Hi folks hope some snake owners can help me with some questions i have regarding getting a snake.

I have done some reasearch online and im thinking about getting a brazilian rainbow boa.

i just have a few hopefully simple questions that you could answer.

Is their a specific substrates or bedding i should get or stay away from?

What is the best form of heating? (heatmat/lamp/electronic heated rocks)

How often should they be handled?

I was thinking of implimenting a bathing area in the tank so can it be pretty deep (around 6-7 inch) or should i keep it shallow?

I plan on having the tank in my bedroom and under the tv which is on the wall so will the sound of the tv affect the snake in any way?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me plus any other tips you feel would be of use.

Another question is what size of vivarium should i use? can i get a larger one which would do it a few years or start really small and get new one as it outgrows it?
Last edited by justiceh2o : 28-02-2012 at 02:06

Snakes are sociable and will happily share a vivarium with several others. We had a black rat snake, a ball python and a rainbow boa.

We had a ceramic heater in cage, the heat mats can burn them if they're not properly set. We had lights on a timer too. They need a deep bowl to lie in as well as seperate water to drink. and love thick branches to climb as well as shelves to bask on.

You will also need shavings from a specialist shop for bedding, as well as some small rocks and bits of bark for them to rub against while they're sloughing.

Meant to add that yout TV won't affect the snakes -apart from maybe the light- as they don't have any ears.

not ALL snakes are sociable!

corn snakes and ball pythons off the top of my head ARE, but with Kingsnakees and Milksnakes strictly one to a vivarium, unless you are breeding and the animals are ready to breed.
otherwise they will fight and attempt to eat each other.

the vibrations form the sound on the TV might affect the snake, but it would probably be minimal.

snakes can also become stressed if their enclosures are too large - so if you get a young snake, start small with the enclosures and increase the size as the snake grows.
most keepers use Really Useful Boxes with ventilation holes drilled in the lids to house them (cheap and cheerful for a growing hatchling)

the biggest vivarium you will likely need for one will be a 4 footer, as they commonly grow to 5ft at the most.
they can grow up to 7ft however, you could get a larger vivarium if yours goes beyond 5ft
but i keep my cali king in a 4ft viv, she might reach 6ft, as the viv is still 2 thirds of her length, it'll be fine for her.

you can handle them daily, however wait for at least two days after feeding them before getting them out again, otherwise you run the risk of them regurgitating their meal if handled straight away, over the next day or two following a feed, your snake will be digesting its meal so may get stressed if handled.

rainbow boas i believe need a high level of humidity in their enclosures - so a glass or plastic vivarium will be better suited than a wooden one, which may warp or decay with the moisture level.
a moisture retaining substrate will be better than the usual beech chips, or aspen chips used for arrid species
so maybe moss, or peat as a substrate - don't use anything pine and sand is probably not suitable for a BRB.

i've always used a heat mat for my cali, fit a thermostat so it doesn;t get too hot and it'll be grand.

if you use an overhead heating element (infra red or ceramic bulb) you HAVE to fit a cage around it or the snake may well wrap itself around the heating element itself and not realise, but it will get very badly burned (i've seen a corn snake who did this once, luckily he survived, but he has immense scarring)

they're a nocturnal snake, so specialist UV lighting isn't needed
you can put a tube in to improve the look of the vivarium if you like though.
there's a link to an information sheet here, which says most of this stuff again, but might be worth bookmarking:
http://www.therainbowboa.co.uk/Brazi..._caresheet.htm

it could also be worth having a look around on RFUK as well
http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/forums/

Never use heat rocks, a heatmat or ceramic heater are best but always use a thermostat and with ceramic heaters a secure cage the snake can't get in to burn itself.


Not a good idea mixing those 3 species as they all come from different parts of the world and require different temps and different humidity and could fight at feeding time with a bigger snake eating a smaller one.

Snakes don't have ears as such, but they do feel vibration so a loud TV could affect them.




