Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello everyone,

I see some of you on this great forum are experienced in breeding BRBs.

I keep two females and a male BRB in seperate cages. The cages contain lush vegetation (allthough not bright light), water bowl, hiding spots in warm and cool areas, high humidity and good ventilation. So I am doing what I can to make the snakes feel comfortable.

My questions to you are:
1) What temperatures do you use for cooling BRBs before breeding season?

2) Since middle of november I have been gradually lowering the temperatures in my three BRB cages. Now the snakes daytime temps are 73-78 F, nightime temps 65-67.
Will these temps do for cooling temps? Or should I raise/lower the temperature?

3) When should I introduce the snakes to each other? Do you think here is a chance they might breed when warmed back up in february, with the conditions I have described?

Greetings
Tobias Valentin, Denmark

Tobias,
...There is no exact recipe that has been proven to be the best way to breed BRBs. There is still much that we do not know about this subject. Most people who breed BRBs do cool them for a period of 4 to 10 weeks during the winter. There have been a few people who have had babies and reported no cooling. I suspect that because of cooler winter weather they do get some cooler temperatures in their cages solely because their thermostats and heaters are not able to completely keep up with the changing outside temperature. I have kept them seperate some years until after cooling and other years have had them together and they bred during cooling. I do not know which is best. I do know that if they mate early with no cooling and you seperate them thinking they are gravid you will likely have poor results. It is highly likely that yours will breed when placed together at almost any time during the next couple of months. Getting them to mate is easy. Getting good litters of babies is the tough part. Snakes can and often do breed without fertilization occuring. If you watch the Boa Forum for very many years you will see that Boa Constrictors breed a WHOLE lot more than they produce babies. There are all those "my Boas are breeding" posts and so many fewer reports of births.
...It is generally agreed that most boids require some cooling to produce viable egg and sperm cells. I think your daytime temps may be a couple degrees too warm. I have used temperatures during cooling somewhat like what you describe and have had poor to excellent results. It is frustrating trying to figure out what should have been done differently to produce better results. I always wonder if my cool temperatures were too high or too low and also if my warm temperatures were too high or too low. Dave Colling made an excellent post here back in August that I think everyone who wants to breed BRBs should read. Have a look at it. Most years I have cooled them cooler than what Dave descibes in that post but he has had excellent results using those numbers. I highly recommend that you get Ross and Marzacs book "The Reproductive Husbandry of Pythons and Boas". This book explains boid reproduction very well though it is an older work and much of the specific information about the different species is outdated.
Good Luck!
Jeff
Dave's Breeding BRBs 101 post.

I will answer although I am not as experienced as the other folks on the forum. I have been fortunate to see 3 litters in 3 years.

Mostly I just try to create the patterns that occurred the previous year since I feel the credit goes to my snakes rather than the conditions I give them.

1) I am not afraid of cooling to the mid to upper 60's.
I don't measure day and night temps precisely but I can say that it wouldn't go any lower than 66 or 67 degrees F.

I use the overall room temp to acheive this by not turning on any house heat. (Don't you think I need a snake-room?)

2) I think the temp range you mentioned will be suitable. In fact, I think they are perfect, but it is likely more to do with the the range of drop rather than actual temp.

3) My experience has been when the male is ready the female will be within the next few weeks. I put mine together at the same time the heat goes back up unless the male is wandering, passing sperm plugs, or goes off feed and then I would put him in quickly. I cannot really say honestly since the first breeding occurred before I knew what was happening.

I think there are variations to everyone's situation every season and with enough experience I while be more able to ascertain the most suitable actions for my situation.

Many of these rainbows seem to breed whenever they are ready regardless of what we as keepers try to employ.

Good luck,
Linda

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When the student is ready, the teacher appears. When the student is ready, the teacher appears. When the student is ready, the teacher appears. When the student is ready, the teachers appears.

Thanks to both of you, Linda and Jeff. You describe your methods and considerations with great thoroughness, very helpful to me and others who read the posts. I have also read the post from Dave, a fine example of how to breed those lovely boas.

Allthough I have been cooling the snakes, they are eating still (both male and females). I wonder if it is a sign that the male is not "in the mood" at all. I also wonder if I should continue to feed them if I turn of the heat of their heat spot in addition to the general overall cooling of their cages(allthough temperatures there are allready moderate).

Greetings
Tobias, Denmark

My brb's typically continue to eat through the cooling cycle. They do stop soon after starting the warm up cycle then the breeding starts.
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Thanks,

Dave "Rainbows-R-Us"

0.1 Wife
0.2 kids
4.12 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
1.0 Hypomelanistic BRB
0.1 Het for Hypomelanistic BRB
0.1 BCI "Elvira" normal from 1989
1.0 BCI albino / het-anery
0.1 BCI Hypo / het-albino
0.1 BCI Anery / het-albino
0.1 BCI Hypo (possible super)
1.0 BCI albino het stripe
1.0 BCI salmon hypo
0.1 BCI ghost

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

for example, been cooling for a couple of weeks so far and tonight was feeding night. Of the 2.7 adults, 2.6 pounded down two good sized rats each. The non eating female was in full blue shed.
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Thanks,

Dave "Rainbows-R-Us"

0.1 Wife
0.2 kids
4.12 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
1.0 Hypomelanistic BRB
0.1 Het for Hypomelanistic BRB
0.1 BCI "Elvira" normal from 1989
1.0 BCI albino / het-anery
0.1 BCI Hypo / het-albino
0.1 BCI Anery / het-albino
0.1 BCI Hypo (possible super)
1.0 BCI albino het stripe
1.0 BCI salmon hypo
0.1 BCI ghost

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats