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Brazilian Rainbow Boas???

oscarthesnake

oscarthesnake

New member
Does anyone on this forum know a lot about BRB's? I have been searching online and I really haven't found any really good sites about them? If anyone knows any good sites can you please list them for me?! Or if you know about them from experience that would be nice too! I just got one a week ago and I just want some other people's opinions. Most internet sites say that they are mean when they are older, but I don't really believe that. Mine is as calm as can be. It is about 5 months old right now. I don't know if it is a female or a male yet. Do females get bigger than males? If anyone has any info. please help me out!
Scott
 
very limited info....

I had two friends w/ brazilian rainbow boas. One friend messed w/ hers alot when Eve (the snake) was real young and pretty regular as she got older. Eve did get more "sensitive" to fast movements and stuff as she got older but has never really been mean. My other freind had his two rainbow boas from very young but never messed w/ them much and they turned out mean as hell. They are such gorgeous snakes. Good Luck!
 
I had a colombian rainbow boa and didn't matter how much you messed with it. It was still mean as hell. I actually read in the Reptile magazines that rainbow boas do have a nasty disposition. Unlike most snakes, rainbow boas will stand and fight instead of running. I'll never get another one again.
 
Female boa's grow bigger then males and this is true for all the boa family. Handle your snake daily except after feeding and the snake will in a few monthes be as calm as anything. The males grow to be about 6-7ft on avarage with some big females reaching nearer 11ft but the average for a female is about the 9ft mark. If you want more detailed infomation on brb email me as i have kept them bfore and bred them (breeding them is a right ball ache), but they can be good snakes if you know what you are doing.

Albino corn snake site
 
I would take those measurements with a HUGE grain of salt. While Boa constrictor ssp. can and do grow to those sizes, a Brazilian Rainbow Boa (BRB) will top out at about 6'. That applies to both sexes.
 
Do you breed them and have a pair of 12 year olds?
I do and i know how big mine are after shedding the last time, my male's shed was 6ft 9" and my females was 9ft 4", take off 10% for the strech of the shed and you have the actual size of the snake give or take an inch.
 
I have NOT kept or bred them since the early nineties, but unless there have been major evolutionary changes in the last 10 years, the average adult size of Brazilian Rainbow Boas is around 5-6'.

The idea that taking 10% off of the length of a shed will yield a realistic measure of any snake species does not strike me as reliable. I would guess (this is a guess but an educated guess from having kept and bred snakes for nearly 15 years) that you could take a shed and subtract about 30% for the "stretch" to get a fair idea of the length of a snake.

Here is a bit or reading on BRBs from much more reliable sources than myself:

http://www.centralpets.com/critterpages/reptiles/snakes/SNK2761.shtml
http://www.seaworld.org/animal-info...reptilia/squamata/brazilian-rainbow-boa-0.htm
http://coloherp.org/careshts/snakes/rain-boa.php
http://www.newenglandreptile.com/CareBRB.html
http://www.vpi.com/5VPIBreeders/BrazilianRainbowBoa/BrazilianRainbowBoa.htm

Now, if you are saying that you have a boa constrictor that is over 9', I have no trouble accepting that. If, on the other hand, you are saying that you have a Brazilian Rainbow Boa (Epicrates cenchria cenchria) I would love to see pictures and would suggest you contact the people at Guinness or Ripley's as you could conceivably have a new world record specimen on your hands.

To get an excellent idea of the length of a living snake, this program is wonderful:

http://serpwidgets.com/Apps/apps.html
 
i agree with starwarsdad. BRB were the first snakes in the burke reptiles collections. we successfully bred hudreds per year. i was quite a bit younger at the time, but i consider my dad an expert on the subject. i have never seen an adult reach the length of even close to 9 ft, whether it was male or female.

