My male and female BRB's

[Justinbolleurs]

Hey guys. Haven't been on for ages.. I have two Brazilian Rainbow Boas that had a lot of sheds earlier this year and Im assuming it was all just growth spurts, so I decided to weigh them today and they really gotten much heavier. They about 10 months old, I probably don't feed them as much as I should but roughly every 5-7 days when they were a bit smaller and now once a week to once every two weeks a rat that of a nice size like I'll show you bellow.. They still in their +- 60 litre glass aquarium with quarter being water with a filter and a heater, and some tropical fish and the humidity 80 or above (my previous analogue hygrometer got filled with water somehow and stopped working) and water flowing beneath, through the substrate. Temperature Gets to 29°C and drops to about 25 through nighttime.
Well anyways, my male Brazilian Rainbow Boa are 174 grams and my female 203, they seem nice and fat and my female obviously be much larger and portioned fatter too then my male.
Do they sound like they on weight for their age?
And how long should they be by now with the weight in consideration? They just too damn bussssssssssy when I handle them and will measure them soon..

[Snakesitter]

Very nice, Justin! That meal looks very large though for the second animal...that's quite a lump! Any reason for feeding them on the reptile carpet? Once a week is a perfect frequency at that age/size. Good luck!

[bigsnakegirl785]

Agree that is a reaaaaally large meal, I'm surprised they're not regurging tbqh. I'd start feeding something half that size, or at least 2/3, it really is an unnecessarily large meal.

[Justinbolleurs]

Yeah maybe I'll take start feeding a bit smaller but finding rats that isn't completely pinkies are a bit of a mission where I buy. Thanks for the feedback. Well I like feeding them on there instead of just the plastic and it's easy to clean, no hooking of teeth as much and nothing extra for the snake to swallow. Should I change the carpet?

[Justinbolleurs]

Does the meal look fine for my female though? Still a bit big?

[bigsnakegirl785]

Both meals are overly-large imo, the first photo just looks better because it's darker and further away, but both are too large.

If you can't find small enough rats, try mice. Try the heavier one on medium adult or jumbo mice, and the smallest one on small adult or medium adult mice. The small adult mice I'm thinking of are 13-18 grams, mediums are 19-25 grams, and jumbos are 25+ grams. Give or take a few grams depending on source.

I'd also feed them in their enclosures, no need for the carpet or separate feeding container.

[Snakesitter]

^^ What she said. ;-)

[Tsubaki]

I'd also feed them in their enclosures, no need for the carpet or separate feeding container.
Think they are housed together?

[bigsnakegirl785]

Think they are housed together?

If they are, they need to be separated. :/

[Justinbolleurs]

Whats the problem with the carpet? I feed all my snakes outside their cage due to having problems in the past with feeding my carpet python inside the cage and use to nip at me a lot till i started feeding him outside. If it doesn't do any harm then why not? Also the female is much larger in comparison to the male

[Minkness]

If feeding outside their enclosures works for you, that's fine. But there is a risk of stress and regurgitation when moving them back into their enclosures. There is nothing wrong with the carpet, just an odd choice.

The main concern here however is the feeder size. No snake should look like an over stuffed sausage like yours do in the pics you provided. Either 1 fair sized meal, or 2 small meals are acceptable, but what you have offered them will over stress their digestive systems and while they may not regurge right away, it will cause serious complications later.

Also, please look into the pros and cons of cohabbing snakes long term. There are far more cons than pros, so please make your best, educated decision on that as it will quickly become a touchy subject.

[Justinbolleurs]

Yeah luckily this was only my second large meal and first one being this big but thanks ill feed them smaller from now on. I like feeding rats because since ive been feeding them rats (since smaller sized fuzzy rat meals) they are really picking up and growing compared to mice. Yeah i dont think these snakes suffer from stress afterwards haha but i know some that do and yes it is a risk but ive got over 10 years of snake experience, which isnt a lot though but mostly wild snakes experience and seen them taking much more stress when trying to help feed and tame them.. Kind of under estimated the rats at first.
Thank you all for the feedback ��

[Minkness]

That's good to hear.

Also, be careful about growing them too fast. That is unhealthy in the long run as well.

[bigsnakegirl785]

Whats the problem with the carpet? I feed all my snakes outside their cage due to having problems in the past with feeding my carpet python inside the cage and use to nip at me a lot till i started feeding him outside. If it doesn't do any harm then why not? Also the female is much larger in comparison to the male

Reptile carpet is a breeding ground for bacteria, unless you're using brand new carpet each time you feed them, it's highly unsanitary. As Minkness, said, you also risk regurgitation, and with feeding them such huge meals, you're also risking internal damage trying to move them. In the wild, they would sit in the place they swallowed their meal, likely even if they were out in the open to give time to digest.

You also have a higher risk of getting bit since you're handling them in the middle of feeding mode, I had to stop feeding my boa outside the enclosure because of this, and also once he hit 4' he was a serious pain to get back in his enclosure. Like a one-armed octopus.

I would give them 2 extra weeks minimum before you feed them again after these meals. If they were older I'd go even longer, but they need time to recuperate from these meals. Snakes organs swell up to 2-3x their normal size to aid in digestion, and then the tissue deteriorates away until it returns to a fasting state. The digestion of the meal can take 1-2 weeks, but the time it takes to return to a fasting state can twice as long or longer. They are the only vertebrates known to do this, so you can imagine how taxing it is if overdone.

[JellyBean]

I have two Brazilian Rainbow Boas... They still in their +- 60 litre glass aquarium with quarter being water with a filter and a heater, and some tropical fish and the humidity 80 or above... and water flowing beneath, through the substrate.


Hi. WOW those are literally twice the size of my 11 month old BRB!
My questions pertain to your setup... Do you have them living in water?? Do you have a picture of your aquarium I can see?

Thanks ;)

[Justinbolleurs]

It's like 70/30 water now because I still want to add something going over the water a bit and add an extra pump for water circulation. Most people told me brb's shouldnt live in an wet environment but just well damped, so i did it in the beginning and they kept climbing into the water because the water is nice and warmish but still cold enough to keep them cool on summer time. I actually got this idea from someone on youtube with a similar idea. Its a teally cheap setup i have now that consists of 2 heating pads, a pump, filter, water heater, some substrate and obviously the glass and varnished wood i used to slide open the top.

[Snakesitter]

Rainbows loooove water. They will often soak for days on end. The challenge is they also, ahem, "mess" in the water, and a setup like that can be hard to clean. Good luck!

[JellyBean]

I think I am inspired to add a removable swimming pool, instead of just his water bowl. This way I can easily clean it.

Who knows, maybe we'll get lucky, and Bean will poo in his new pool, instead of his humid hide. :O_o: