Columbian Rainbow Boas

	There are ten sub-species of rainbow boa, some are very pretty and tame, others are as dull as ditch water and will take your hand off as soon as look at you. The subspecies maurus (Columbian) and cenchria (Brazilian) are the ones with which I have some experience. The other subspecies would not seem to be very commonly kept.
Beware - they are all pretty and brightly coloured when young but many species grow up to loose their baby colours and end up a dull brown colour.

Baby Brazilian	Baby Columbian
Adult Brazilian	Adult Columbian
At two days old	Will they end up like this ? They should - it's Dad !!

Typically the "Brazilian" species keeps its colour, but if in doubt ask to see the parents if you want a colourful adult snake. Some Brazilians do dull down. Baby Columbian rainbow boas are among the prettiest snakes I've seen, but the adults can be among the dullest.

However the dulling down is gradual - you won't see an overnight change. This one here on the right (belonging to Jaume) is about six months old.

Here's the same snake a few months later. As you can see the markings are starting to dull down

Body Language

A docile specimen should move gracefully and flick it's tongue in a regular fashion. A fast moving short flick is generally associated with curiosity, where a long, slow flick with very little up/down movement is usually a sign of possible defensive feelings. A truly defensive snake will make its intentions very well known. Beware when it starts pulling into a strike position and hissing.

A frisky serpent will most likely calm down with interaction, but one that starts off calm will be a much more enjoyable pet and won't bite you as often!.

Mind you, it's been my experience that all baby rainbow boas bite freely.

Size
	The books say that neonates are about 12 inches long. I've had a go at measuring them myself, and I would disagree - they are smaller than that. The average of the dozen or so of the Columbians that I've measured would be about eight to ten inches. Here's Katy with one less than a day old.
After a year they can reach up to 2 feet. Adults rarely exceed five feet. Here's Katy with "Dad snake" Rainbows are manageable Boas !

HOUSING:
	Space: A cage amounting to 3/4 square foot per foot of snake is what many consider perfect. Shelves can be used to increase floor space and allow somewhere to go when active. A shelf also allows a warmer basking site, while forming a cooler area underneath. The cage should contain a hiding place, a sturdy water bowl big enough for soaking, and something to rub on while shedding (Rocks and tree limbs/sticks work well).
Substrate. Keep it simple, and do not use sand or cedar chips - nothing that they can eat along ith their food, and nothing that might get under their scales. Newspaper is the easiest and is what I use. Some keepers use carpeting. I don't - newspaper is cheap and easily replaced. Give them some cork bark as well. They can hide under it and rub against it to shed
	Temperature. Temperature for a Boa should be kept around 85 daytime and 80 at night. A basking site in the range of 90 to 95 is also needed. If temperatures are allowed to stay too cool, refusal of food, regurgitation of prey, digestive problems and respiratory infections follow. It must also be remembered that the temp at the bottom can be 10 to 15 degrees lower than that at the top. Be sure the basking area is placed so that a temperature gradient is achieved.
A word on humidity. Normally I'm a great believer of letting them soak if they want to be wet. Generally I remain convinced that high levels of humidity lead not only to the growth of mould, but to respiratory infections too.
However it's been my experience that while this approach is OK for most boids and is OK for Columbian rainbow boas, the Brazilian ones do prefer it damp. If I'm not misting the viv regularly they spend all the time in the water.

Feeding: Newborns should be fed every 5 days. Start on pinkies, and work up from there. As the snake increases in size, feeding can be cut back to every 10 days. Feeding can be done every 2 weeks, or even less in emergency situations, but this is not recommended. Your pet will be much healthier if fed a reasonable meal weekly than if gorged monthly.

I offer my Rainbows food each week. If there was one are in which I'd say that my Columbians and Brazilians differed, it's their feeding habits.
Columbians are generally good feeders - often acting as "dustbins" for food not wanted by other snakes, but beware - I make a point of separating Columbians for feeding - they will all attack each other's dinner and end in in a mutually constricting knot.

The Brazilians are fussy - even more of a problem to feed than my royal pythons. One recently went eight months without feeding.

Shedding: A well fed snake will shed about once every 1 to 3 months; shedding is a result of growth. It's been my experience that Rainbows shed more often than my other snakes. The beginning of shedding is marked by the clouding over of the eyes and a general darkening of the skin. The eyes then clear, and a few days later the skin will be removed. The shed is accomplished by rubbing on something until the skin on the nose comes loose. The skin is then hung on something and pulled off. Unshed skin can be removed by soaking the snake in water and then gently pulling it off, (though this is not usually a problem with Rainbows.) Some snakes seem to enjoy this, others don't.
Going back to the humidity problem - if a snake has trouble shedding then the humidity may be too low.

