Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all. I'm a veteran Corn snake and King snake keeper but I'm a newbie BRB owner (purchased a 10 mo. old male about 5 weeks ago) and take very seriously my care for it. I've invested $100 in a Ranco thermostat from Boaphileplastics and have spent countless hours adjusting, monitoring, and readjusting my temps to insure I maintain as constant as possible heat gradient in the proper range. I've read lots of literature on these snakes and all the books state a very particular and narrow temperature range. I've noticed a difference in what is determined as a proper and healthy temperature range between these books and some of our fellow,experienced BRB keeper on this forum. I post this message topic to gather further info and open a discussion on what everyone's knowledge and experience is concerning the "correct" temps for BRB's. Specifically, I've read here from certain BRB keepers that they should be maintained at low to mid 70's on the cool side and upper 70's to low 80's on the warm side. This is somewhat contradictive to the figures stated in books like BARRON'S: "Rainbow Boas and Neotropical Tree Boas" guide book by: R.D.Bartlett which says for this species; " A cage temperature of 78-82 degrees F nights and 85-90 degrees F days will suffice." So, are the "experts" wrong or what? Also, what of the concern of respitory infections with cooler temperatures?

Ive dealt with temperature issues recently and from expierence i can say that it will be very hard to get a BRB to thrive at 80 all day. Jeff C.'s golden rule - listen to your snake- when u introduce the lil guy to his new cage, he will search the cage and finally settle on the gradient where he/she likes the temp. your snake will tell u how hot or cold it wants to be, if it stays on the oposite side of the heat source, its too hot for him, if u cant get him off the heating pad, its prolly too cold. my gradient is from low 70's on the cold side to 80 max on the hot side. even with this gradient my snake will always stay in the middle.

You are doing a great job too! I think your comments on this are the most impressive because you have just personally experienced a dramatic change in your BRB due to the fact that you were willing to listen and adjust accordingly. I am pleased to see you stick around. Thank you.

Linda
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"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance- that principle is contempt prior to investigation." Herbert Spencer

actually i was a bit nervous to reply, but i really care for my snake, and i feel that this website is really a gift to anyone who needs. thanks so much for your positive feedback

First I have to say that I have the utmost respect for Richard Bartlett. I was eagerly waiting for his articles in the good old herp magazines back in the 80s. They were IMO the best field herping articles ever written. His books are superb. I have a bunch of them. I still like reading his articles in that awful Reptiles magazine. But we disagree on temperatures for Rainbow Boas. I am very precise about temperatures. I use an IR temperature gun to check my snake's actual body temperatures. Most of my BRBs stay in the part of the cage that keeps their body temperature in the mid 70s. If the cage goes up much higher in temperature they will move to the coolest part of the cage trying to avoid the high temperatures. They do get to the warmer spots when digesting or gestating and get their body temps up around 80 sometimes. I have had almost 1000 Rainbow Boas born here. Of those around 900 were Brazilian Rainbows. I have never had to force feed a little BRB. They all eat for me. If you read back through the posts here you will see that on a regular basis people come here asking about why their new little BRB will not eat. Temperatures too high and related humidity too low are almost always the factor that is causing the problem. I have talked to hundreds of people at reptile shows and on the internet who tell me that Rainbow Boas are hard to keep or that they had their Rainboiw Boa die. Almost without fail they go on to tell me that they tried keeping a Rainbow Boa just like they keep their Boa Constrictors or Ball Pythons. Sort of as an experiment I let little less than yearling BRBs cool off along with my adult BRBs the winter before last. They were actually kept in shoeboxes stacked inside the big Rainbow Boas cages. Through the winter they were in the 60s most of the time. During that time they continued to eat regularly and digest and pass normal stools. None of them got any sort of respiratory problem. If you provide a cage with high humidity and a good temperature gradient the snakes will tell you what temperature they like by finding the part of the cage that keeps them comfortable.
Jeff

