Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just got a really nice pair of BRB's last week. The male is orange. The female is purple. She's a little younger than he is but they're both babies. I'm really curious to see what she starts to look like because her coloration and pattern is really great. I plan on breeding them in the future. My question is, can I keep them together at all and if so, for how long? Shouldn't they be seperate for a while before breeding is attempted in a few years? These are my first rainbows. I also have a cuban boa. I'm really getting into the Epicrates. I'm not a big boa fan but this Genus is very interesting.

Also if anyone has any comments on why my cuban isn't eating, it would be greatly appreciated. Cubans don't seem to be very popular around here though. I've had her for 4 weeks. Offered food 7 times. One time she took a rat dipped in chicken broth but regurged it 10 minutes later. She went through alot of stress the day I got her. And I'm hoping that is the reason for her to not be eating. I know they're very prone to stress. I just hope she snaps out of it before she starts losing weight. The guy I got her from said he had her on rats with no problems. But that's not the snake I have right now. I also doubt she's WC. Her temps and humidity are perfect. She's losing some of her shyness and starting to explore her cage more and more and not just hiding all the time. I'm just wondering if anyone else has experienced this with cubans or similar insular species and what the outcome was. Thanks alot for any help or comments.

Kottonmouthking,
. It is usually okay to keep BRBs together. Most importantly, you do have to be careful to seperate them when feeding. In addition there are all the standard herp husbandry reasons for keeping them seperate. If one is sick it can pass the illness to the other. If one is puking or passing messy stools you will not be able to quickly identify which is the one with the problem. If one snake is highly dominant over the other it may keep the less dominant one away from the places in the cage with the best tepmperature and humidity. I keep BRBs together but do think anyone considering keeping them together should weigh all the pros and cons. They will need to be seperated at least for some time before introducing them for breeding.
. I think stress is probably the reason for your angulifer not eating and also why it puked right after eating. If it was my snake I would put it in a cage where it could not see anything moving outside it's cage and leave it alone for awhile. Put the cage somewhere away from pets and smokers household chemicals and noise and light and vibration. After it had had some seclusion I would offer food in it's cage. If the previous keeper was feeding it live prey I would offer it a live large rat pup. If it was eating dead I would offer exactly the same dead prey offered exactly the same way the previous owner offered it. It is highly likely that it is a CB snake. There is very little or no traffic in smuggled reptiles out of Cuba.
Jeff

>>I just got a really nice pair of BRB's last week. The male is orange. The female is purple. She's a little younger than he is but they're both babies. I'm really curious to see what she starts to look like because her coloration and pattern is really great. I plan on breeding them in the future. My question is, can I keep them together at all and if so, for how long? Shouldn't they be seperate for a while before breeding is attempted in a few years? These are my first rainbows. I also have a cuban boa. I'm really getting into the Epicrates. I'm not a big boa fan but this Genus is very interesting.
>>
>>Also if anyone has any comments on why my cuban isn't eating, it would be greatly appreciated. Cubans don't seem to be very popular around here though. I've had her for 4 weeks. Offered food 7 times. One time she took a rat dipped in chicken broth but regurged it 10 minutes later. She went through alot of stress the day I got her. And I'm hoping that is the reason for her to not be eating. I know they're very prone to stress. I just hope she snaps out of it before she starts losing weight. The guy I got her from said he had her on rats with no problems. But that's not the snake I have right now. I also doubt she's WC. Her temps and humidity are perfect. She's losing some of her shyness and starting to explore her cage more and more and not just hiding all the time. I'm just wondering if anyone else has experienced this with cubans or similar insular species and what the outcome was. Thanks alot for any help or comments.

.

Hi – I recently posted this on another forum, but thought it might be of interest to you.

I had a really odd thing happen a long time ago with a couple of Brazilian rainbow boas, Epicrates cenchria cenchria. The female swelled way up; I introduced a male; they copulated; she acted gravid; I removed the male; she never produced anything; by the following breeding season she was still swollen; I had radiographs taken; no embryos were visible; I reintroduced the male; a couple of days later he constricted her to death. When I cut her open, she was packed with big, beautiful, healthy-looking unfertilized ova (14 in each oviduct, as I recall). And the male? I never felt very kindly about him after that. He’s an old guy now going on 23 years old. And that was the last chance he ever got to strut his stuff with a female. What can you learn from this? Weird things can happen in a cage

-Joan

Joan,
. That is the first time I have ever heard of one Rainbow Boa killing another except in fights over food where one snake partially swallows the other. I use male to male aggression to get BRBs breeding sometimes and they only go as far as pushing each other around in the cages. No biting and very limited wrapping. You are right about strange things happening in snake cages. There are cases of dozens of snake species which are not known for being canniballisitic devouring other snakes.
Jeff

>>Hi – I recently posted this on another forum, but thought it might be of interest to you.
>>
>>I had a really odd thing happen a long time ago with a couple of Brazilian rainbow boas, Epicrates cenchria cenchria. The female swelled way up; I introduced a male; they copulated; she acted gravid; I removed the male; she never produced anything; by the following breeding season she was still swollen; I had radiographs taken; no embryos were visible; I reintroduced the male; a couple of days later he constricted her to death. When I cut her open, she was packed with big, beautiful, healthy-looking unfertilized ova (14 in each oviduct, as I recall). And the male? I never felt very kindly about him after that. He’s an old guy now going on 23 years old. And that was the last chance he ever got to strut his stuff with a female. What can you learn from this? Weird things can happen in a cage
>>
>>-Joan
>>