I'd go along with most of this, the only thing I'd disagree with is not keeping more than 1 royal or 1 corn as they can fight if the same sex and if a pair the male might keep bothering the female so at least have a bigger female than male if you want to breed. The only sociable snakes I can think of for a colony are Garters - I've got a Garter, Royal, Russian Rat, Dione Rat, Corn and Mexican Black King and I wouldn't mix any of them especially the King as they're canibalistic.

Should have said not ALL snakes as king snakes are known cannibals.

I was told by a snake expert that boeas and pythons live quite happily together and they did, despite what was said about needing different environments.

thanks for the info guys i dont think i said this will be my first snake so not planning on breeding them or anything will just have the one in the viv by itself.

thanks for the links ill have a look over them and make sure i can provide the correct level of care for it.

One other thing is i have 2 young kids who will be around the snake would them playin and just bein general kids bother the snake at all?

I dont intend them to handle it much as they are still a bit young i think and not used to reptiles at all.

Our ball python used to curl round my neck and lick my throat and she was very friendly . Bertie Basset the rat snake and George the rainbow boa weren't very friendly as they would hiss and bite, but on the whole they can't do a lot of damage.

so long as they respect the snake it should be fine
you'll just have to let them know not to bother it or bang on the viv
or to open the viv at all (a lock would be a good idea with kids around)

All subspecies of rainbow boas are becoming increasingly uncommon in the wild.

I'm not a fan of exotic pets, but who am I to criticise. It's not illegal or anything.

I would suspect around 90% or maybe even higher of rainbow boa's in the UK are captive bred here, or elsewhere in Europe.

Whilst I don't doubt what you're saying for one moment, it doesn't make me feel any more comfortable about keeping a species of snake, which is becoming increasingly rare in the wild, in an unnatural captive environment.

Different sub-species of rainbow boa have different humidity requirements - some are semi-aquatic whilst others are semi-arboreal, for example - but 2 minutes on google has shown me that many vendors are unaware of which sub-species they are selling.

I don't know so much about snakes, but I do remember seeing a beautiful rainbow boa at Instituto Butantan, which is what prompted my first post.

I don't see how the unrelated, decline of a species in the wild should have any bearing on whether captive bred individuals are successfully kept and bred by responsible reptile keepers. If anything, its a good thing in my opinion. If it weren't for the Axolotl's in captive populations (they are very commonly kept and bred) they would be almost completely extinct, some were collected in the 1800s for scientific purposes, since then Lake Xochimilco has become massively polluted and increasingly industrialised, they are more or less extinct in the wild, or will be very soon.

I agree about the risk of misidentification, but I should hope that someone who decides they would like to keep a rainbow boa would have researched them enough to tell what subspecies they're snake is, or at least ask on a reptile forum for help with identification, and if necessary, the husbandry requirements for their subspecies.

It can work the other way as well, the San Francisco Garter Snake for example - if it was wasn't for captive bred ones the species would be extinct in the wild (iirc there were less than 4,000 at one point) now but some private breeders have re-released some back into the wild to repopulate and due to the spread of captive bred ones inter-breeding has to some extent been avoided or at least or at least a few generations different.

I understand what you're saying though but any responsible snake keeper researches their chosen species and makes them a home as close to their natural habitat as possible and most snakes for sale tend to be captive bred anyway and I don't agree with taking them from the wild.

Think any advice I'd have given has been posted already.

I handle my cornsnake pretty much everyday, except when he's eaten and a few days after. He loves it. You can wrap him round your neck when you're doing the washing up and he'll just chill there.

The t.v shouldn't bother it too much. I put my western hognose upstairs once, where it was quiet. She started hissing from time to time which she hadn't done before. Put her back in the front room, the noisiest room, and since then she's been chilled and up for being handled.

Say no to heatrocks.

Boas' not traditionally a first snake, cornsnakes and housesnakes are cracking beginner snakes, but if your heart is set on a boa, you've got the space for one and you've researched it all properly, go for it!

Oh - whatever snake you get, if you get a baby make sure you ask whoever sells it to you how many times they've ate (3 times is a good ammount before selling them, if they haven't ate don't buy it. A lot of snakes just never start eating and starve) and ask to handle it. I'm guessing from your post you want a snake you can handle so try before you buy!