>>Hello all. I'm a veteran Corn snake and King snake keeper but I'm a newbie BRB owner (purchased a 10 mo. old male about 5 weeks ago) and take very seriously my care for it. I've invested $100 in a Ranco thermostat from Boaphileplastics and have spent countless hours adjusting, monitoring, and readjusting my temps to insure I maintain as constant as possible heat gradient in the proper range. I've read lots of literature on these snakes and all the books state a very particular and narrow temperature range. I've noticed a difference in what is determined as a proper and healthy temperature range between these books and some of our fellow,experienced BRB keeper on this forum. I post this message topic to gather further info and open a discussion on what everyone's knowledge and experience is concerning the "correct" temps for BRB's. Specifically, I've read here from certain BRB keepers that they should be maintained at low to mid 70's on the cool side and upper 70's to low 80's on the warm side. This is somewhat contradictive to the figures stated in books like BARRON'S: "Rainbow Boas and Neotropical Tree Boas" guide book by: R.D.Bartlett which says for this species; " A cage temperature of 78-82 degrees F nights and 85-90 degrees F days will suffice." So, are the "experts" wrong or what? Also, what of the concern of respitory infections with cooler temperatures?

Thanks Jeff for your valuble knowledge and experience. Immediately following my BRB's homecoming I was keeping my temp. gradients on the cool side varient from 72 to 78, 80 degreesF and the warm area about 82 to 90 degreesF. After he grew accustomed to his new surroundings he settled into a healthy feeding and drinking routine. I did note that he would at times spend the majority of his time in the hide on the warm side and then at other times he seemed to prefer the hide on the cool side. His nocturnal activity remained the same either way. About a week ago I decided to increase the temps to coincide more in keeping with the figures set forth in above mentioned book. He was fed just at the onset of this temp. increase and for the next 5 days I never once saw him leave the hide on the cool side which was maintaining a 78-84 degreeF range not even at night. I took him out and looked him over yesterday and he seemed fine other than his color appearing darker. I awoke early this morning for work to discover he had just completed shedding his old skin.( I hadn't even noticed that he had been progressing through the ecdysis process!) He immediately retired into the hide on the warm side. BTW as of reading of these lower temp recommendations last night I promptly reduced my enclosure temps accordingly. I'm interested to see how his behavior reflects these changes. I'm not sure how the increased temps over the past week affected him since I now know he'd been in the midst of shedding during that time.

>>Thanks Jeff for your valuble knowledge and experience. Immediately following my BRB's homecoming I was keeping my temp. gradients on the cool side varient from 72 to 78, 80 degreesF and the warm area about 82 to 90 degreesF. After he grew accustomed to his new surroundings he settled into a healthy feeding and drinking routine. I did note that he would at times spend the majority of his time in the hide on the warm side and then at other times he seemed to prefer the hide on the cool side. His nocturnal activity remained the same either way. About a week ago I decided to increase the temps to coincide more in keeping with the figures set forth in above mentioned book. He was fed just at the onset of this temp. increase and for the next 5 days I never once saw him leave the hide on the cool side which was maintaining a 78-84 degreeF range not even at night. I took him out and looked him over yesterday and he seemed fine other than his color appearing darker. I awoke early this morning for work to discover he had just completed shedding his old skin.( I hadn't even noticed that he had been progressing through the ecdysis process!) He immediately retired into the hide on the warm side. BTW as of reading of these lower temp recommendations last night I promptly reduced my enclosure temps accordingly. I'm interested to see how his behavior reflects these changes. I'm not sure how the increased temps over the past week affected him since I now know he'd been in the midst of shedding during that time.
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"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance- that principle is contempt prior to investigation." Herbert Spencer

...it sounds like you're right on target with your way of thinking and observing. Actually that means I agree completely.
Keep up the good work!

Linda

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"There is a principle which is a bar against all information, which is proof against all arguments and which cannot fail to keep a man in everlasting ignorance- that principle is contempt prior to investigation." Herbert Spencer