Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Can someone tell me pros and cons to keeping Brazilian Rainbows, and how you have your cages set up? I am looking into getting one, and have narrowed my choices to include one of these. I currently have a Ball Python, Red Tail Boa, and a Rosy Boa. I just need some help to decide if this will be the right choice for me.

Well the only negative thing about BRB's is they are nocturnal and very secretive. So they are not very good display snakes. They are easy to keep as long as you can control humidity. Keep the babies at 100% humidity if you can. Adults can tolerate lower humidity. Keep the temps in the 80 range on the warm side and lower 70's on the cooler side as a guideline, but you will most likeley need to adjust the temps to your snakes likeing. Keep a fresh bowl of water large enough to soak in and you should be good. I always kept mine in a 4' long tupperware thing cause it held humidity well and was easy to clean and large enough for the snake to be comfortable.

Like already said, humidity is essential. If you set up your enclosure to keep that in mind a rainbow will be fairly easy. I rarely see mine during the day which is kind of a shame since I think they are really pretty. The only 2 things I would call a con would be they are nocturnal and aren't a snake that hang around your neck for 45 minutes while sitting in front of the computer-at least none of mine are. They are easy to handle once out of that nippy baby stage which hasn't been more than a month or two with mine.

I too had a BP and a BCI before getting a rainbow...

There are really many great things about these wonderful animals. They are beautiful, very tamable, easy to keep once set up properly, relatively easy to breed, and lastly fulgrown specimens are a managable 7 feet and 10lbs at most.

Now for the downsides... these guys need much more monitoring of their environments, unlike a BP or BCI, a BRB has a smaller temp range - 70 to 90 as opposed to 60-100 like BCIs and BPs. As you also should know by now, BRBs love humidity, which is easy to overcome if you follow a few easy tips. BRBs area also nocturnal, which means to see them in action, you have to be a bat. Lastly, my BRBs always come out of their cage almost in a comatose state... very easy to pick up and bring out, but after 2 or 3 minutes they seem to waken and energize and are constantly on the move until put back in their favorite hiding places... seem almost as active as a collubrid.

These are great animals, and after keep BPs, BCIs, BCCs, Corns, and a CRB, I have decided that just a pair of BRBs is perfect for me. Good luck and be sure and let us know of any questions (preferably tough ones to give us a challenege)... though any questions at all will be great for everyone here.
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-Iman
1.1 Sugar Gliders (Gizmo and Nema)
1.0 Ball Pythons (Spot)
0.1 Guyanan BCC (Ruby)
1.1 Brazilian Rainbows

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