BRB Experience & Enclosure

Jocarp · 01-12-16, 12:08 PM

Hi everyone,
So I'm planning on getting another Brazilian Rainbow Boa in the future and wanted to ask your all's input, and I'm looking for more detail than just what the care sheets show. Such as, does your BRB like to climb at all, does yours like to swim, etc? What are their quirks that you see basically? I had one when I was younger and now that I'm in a position I can get one and make it a "palace". I want to make sure I have everything perfect!

The reason I want to know their "quirks" is that I am going to build or convert a piece of furniture to be the enclosure. To give an idea, I have attached what I'm building for my chameleon (where the armoire started, to where it is now, almost complete). I want to know what you all see yours doing/enjoying so I can find the correct piece of furniture to convert and build it to suit this snake specifically. It took almost a year to find the armoire that I converted for my panther chameleon, so I've got patience and time. For the chameleon it had to be a tall enclosure with the majority of space on top, with a good area underneath to hold all of the water reserves (two 5 gal buckets).

The reason I want to go this route is that once I started to build this chameleon cage (initially thinking it was more work than it was worth), I realized I really enjoyed doing it and I want something that looks like furniture first and and enclosure second.

Thanks for any help!!!

Jocarp · 01-14-16, 12:54 PM

So maybe I put this in the wrong spot? Maybe it should have been in the enclosure portion to get responses?

Surly someone has some input on enclosure materials and layout for their Brazilian Rainbow Boa. I'm running out of threads to read and I'm not finding much about what people are doing for the enclosure materials (which I assume most people are buying something) or how they are laying it out. All I'm really seeing is issues regarding temp and humidity monitoring.

ANY Help will be greatly appreciated. I have some time until I'm ready to get one, but would really like to get started preparing the enclosure so it's made correctly.

Thanks!

treaux · 01-14-16, 05:15 PM

Honestly, baby BRBs are easiest to keep in a tub as they need high humidity (I keep mine at 100%). Mine lives in a 15 quart tub and spends most of his time burrowed under the substrate. I take him out regularly to handle him and give him his exercise (and yes, he likes to climb). He will also make use of a water bowl and fully submerge himself sometimes. As a baby (just a few months old), he is not all that curious and just likes to play it safe. From what I've read, as they get older they become more exploratory and would probably make use of a larger enclosure.

A very tall enclosure like the one you made for your chameleon will be hard to keep the humidity up in, and will require frequent misting most likely, though it sounds like you planned for that. This may have an ill effect on the wood itself if not well sealed. Just things to keep in mind.

Once my BRB gets bigger, he'll be getting a PVC cage with a little height to it (maybe 18 inches to 2 feet) and some branches to climb on if he likes. They are slow growing, so that may be a while.

Jocarp · 01-15-16, 08:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by treaux

Honestly, baby BRBs are easiest to keep in a tub as they need high humidity (I keep mine at 100%). Mine lives in a 15 quart tub and spends most of his time burrowed under the substrate. I take him out regularly to handle him and give him his exercise (and yes, he likes to climb). He will also make use of a water bowl and fully submerge himself sometimes. As a baby (just a few months old), he is not all that curious and just likes to play it safe. From what I've read, as they get older they become more exploratory and would probably make use of a larger enclosure.

A very tall enclosure like the one you made for your chameleon will be hard to keep the humidity up in, and will require frequent misting most likely, though it sounds like you planned for that. This may have an ill effect on the wood itself if not well sealed. Just things to keep in mind.

Once my BRB gets bigger, he'll be getting a PVC cage with a little height to it (maybe 18 inches to 2 feet) and some branches to climb on if he likes. They are slow growing, so that may be a while.

Thank you so much for the input!!! That's right in line with what I was looking for. I plan to keep the snake in a smaller enclosure while it's young and build the adult enclosure while he/she is growing. It's taken me months to find and build the chameleon enclosure (largely due to big breaks in being able to work on it). Knowing that I should keep the height under 24" or so really helps! I have an automated mist system for the chameleon I could hook up to the BRB enclosure, but it sounds like I'll be better off just keeping it short.

Would you think that 4'W x 2'D x 2'H would be big enough for an adult? I have a 20 Long or I could just get a tub for the juvenile age.

Thanks again!

Nightflight99 · 01-15-16, 08:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jocarp

Would you think that 4'W x 2'D x 2'H would be big enough for an adult? I have a 20 Long or I could just get a tub for the juvenile age.

Yes, a floor space of 4' x 2' is plenty for an adult rainbow boa. Tubs are probably the best choice for juveniles, because it is much easier to maintain the necessary humidity levels in them, which is especially important in young specimens. In my experience, E. cenchria is one of those species that actually does better in shallow, dim enclosures, making rack systems a very solid choice. If you want to keep it in a large display enclosure, then I'd recommend incorporating a lot of shallow hide spots.

