Reptile & Amphibian Forums

now before i get bashed about "why would you buy a snake before u learn about it", a friend of mine had to part with her adult female and me being her "reptile friend" i took her in. now, i know basic knowledge about these anazing creatures but what im looking to find out on here is...with everyones experience with rainbow boas what are the few things that youve learned from them that you didnt hear or read anywhere else. what are the things that work best for you as far as keeping them ie. substrates, temps, humidity levels, hides, ect. ect. just trying to increase my knowledge on them.

Congrats and welcome to the forum. Very little bashing EVER goes on in this specific forum, only if you're given good advice and ignore it

Speaking of good advice check out my care sheets....

My care sheets
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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 (02/01/2010):
42.61 BRB
27.40 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Welcome to the forum. If you look at Daves care info you will be good to go

dont have to worry about bashing in this forum much. Just gotta watch out for posts that have so many pics it may overload your computer

Definitely take a look at that care sheet.

The two big takeaway messages for me:

1. cooler temps than many other snakes -- warm end around 80 rather than 85

2. pump up the humidity, especially for hatchlings. And I mean REALLY high, not just occasional misting. Damp substrate, wet hides, and so on.

Enjoy your rainbow!
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0.1 Peruvian rainbow boa (Amaru)
0.3 Honduran milksnakes (Chicchan, Chanir, Hari)
2.6 corns (Cetto, Tolosa, TBA)
1,000,000.1,000,000 other critters

Totally agreed on both points.

Those are the two things I typically see wrong in how people are keeping BRB's.

Too hot and/or not humid enough!

Reading your statement...
"pump up the humidity, especially for hatchlings. And I mean REALLY high, not just occasional misting. Damp substrate, wet hides, and so on."

got me thinking.....

I actually do NOT keep my babies that "wet" and they are thriving. In a thermostat controlled belly heat rack, shoebox size tubs with no holes, dry paper towel and water bowl. No misting, no spritzing, no damp moss. I do get an occasional imperfect shed but mostly it's one solid piece, not even torn.

Why is it working so well for me??

I think two points.....

1) I have a dedicated BRB room, FULL of cages and tubs with litterally hundreds of BRB's and also some baby BCI's. (quick estimate is 300 plus) Because of all the water bowls, animals and the door being kept closed, the entire room is much more humid than a typical house.

2) The hatchling tubs have very minimal ventilation and are not opened frequently. That keeps the humidity in the tub.

lol, such an engineer, did a quick estimate of the surface area of all the water bowls in my BRB room. If one large container, it would cover 1/3 of the room.
-----
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 (02/01/2010):
42.61 BRB
27.40 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

>>Reading your statement...
>>"pump up the humidity, especially for hatchlings. And I mean REALLY high, not just occasional misting. Damp substrate, wet hides, and so on."
>>
>>got me thinking.....
>>
>>I actually do NOT keep my babies that "wet" and they are thriving.

I currently have only 1 rainbow, my young Peruvian. She is in a flat plastic sterilite, no ventilation holes, half on a herp heat pad with thermostat. I have digital thermometer/hygrometers in each snake box, but hers got drowned by the condensation inside the box so I don't know the exact humidity. I keep her substrate (paper towels) damp. Nonetheless, she STILL had a small retained tail tip at her first shed. I haven't added a moss hide yet -- but I'm gonna do it soon!
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0.1 Peruvian rainbow boa (Amaru)
0.3 Honduran milksnakes (Chicchan, Chanir, Hari)
2.6 corns (Cetto, Tolosa, TBA)
1,000,000.1,000,000 other critters

>>I currently have only 1 rainbow, my young Peruvian. She is in a flat plastic sterilite, no ventilation holes, half on a herp heat pad with thermostat. I have digital thermometer/hygrometers in each snake box, but hers got drowned by the condensation inside the box so I don't know the exact humidity. I keep her substrate (paper towels) damp. Nonetheless, she STILL had a small retained tail tip at her first shed. I haven't added a moss hide yet -- but I'm gonna do it soon!
>>

Exactly, the real difference is the environment outside the primary habitat is much drier. So any air exchange at all reduces the humidity. The retained tail tip could have just been a snagged shed and she pulled too hard to get off.

The moss hide will do WONDERS for her.
-----
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 (02/01/2010):
42.61 BRB
27.40 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

To bad you didn't find this forum on the 6th, then you could have joined in our special guest chat with two of our big rainbow keepers/breeders. However soon the audio transcript for the chat will be available for download. You will find plenty of useful information here and the site provided above. Feel free to go through back posts as well, plenty of information in old posts too.
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PHLdyPayne