Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well, the little rubber I got a few weeks back ate again, and is now in shed. Here's a picture of my setup, a 20 gallon long tank. This sits in a cool spot near the floor. Substrate is aspen bedding. On the left is an inverted plastic hide full of damp moss. The temp in most of the tank is in the high 60s F. There's a small undertank heat pad that is set as low as possible that brings the temp to 80 F under part of the corkbark hide. The weight on top of the screen top is a ceramic cast of an eastern hognose snake.

Rubber boa setup by Carl Koch, on Flickr

In this thread...

http://forums.kingsnake.com/view.php?id=1957390,1957390

...I mentioned that the little boa ate a f/t pink while I held the snake in my hand. I tried the same thing a couple more times over the next couple weeks, but the boa wasn't interested. Then, a week ago, I put a f/t rat pink under the hide with the boa, and a few hours later the boa ate it.

I'll put up more pics post-shed.
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Carl

I had a pair years ago. One thing I found was that both really took to a slightly humid hide over the heated area. I would let it dry out, then moisten again. Something you may want to try during the Spring and see if they like it.

Mine really took off feeding in Spring. Once they fed regularly, I would thaw multiple fuzzies and put them in a little pile for each snake, though more for the female as she was larger. Each RB would plow into them and eat them all. It amazed me how much food the snakes would go through in the course of a month. Where I lived and under my care, the snakes were done eating by mid July, which was a real pain. It was hard for me to provide a cool area cool enough, which was why my friend took them in - he has a nice cool room. Nowadays I would use a wine cooler during the hotter days. (My snake room faced South-West).

Good luck. Really neat snakes. Wish they made albinos lol, if not for the looks then for the increased captive breeding that would result.

Thanks for sharing your experiences and for the well-wishes, Mark!
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Carl

I keep my Charina with a similar setup. I have mine is 24" Visions with a thick layer of aspen, and the same deli cup but with a lid and a hole cut out in the top. I have it full of moss and do exactly what Markg mentioned. I let it dry out and then dampen it again. I also have heat under the cage set at 80. It shuts off at night, but my ambient temps in my house are always 70-72. I do brumate my adult charina's in the winter months. I feed babies year round until 2 years old. This has worked well for me for the last several years and usually have a few nice litters every year!
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Keeper/Breeder of
Sand, Rosy, and Rubber Boa's, Drymachron, Alterna, Black Milks, Thayeri, and Crotalids.

Thanks for sharing your approach with this species as well!
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Carl