Reptile & Amphibian Forums

she just got done shedding a couple days ago, and here she is in the water.
nevin

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1.1 brazilian rainbow baos
1.1 leopard geckos
1 blizzerd lizzard
0.2.0 amazon tree boas
0.1.0 kenyan sand boa
0.1.0 bearded dragon
0.1.0 uromastyx
3 cats
1 miniture mutt

"dont be afraid to die, only be afraid to not live"

"dont ever get drunk with a hoodie on, eventually ur ganna think someone is behind you"

another one

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1.1 brazilian rainbow baos
1.1 leopard geckos
1 blizzerd lizzard
0.2.0 amazon tree boas
0.1.0 kenyan sand boa
0.1.0 bearded dragon
0.1.0 uromastyx
3 cats
1 miniture mutt

"dont be afraid to die, only be afraid to not live"

"dont ever get drunk with a hoodie on, eventually ur ganna think someone is behind you"

third pic

-----
1.1 brazilian rainbow baos
1.1 leopard geckos
1 blizzerd lizzard
0.2.0 amazon tree boas
0.1.0 kenyan sand boa
0.1.0 bearded dragon
0.1.0 uromastyx
3 cats
1 miniture mutt

"dont be afraid to die, only be afraid to not live"

"dont ever get drunk with a hoodie on, eventually ur ganna think someone is behind you"

so how does she look? id like to here from ne one. especealy jeff clark, and pual buck.
thanx

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1.1 brazilian rainbow baos
1.1 leopard geckos
1 blizzerd lizzard
0.2.0 amazon tree boas
0.1.0 kenyan sand boa
0.1.0 bearded dragon
0.1.0 uromastyx
3 cats
1 miniture mutt

"dont be afraid to die, only be afraid to not live"

"dont ever get drunk with a hoodie on, eventually ur ganna think someone is behind you"

nice snake, mine also likes to bath a lot

Michiel,
Your BRB is looking great. I like your enclosure also (though the red carpet makes it look like your volcano erupted and filled your enclosure with lava).
Paul

hahaha thanks
And i use a diff color towel every 2 weeks =)
brown red and green ehhe
My other brazilian rainbow looks even better and i am a bit confused since i think i mixed my snakes up.
What i tought to be the female is the orange one and the other 1 i have is dark red/brown/black but the 1 i think of is the male is growing much and much faster then the female he is like 3 inches taller and are from the same nest hehe.

>>so how does she look? id like to here from ne one. especealy jeff clark, and pual buck.
>>thanx
>>
>>-----
>>1.1 brazilian rainbow baos
>>1.1 leopard geckos
>>1 blizzerd lizzard
>>0.2.0 amazon tree boas
>>0.1.0 kenyan sand boa
>>0.1.0 bearded dragon
>>0.1.0 uromastyx
>>3 cats
>>1 miniture mutt
>>
>>"dont be afraid to die, only be afraid to not live"
>>
>>"dont ever get drunk with a hoodie on, eventually ur ganna think someone is behind you"

Nevin,
I must say you've got a great water feature going on there. I figured when she/he shed it would look really sweet.
It really pleases me to see the effort you and others put into creating a somewhat realistic habitat. We make such assumptions with snakes, most of which justifies a desire to house as many animals in as small an area at as cheap a cost as possible. The result; rack systems w/ newspaper substrate, a water bowl and a hide. To me, this reflects a belief that snakes are little more than animated pieces of meat. The belief that a successful breeding or a willingness to eat is an indicator of an animals complete health is self serving. If you put me in a 10'x10'x10' cage, fed me regularly and occasionally placed an attractive member of the opposite sex in with me, yeah I'd probably hold on.
Normally I just bite my tongue when reading these forums because we as people have forgotten how to disagree civilly and when in cyberspace even the most craven say things they would never say in person. But I've had a few drinks after work.
I choose to believe I do not know enough about a creature, that is not simian in nature, to assume it is ok to warehouse them in sterile, plastic, sweater boxes for the remainder of their lives. In my mind, this is cruel. If you disagree, that is your right.
Good job Nevin,
Paul

Paul,
. I always enjoy reading your posts. I am not sure I agree with everything in this one though. When I saw Boastuds post just a couple posts below this one I was tempted to ask (in my typically sarcastic voice) why he would want to breed BRBs in a rack system. I did not post because like you I see no need to fight with anyone in cyberspace. Then albinoman posted that he does breed Rainbow Boas in racks. I am usually of the opinion that if something works for someone then they are probably doing it right, even if I were to try it and it did not work for me. If it works for them and does not work for me it must be an indicator that I am actually doing it slightly differently and am too dumb to see the difference rather than to assume that the other person is wrong. Perhaps albinoman does have really "happy" BRBs living in really nice BIG slider boxes in a rack. My bias against breeding BRBs in racks is based solely upon my aesthetic beliefs and my perception that racks hold smallish boxes which are best suited for smallish snakes. My opinion is also colored by the anthropomorphic outlook I have on almost everything. So....my question for you is: are you sure that BRBs are happier in big cages with naturalistic furnishings? I really do enjoy seeing PICs of people's big cages with all the plants but am I sure that they are any better for housing BRBs than plastic boxes (of the appropriate size) in racks? My overall opinion on this subject is somewhat reflected in the caging I have selected for my BRBs. They are in 36 and 48 inch box cages with newspaper substrate and inverted clay flowerpots and BIG waterbowls. I do consider the financial aspects in selecting how I take care of my snakes. If I set my cages up with too much furnishings and deep natural substrate I might not be able to keep cages clean which to me is of utmost importance. It does seem to me that a snake's willingness to eat and even to a greater extent it's willingness to breed and even more so it's ability to produce viable live babies IS an indicator of good health. A BRB that is even slightly unhealthy or stressed is not likely to produce babies. If we screw up the husbandry very much either in plastic boxes or naturalistic big cages then our snakes will not breed or eat. There are a whole bunch of people who have tried to breed BRBs and failed at it. When I used to hunt snakes and breed colubrids there were many times that I had Cornsnakes and Yellow Ratsnakes breeding in the snake bag even before I got them home. I wish it were as easy to breed BRBs
Jeff

>>Nevin,
>>I must say you've got a great water feature going on there. I figured when she/he shed it would look really sweet.
>>It really pleases me to see the effort you and others put into creating a somewhat realistic habitat. We make such assumptions with snakes, most of which justifies a desire to house as many animals in as small an area at as cheap a cost as possible. The result; rack systems w/ newspaper substrate, a water bowl and a hide. To me, this reflects a belief that snakes are little more than animated pieces of meat. The belief that a successful breeding or a willingness to eat is an indicator of an animals complete health is self serving. If you put me in a 10'x10'x10' cage, fed me regularly and occasionally placed an attractive member of the opposite sex in with me, yeah I'd probably hold on.
>>Normally I just bite my tongue when reading these forums because we as people have forgotten how to disagree civilly and when in cyberspace even the most craven say things they would never say in person. But I've had a few drinks after work.
>>I choose to believe I do not know enough about a creature, that is not simian in nature, to assume it is ok to warehouse them in sterile, plastic, sweater boxes for the remainder of their lives. In my mind, this is cruel. If you disagree, that is your right.
>>Good job Nevin,
>>Paul

Jeff,
Thanks for taking the time to respond to my bit of a rant. I do want to clarify some things before I respond to your questions. Though I did wince a bit when I read Boastuds post and was a little disappointed that Albinoman does the rack thing (he has beautiful snakes and I wish he would post more pics); it was not that post that had got my blood flowing. The post in question is on the Snakes, General Forum under the title 'This affects us all'. I hope you all will read it. I was floored by the reaction of the person who posted it and could'nt help but think his reaction is probably the norm amongst hobbyist. When I started to compliment Nevin for his nice setup I got going.
But I meant all that I wrote and wanted to post my thoughts, and even more importantly my feelings. I love nature and the wild places and the inhabitants therein. I too anthropomorphise greatly. I want to treat others how I would like to be treated.
Your questions are good ones and I'll answer them.
I don't believe the naturalistic furnishings matter much to the snakes (I can't use 'happy' though I like to think they are). What I think does matter to them is the opportunity to move about somewhat unrestricted: by this I mean stretch out fully, be able to climb and move about horizontally and vertically. They need to exersize. My strong feeling is that even the largest available plastic containers do not give this species the vertical movement they need (but I will admit I have not seen everything that is available, maybe they do have 3 ft. tall rubbermaids that are 6 ft. long). I feel every single adult BRB needs a large, long, horizontally orientated branch to lay out on. Both my adults spend ALOT of time on that branch, I think they like it.
Newspaper substrate: from all I've read and what I personally have observed, these snakes need to burrow. I do not know this but I suspect in the wild these snakes spend a great deal of time buried in the substrate. Additionally, have you felt what newspaper feels like against your skin? To me it is unpleasant. A deep, moist substrate has got to feel better, it just has to.
I've never had mold grow in my large enclosure. I'll admit, I am not the most delligent cleaner; once a week I go over everything. I wish you could stick your head in my enclosure; it smells wonderful. Snakes take in so much information through smell and the Jacobson organ. What can they pick up from newspaper? I offer them moist bark (oak hides, orchid bark, the big limb, all differnt kinds of wood), wet moss. I assure you this is important (again my feelings, I can't ask them, but it makes sense at least to me).
I speak of complete health, not just the physical properties. I do not know if snakes know happiness or anger, sadness or depression. But all organisms have something in common. They want to survive. I repeat, it is not an indicator of an organism complete health if they feed and reproduce. It just means you've met those specific needs (with BRB's those needs are a bit more than a corn snake).
To Albinoman or anyone else who keeps their animals in racks I'm really not being judgemental. My goal, and the reason I post so many pictures of my snakes and enclosure, is to inspire someone into putting in the effort to house their charges in large, roomy, varied (in all senses) environment with a complete temperature gradient (for these snakes, in a large enclosure, upper 60's to low 90's). I have to resize my photos to get enough of them on my website. By doing so I lose alot in their color and shine. I'll clear some room and repost one of my favorite pics so you can see what I mean. What I do know, my animals are healthy and muscular; they are just not irridescent with nice colors, they glow.
I think they are happy.
Please remember, these are my musings. I believe I am right but acknowledge that I could be wrong.
Sorry for the long post.
Thanks again,
Paul

Nice enclosure you have there

thanx for all the complaments, and i must admit i feel the same way as paul. all my reptiles are kept in tanks or cages that represent there natuaral habatat as best as i could.
but thanx again
nevin
-----
1.1 brazilian rainbow baos
1.1 leopard geckos
1 blizzerd lizzard
0.2.0 amazon tree boas
0.1.0 kenyan sand boa
0.1.0 bearded dragon
0.1.0 uromastyx
3 cats
1 miniture mutt

"dont be afraid to die, only be afraid to not live"

"dont ever get drunk with a hoodie on, eventually ur ganna think someone is behind you"