Jocarp · 01-15-16, 12:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nightflight99

Yes, a floor space of 4' x 2' is plenty for an adult rainbow boa. Tubs are probably the best choice for juveniles, because it is much easier to maintain the necessary humidity levels in them, which is especially important in young specimens. In my experience, E. cenchria is one of those species that actually does better in shallow, dim enclosures, making rack systems a very solid choice. If you want to keep it in a large display enclosure, then I'd recommend incorporating a lot of shallow hide spots.

Thanks for the heads up, I plan for all of the interior walls to be sealed black PVC (w/ necessary ventilation) with a glass front. I envision a wooden base, sides and back with a removable hood to cover all of the lights, thermostat, etc. Basically I'm going to build a decorative wooden exterior around a PVC enclosure or build a PVC enclosure inside a piece of furniture if I can find something that meets the requirements. I will make sure to have a lot of shallow hides though and it should be placed in a place in my house where it will be fairly dim anyways.

Thanks for the input, much appreciated!

Lefitte · 01-19-16, 05:09 AM

That sounds awesome! I wish I could do something like this someday.
I've only had my baby since August but I keep an eye on as much brb related stuff that I can. In my experience, you probably won't have any clue about what your brb likes and dislikes because they will be doing it all in the pitch black dark. While I've caught my brb hanging out on a branch a time or two, it's more common that I catch him being active because he's about a foot from my bed and my cats go nuts. They paw at the cage from my bedside table and knock stuff down. I turn on the light on my phone and he's squirming around without a care in the world around his tank/storage bin. I've seen him climb and swim before and I have plans for a tiny aquarium to be used as a pool in the future [also as a cooling feature]. He's quite curious when I have him out and likes to investigate things but most of the time he's hiding in his cage. Since I was worried about his feelings about cats surrounding a clear plastic cage, I've cluttered his cage with hides and he does really well [doesn't seem to mind them one bit actually].

I also keep mine at about 100% humidity. Once my humidity drops, it's immediately down in the 80s pretty quickly. I was going to mention about sealing stupidly well too but the pvc encased in decorative wood furniture idea just sounds amazing. I would love to see your progress once you start.

A pvc cage of 4x2 is what I have planned for my brb's adult cage. You might also want to look into minimal ventilation so that you don't have to find a way to cover up holes later on. Might want to seal the wood around those holes especially well since all the humid air will be passing back and forth through that. I think that whatever you give them will be used, even if you don't see it happening.

Wingbeats · 01-19-16, 02:02 PM

Just thought I'd share my PVC enclosure! It's an AP 4 x 2 x 1. (The tub on the top has a baby BRB in it, the enclosure houses my older one. I plan on a second AP PVC enclosure once the baby gets a bit bigger.)

I keep humidity up by sealing the extra ventilation, and by keeping a large, flat water bowl on top of the under-tank heat tape. It stays around 85-90% humidity, which is fine for an older BRB. The baby in the tub sits at 99% humidity. I've basically got a smattering of hides, cypress mulch, fake vegitation, and a humid hide in each enclosure. It seems my snakes use everything, as far as I can tell.

I sometimes add cardboard tubes or other stuff to mix things up for them as enrichment.

I love the idea of the PVC enclosure within furniture - a cool idea! While a plain PVC enclosure is not 'ugly' persay....A crafty person could certainly turn it into something way cool!

Keep us updated

Jocarp · 01-22-16, 02:36 PM

Awesome! Thank you all for the feedback!!! I definitely agree with what you all are saying about the ventilation holes and sealing the wood well! The armoire pictured is going to get 5 sessions of 5 minutes of misting a day (if it stays the same as his juvy enclosure) so I had to use great stuff pond and stone as it is meant to handle being fully submersed in water and hold up and be animal safe (read as "WAY more expensive than regular great stuff" haha). I think I used like 16 cans of it at $7 a piece for that armoire! That's why I'm thinking I can use PVC either build around a premade enclosure or build it into furniture like I mentioned and have a proper setup for about the same cost/time/effort once it's all said and done.

What you all are saying about behavior and cage/decoration usage is right in line with what I remember from my little girl Daisy, a BRB that I used to have. I didn't have her long though as I was in college at the time and wasn't able to give her what she really needed, so now I'm going for it again and making sure I get it right! It still eats at me that my girl Daisy didn't have an ideal setup for a while and that was close to 10 years ago since I got rid of her.

Anyway, thanks for the help everyone as well as pictures! It is very much appreciated!!!
Make it a great day,
Jordan