Handling should be kept at a minimum during the shed period, as the new skin can be sensitive (or even damaged). Feeding should also be postponed for the same reasons, in fact, most will refuse food while shedding.

Breeding:

Well what can I say - I've never intentionally tried to breed, it's just happened and, as you can see from the pictures taken below on New Year's Eve (Dec 31 2000) they do mate in captivity. Came as a complete surprise to me - we had friends round - "can I hold a snake" and so I thought to have a go with a Columbian rainbow boa but, as you can see the snakes were busy!

They've mated in previous years, and my hopes weren't high but the matings continued for a few weeks and as time went on the female got fatter and fatter and ate less and less until the morning of May 14 2001 when I found six babies.
Compare the colour and markings with the adults !!

Since May 14th there were no more matings that I noticed. I'm not saying that they didn't "do it", but when they do "do it", they tend to wriggle about an awful lot and "do it" an awful lot for an awful long time. So it's probably safe to assume that they didn't. But eight months later on January 11 2002 three more babies were born. Now there's something about snake reproduction that a lot of people don't know about, and most of the books tend keep quiet about. And that is the female snakes only really need to mate once. They can store the sperm (or store very young embryo snakes depending on species) and have later litters from the same mating.

There are (as I've said) 10 distinct sorts of rainbow boa, and they include some of the prettiest of snakes.
Generally, however, rainbow boas are rather expensive compared with other boas

But I like 'em

	Feeding: Newborns should be fed every 5 days. Start on pinkies, and work up from there. As the snake increases in size, feeding can be cut back to every 10 days. Feeding can be done every 2 weeks, or even less in emergency situations, but this is not recommended. Your pet will be much healthier if fed a reasonable meal weekly than if gorged monthly.
I offer my Rainbows food each week. If there was one are in which I'd say that my Columbians and Brazilians differed, it's their feeding habits. Columbians are generally good feeders - often acting as "dustbins" for food not wanted by other snakes, but beware - I make a point of separating Columbians for feeding - they will all attack each other's dinner and end in in a mutually constricting knot. The Brazilians are fussy - even more of a problem to feed than my royal pythons. One recently went eight months without feeding.
Shedding: A well fed snake will shed about once every 1 to 3 months; shedding is a result of growth. It's been my experience that Rainbows shed more often than my other snakes. The beginning of shedding is marked by the clouding over of the eyes and a general darkening of the skin. The eyes then clear, and a few days later the skin will be removed. The shed is accomplished by rubbing on something until the skin on the nose comes loose. The skin is then hung on something and pulled off. Unshed skin can be removed by soaking the snake in water and then gently pulling it off, (though this is not usually a problem with Rainbows.) Some snakes seem to enjoy this, others don't. Going back to the humidity problem - if a snake has trouble shedding then the humidity may be too low. Handling should be kept at a minimum during the shed period, as the new skin can be sensitive (or even damaged). Feeding should also be postponed for the same reasons, in fact, most will refuse food while shedding.

Breeding:
Well what can I say - I've never intentionally tried to breed, it's just happened and, as you can see from the pictures taken below on New Year's Eve (Dec 31 2000) they do mate in captivity. Came as a complete surprise to me - we had friends round - "can I hold a snake" and so I thought to have a go with a Columbian rainbow boa but, as you can see the snakes were busy!
They've mated in previous years, and my hopes weren't high but the matings continued for a few weeks and as time went on the female got fatter and fatter and ate less and less until the morning of May 14 2001 when I found six babies. Compare the colour and markings with the adults !!

Since May 14th there were no more matings that I noticed. I'm not saying that they didn't "do it", but when they do "do it", they tend to wriggle about an awful lot and "do it" an awful lot for an awful long time. So it's probably safe to assume that they didn't. But eight months later on January 11 2002 three more babies were born. Now there's something about snake reproduction that a lot of people don't know about, and most of the books tend keep quiet about. And that is the female snakes only really need to mate once. They can store the sperm (or store very young embryo snakes depending on species) and have later litters from the same mating.

There are (as I've said) 10 distinct sorts of rainbow boa, and they include some of the prettiest of snakes. Generally, however, rainbow boas are rather expensive compared with other boas

But I like 'em