Tom Burke III
 
Using that snake mesurer app thing, my male is just uder 6 ft long and my female is 7ft dead on. Lay my biggest corn which is 5'4 (accuratly mesured in a clear tube) next to the male brb and their is approx 18 inches size differance in the snakes. So which is right a tape mesure used on the corn or the app used for the boa?
 
my point was that in the twenty years or so that snakes have been bred throughout my family, i am only giving you my personal experiences. if you happen to have a snake or two that have grown beyond the usual size, than all i can say to you is congrats. i wish continued success with your extra large Brazilians.
 
I wasnt aiming that one at you TBurkeIII, so i apoogise for any upset caused.
Were all in the same boat, and thats helping other people (well thats what the forum means to me).
Can we leave this subject behind us now starwarsdad and start again?
 
Hi there

I keep two brazilians, one is aproximately 16 months old and the other 4 months old. It is my understanding that the females generally grow larger than themales, usually reaching up to about 7ft, the males nearer 6 ft, but they can grow larger. A friend of mine has 4 adults all of which are within the 6 - 7ft range.
I would be perfectly willling to share my experiences with you if you wish to contact me. Both of mine are pretty friendly towards me but one of them can be aggressive towards my husband.
I would say that with this breed it is particularly important to get their humidity level correct and Ive found that using a mix of coco fibre and orchid bark helps to retain the humidity in the viv. I try to maintain humidity at 60 - 70 %, raising it more when a shed is imminent. They seem to enjoy burrowing in the coc bark aswell. I also keep a damp sphagnum moss hide within the vivs, which does get used. For heating I use ceramics, I know it dries the air, but it works for our vivs as long as I mist once daily. Dont let their temps get above 85 as this can be dangerous to them.
I also place an extra water bowl below the ceramics to aid with humidity.
I would say that they mildly more tempermental than corns, but Ive found them quite easy to handle, and mine only get handled a couple of times weekly.
Heres one site Ive used, I will have a look for the others, but mainly Ive relied on the experience of others I talk to on the net and people who go to our reptile group meetings.
http://www.rainbowboa.co.uk/care.php
A qucik search revealed:-
http://www.corallus.com/cenchria/
http://coloherp.org/careshts/snakes/rain-boa.php
http://www.vpi.com/5vpibreeders/BrazilianRainbowBoa/BrazilianRainbowBoa.htm
Best of luck with youre boas, they such beautiful snakes, I hope you enjoy them.
 
Sorry starwarsdad, didn't mean to offend you or anyone else with poting my experiense of the BRB.
Thanks for the links zarozinia, i'll be having a look later on today, and thanks starwarsdad for the links you posted.

Albino corn snake site
 
Thanks for the sites Zarozinia! I have found some sites, just not what I was expecting I guess. I have some questions for you... How can you tell when they are going into shed? Do their eyes turn blue like most corns or what??? How often did you feed yours? I feed mine every five days...is that OK? I mist my viv twice a day...once in the morning and once at night.

Anyone else with info. about Brazilian Rainbow Boa's? If so, please let me in on some!
 
As they get ready to shed, their entire body goes "blue". It is unlike any other snake I have ever seen. They still have that amazing iridescence throughout a slough.
 
Yep, their eyes go blue like corns do, their skins go dull then they brighten up again, the process seems to take a little longer thasn corns to me anyway, or at least with my two brbs. It really is very important to keep that humidity up, but try to keep good ventilation aswell, our ventilation isnt as good as it could be and we are building a new viv with loads of extra ventilation aswell.
As a hatchling we feed every 5 days, our yearling gets fed weekly. The yearling poops less regularly than the corns, often about once every 10 days to two weeks. If you ever build a custom viv for yours I would recommend a taller one, after seeing how happy my friends brbs are in a 4 ft high viv with loads of branches, thats made us decide to build a taller one. I used to need to mist the viv 2 or 3 times daily until I started using the combination of coco fibre and orchard bark for substrate, once is usually enough now.
This is our young female, Hermione
normal_august%2004%20Hermione%20%28Medium%29.jpg

and here is our male, Arragon
normal_arragon%202%2023%2011%2004.JPG


normal_arragon%20006%20%28Small%29.jpg

2004-05-31_110831_brb_bracelet_Medium.JPG
 
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