Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was wondering if anyone has a link to a good "this is how to breed a rainbow boa" website. I have never bred snakes before and decided to start with my BRB. I have accumulated a nice breeding colony and have some time before they're mature, but want to start learning everything I can sooner rather than later, so I can make sure I do it right. How does the cooling/rewarming process work with BRBs? and what is a temp gun for? Thanks in advance!

Temp guns are for "shooting" temps. Is a handheld device that you can point at any object and take the temp, very handy for keeping snakes. A mounted thermometer will only take the temp where it is, ain inch or two up.down or even side to side will make a difference.

Breeding 101, been posted several times Hush Paul!!!

BRB breeding 101, not to be used as gospel, only documenting how I did it.

My recipe for BRB breeding. Not sure what is working, this season (2005) from 2.7 adults I had 6 viable litters and one slug/still born. Total of 136 babies. This is what I did.

Cage:

I made this cage to be expandable. It has 8 roughly 2' x 2' x18" sections. There is 4" PVC that connects all the sections together, one vertical run on each side and a pass through between the top two and the bottom two cage sections. All these pipes have threaded ends and can be closed off as required.

Please note these are old pics. Not of the 2005 breeding season. The small boxes on the left were some babies on hold and there were even a pair of Ball Pythons housed on the right.

Typical setups are on the right side, top and third down, now all 8 sections are set up the same.

Normally all sections are blocked off and I house each individual in it's own section.

Substrate/water/hides:
I was using newspaper and just recently (mid breeding season) switched to indented craft paper. Each cage gets a sweater box for hide/moss. The box gets about an inch of peat moss well dampened and another inch of green moss also nice and damp. There is also a two gallon squat water bowl with about 1 to 2 inches of water I place on top of the hide.

Heating:
I heat the cage they bred in this year with 60 Watt light bulbs. I've heard this is not optimal and have heard stories about snakes getting burned but I've never had any problem. Still my new second cage has underneath heat with no light bulbs. My cage thermostat is set to 80 degrees and the whole room ends up this temp ( I know, no temp gradient but it is working ). Also the thermostat is on a timer and shuts off at night for nighttime cooling. The downstairs room they occupy was built as a guest bedroom and has full insulation so it does cool off but does not get cold.

Feeding/Cleaning.
I usually feed on a two week, give or take, schedule. I feed F/K as I raise my own feeders. Also sometimes feast/famine as I raise my own feeders. I usually check the cages daily and clean as necessary. More so during "eating" season. The hide boxes get checked/changed frequently as they like to poop in the moss maybe to wipe their butt?

Breeding cycle:
Around Thanksgiving I started dropping my daytime temps over a week or so from 80 to 75. Still keeping all snakes separate. (BTW, I am in San Jose CA, does not get real cold here so I have to use the middle of the winter as my cooling time) Kept this way still feeding cleaning etc. until Valentines day. On 02/14 I cranked the thermostat back up to 80 and arranged my breeding colonies. For this year, I opened up both of the vertical runs on the sides but kept the pass through blocked. In effect, had two four cage sections. On one Side I put my male M5 along with 4 females and the other got my male Porky along with the remaining 3 adult females. Within days I saw evidence of breeding but did not observe any actual copulation. Left it that way for some time during which all the snakes stopped eating. Not sure when, may have been April, after all breeding activity had stopped I closed off all the pipes, isolated all the females and prepared for the long wait.

Birthing:
As soon as I find/notice babies I remove them from the mothers cage. Their next care depends on the state of the litter. For example this year:

One litter was found all out cruising the cage none still attached to yolk or umbilical. I put these babies directly into shoe boxes.

Three litters were found in the hide, full term with minimal or no yolks. I let the babies work them selves free of the egg sacks and umbilical then place each baby in it's shoe box.

Note: one baby was a "preemie" with large yolk and was not coming out of sack. I transferred this baby sack and all to it's shoe box, kept it VERY damp and let it finish the yolk off over two days.

One litter was laid in the water bowl. I strained the water out and dumped the whole slime pile with babies into a sweater box and kept them in there for a day till I was ready to transfer them into shoe boxes.

In the past I have had litters with some yolk still, those are best to just leave alone and let the babies absorb as much yolk as they can.

Vacation:
Thought I'd mention that when I'm planning on being gone, I stop feeding two weeks prior to leaving and don't feed again until I return. This helps keep the mess to a minimum while I'm not there to clean it up.
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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:
26.49 BRB
20.21 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Thanks a lot. I'm sure you get this kind of question all the time. I do have a great handle on the husbandry/caging. I've had BRBs for years now, just never bred them before. I know the general info like that I have to cool them and feed them less and then warm them up, but I didn't know to what temps. How much are you supposed to feed them during the cooling and gestation? I know not to feed them during breeding. Also, I'm in San Diego, and I'm not quite sure I can get my cages down to 75... how do you feel about those little fans. I know I'd have to keep my cages hydrated, but other than that. I've also heard that you should shorten the day period from 12 to 8 hrs while cooling... how do you feel about this one... helpful or not. One last question, I know you put the females with the male, and a male can breed more than one female in a season, but how many females... typically... and do you put them all together at the same time? And for how long? Thanks again!

Use your evening temps to help with the cooling cycle, and you'll have to time it to cooler time of year like I do.

I feed females weekly even during cooling season, they do get warm during the day. Males every two weeks. I call this period feeding season as they eat a lot.

I continue feeding into breeding season until they shut down and start refusing food. For breeding season it's more like 2 weeks together, one week apart. Once they stop eating I stop offering except maybe once a month and small meals.

I've gone as many as four females with one male but now only breed in pairs or 1.2 trio's

My cages allow me to set up the trios in one pair of cage sections. I leave them together except for feeding until I'm certain all breeding activity is done. Better too long than not long enough.

>>Thanks a lot. I'm sure you get this kind of question all the time. I do have a great handle on the husbandry/caging. I've had BRBs for years now, just never bred them before. I know the general info like that I have to cool them and feed them less and then warm them up, but I didn't know to what temps. How much are you supposed to feed them during the cooling and gestation? I know not to feed them during breeding. Also, I'm in San Diego, and I'm not quite sure I can get my cages down to 75... how do you feel about those little fans. I know I'd have to keep my cages hydrated, but other than that. I've also heard that you should shorten the day period from 12 to 8 hrs while cooling... how do you feel about this one... helpful or not. One last question, I know you put the females with the male, and a male can breed more than one female in a season, but how many females... typically... and do you put them all together at the same time? And for how long? Thanks again!
-----
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:
26.49 BRB
20.21 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Dave,
What are your night time temps dipping too in the BRB's cages when cooling? Do you cool your BCI at higher temps than the BRB's?
Thanks for posting this ONCE again!
Paul

Sorry to ask this... once again. Didn't know. Gotta learn somehow. And I really appreciate you guys telling me... once again. I'd rather make an a$$ out of myself here than mess something up and have the snakes suffer!

Is a great time to become a keeper/breeder, when I started there was not nearly the amount of info out there and the internet did not exist. I had to learn the hard way, trial and error.
-----
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:
26.49 BRB
20.21 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

The BRB's were getting down around 68 - 70 and I didn't cool my BCI at all.
-----
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:
26.49 BRB
20.21 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats