1.0 Betta Fish (Tyrone)
1.0 Hooded Rat* (Clubber, R.I.P.)
0.1 Albino Rat (Isis)

and I quote

"on a side note I’ve been thinking about a tree boa or python vs a rainbow boa. I've been keeping snakes for years and I really want to get some insane colors... I have some bp morphs but they’re not that exciting, they’re less “exotic/appealing” compared to the colors of rainbows, gtp and emeralds which are off the chart beautiful…"

"insane colors" and "off the chart beautiful" are clearly describing BRB's. Add to that he's also talking about Green tree python's and emerald tree boa's in the same paragraph and clearly could lonly be talking about the pinnacle of rainbow boas - the Brazilian rainbow Boa. I'm sure he wants some thing like:

Not saying that CRB's are bad, still pretty snakes, just not the same caliber as BRB's. Hence the price diferential.

>>....that this person wants a BRB? CRBs are much better and cheaper and just as extraordinary in color! Go CRB!!!
>>
>>
>>-----
>>Scott
>>
>>Reptiles
>>--------
>>1 Colombian Rainbow Boa (Rocky)
>>1.0 Ball Python (Sultan)
>>0.1 California Kingsnake (Leota)
>>1.0 Eastern Painted Turtle (Yugi)
>>0.1 Red/Gold Bearded Dragon* (Irwin, R.I.P.)
>>
>>Other
>>-----
>>1.0 Betta Fish (Tyrone)
>>1.0 Hooded Rat* (Clubber, R.I.P.)
>>0.1 Albino Rat (Isis)
-----
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:
20.28 BRB
16.18 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

...but I was just advocating the keeping of CRBs as to get more people to tlak CRBs with

CRBs still do have some inane colors when it comes to morphs(btw I think there are STILL more CRB morphs than BRB morphs lol )
-----
Scott

Reptiles
--------
1 Colombian Rainbow Boa (Rocky)
1.0 Ball Python (Sultan)
0.1 California Kingsnake (Leota)
1.0 Eastern Painted Turtle (Yugi)
0.1 Red/Gold Bearded Dragon* (Irwin, R.I.P.)

Other
-----
1.0 Betta Fish (Tyrone)
1.0 Hooded Rat* (Clubber, R.I.P.)
0.1 Albino Rat (Isis)

CRB Morphs
1-Albino T-Neg
2- Leucistic
3-Striped
4-T-Pos
5-Ghost

BRB Morphs
1-Albino T-Neg
2-Anery
3-Calico
4-Hypo
5-Licorice
6-Striped (don't know if Jeff produced or bought it but he has a Walsh Clown Phase and what about Dave's Genevieve if it is genetic then we have 2 different lines of striped haha lol)

Two more years then Mike makes our Ghost but I count 6 to 5 pimp so what's up punk and if Jeff's Santaremo is something special then watch out even though he is special in his own right
Bob

but you're so fun to poke a stick at....

Yeah, there are way more BP morphs as well but I'm not into those either! Again, nothing against BP's, just not my cup-o-tea!
-----
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:
20.28 BRB
16.18 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

I say as I currently have a regular BP sitting around doing nothing(what a surprise huh?).

They're just so annoying. Their morphs are the talk of the herp town, yet they're STILL not affordable after being talked about for so many years.

The only real cool BPs are my own and the striped individual my friend hatched. It was the lone survivor of her first clutch and has a beautiful unbroken stripe down the back.
-----
Scott

Reptiles
--------
1 Colombian Rainbow Boa (Rocky)
1.0 Ball Python (Sultan)
0.1 California Kingsnake (Leota)
1.0 Eastern Painted Turtle (Yugi)
0.1 Red/Gold Bearded Dragon* (Irwin, R.I.P.)

Other
-----
1.0 Betta Fish (Tyrone)
1.0 Hooded Rat* (Clubber, R.I.P.)
0.1 Albino Rat (Isis)

way back in the day before there was so many morphs etc...I used to be the "Man" to go to if you couldn't get your wild import to eat. I have friend who was having trouble with his high end balls eating, although not wild caught, they are extremely finicky, but I have them all on F/T except one albino male who will only eat live mice, I had him eating dead rats in the past then he just stopped. I just give him the live mice because I just do not feel like interrupting his growth rate by the usual means I get snakes to except F/T animals of my choice (mice and Rats) I have had many adult wild caught Balls temporarily housed with me because the other owner could not get them to eat at all. I have a special talent when it comes to non feeding snakes. I am somewhat prideful, so this albino male has Humbled me. Once a friend of mine had a wild ball for 10 months and it wouldn't eat, he gives me a shot, darn snake ate a F/T rat the first day I had it, my friend was like, "you piss me off sometimes Frank". This type of scenario has happened to me quite a lot in the past 25 years. My favorite one was a Solomon Island Boa, my brother-in-law had it 18 months (no BS) and It would not eat any conventional food items. Then he gave it to me, after trying "every trick in the book" and every type of prey item that I thought was appropriate, I hit the "books", I found a passage in the "Big Red Book" that stated they fed upon Bats and supposedly frogs of the Genus Rana. This interested me a lot obviously and since acquiring a Bat probably would be not very easy I ran (drove actually) to a small pond and used a rubber worm to entice a Bullfrog to bite ....he did and I...Dropped a large adult male Bullfrog in the enclosure and sure enough he Nailed it, this was in the late 80's early 90's when no captive propagation was really going on with this particular animal (NOTE: only person in my head is Jerry Conway). The snake literally did not eat for 22 months and never got skinny. I was not overly concerned with any parasitism from the frog, The snake eats frogs and nothing else, if scent transfer was used the Boa would seize the F/T rat pup and or mouse and quickly release it like it tasted something that was not on his Menu. I gave the snake back feeding, but It died on my brother-in-law several years later, most people ( "Hog Nose Forum" in particular) would think the frogs where the culprit, I disagree with that even though Parasitism did occur, I just simply treated the animal for worms once a year, I believe other factors where involved. I believe, if the snake was in my possession it would have lived a lot longer (egotistical smile)

PS..I love all snakes, maybe not equaly, but truly do, I want an Elephant Trunk Snake, someday I will acquire one.
-----
Thanks,

Frank Roberts
Roberts' Realm Of Reptile Research

Great story Frank and I knew you had some knowledge but bats and frogs, you scavenger you. I hope you get that elephant snake too one day
Bob

(j/k) You make it blatenly obvios Brazilans are the "Goods"
-----
Thanks,

Frank Roberts
Roberts' Realm Of Reptile Research