Hiya, I keep and breed Rainbow boas as well as several others and have been doing so for twelve years. If you have any specific questions just holler.
Best advice; go to a reputable shop in your area, check on forums (RFUK) for the best shops in your area and Do your research before you buy. There are some great cares sheets out there and some very outdated ones too.... But just holler if you need advice.
Cheers

I think my post came across the wrong way - the fact that the species are in decline is incidental - I don't think it's because they're being collected in the wild to be sold into the exotic pet trade. In Brazil that is a huge problem with birds and tortoises, but I'm unaware of it being a problem with other reptiles.


I kept garter snakes as a teenager in the mid 80s, plus something that was sold to me as an 'old female'' grass snake but turned out to be a viperine snake. I was woefully unprepared for that, and it ended up going to a local herpetologist as I couldn't meet its feeding requirements.

I've come across very few snakes in the wild in Brazil, although I have seen coral snakes and jararacas (google tells me that jararaca is golden lancehead in English).

I'm sorry but I don't understand exactly what you're getting at?

Others have pretty much covered the tank environment etc
So I'll give my point of view on the bit in bold.
We had a royal python, she was at least 6 years old when we first got her, and was very used to being handled, she was extremely tame, but had never been around children. She was fabulous with my boys, they were taught never to bang on the glass etc, and from about the age of 3 they were holding her.
We did have a lock on the glass doors though, just in case. As much as I like to think the boys had listened to us enough not to open the doors, and as much as I think she'd not do anything if she got out, It's far better to be safe than sorry.
Having a snake around from a young age is a fantastic way to stop fear from forming too.

My boys are not scared of anything! We have had all sorts of unusual animals.
Currently we have 3 tarantulas, 2 bearded dragons, a turtle, a tortoise, a tank of fish, and my boys have their own poison dart frogs! (don't worry, they are not actually poisonus, the poison on their skin comes from something they eat naturally in the wild)
They are not worried by bugs as we have quite a variety in to feed the various creatures with.

We are hoping to get another snake within the next year, but the boys won't be handling it straight away, as we will need to determine that she will be as friendly as our previous one. I'm sure there won't be a problem as the breeders we would use have a gret reputation for handling the snakes and getting them used to people, but as I said above it's far better to be safe than sorry.

As I explained above, or thought I had, what I'm getting at is that I'd rather see a species which is increasingly rare in the wild in the wild than in a vivarium. That doesn't mean I blame the pet trade for for its increasing rarity.

But then the decline isn't incidental to you?

The thing is, if they decline to the point of extinction in the wild, they are still alive and well in captivity.

I think to answer your problem would mean releasing captive snakes into the wild? Releasing the ones that are in captivity into the wild wouldn't stop their decline for a few reasons (or it might, but not worth the risk because) -

captive bred snakes, (from proper sellers I assume everyone on this thread goes to) have often been captive for generations, and man made selection has played a part over natural selection - the tamest animals will be the ones that are bred from. Animals do tame after a few generations this way, even wild solitary animals like foxes can become tame after just three generations, and the wolf can be tamed through generations, hence the dog. These animals are at a disadvantage being put back in the wild, that's why I'm iffy about even captive produced eggs being put in the wild.
Also, most snakes eat pre-killed food and haven't learnt really to hunt, though they will still have natural instincts to strike and/or constrict, they'd be at a disadvantage all the sudden having to catch live prey.
And they won't have built up a resistance to ticks and parasites like the wild snakes.

And though it's fair to say captive snakes can survive in the wild, a much better solution is to find out why numbers in the wild are dwindling and deal with the source of the problem, rather than try and quick fix it by just introducing more snakes.

miss kitty - Apparently, fear of snakes isn't inherent to babies (like falling), it's a learnt fear!
3 year olds have handled my cornsnake too he's very good with people. He's curled up next to me right now

Thanks cowgal ill keep you in mind

I have not as yet decided where to buy from as i wanted to be fully sure i covered all points in reasearch before actually getting the animal.