Buying a brazilian rainbow boa: the humidity vs. ventilation tradeoff

[skips]

So I've decided to buy a brazilian rainbow boa and I've been reading care sheets. They all seem to say to keep the humidity high by having a large water bowl, putting them in a sterility tube with a tight fitting lid, and make a wet box.

they do not, however, describe how to really keep the humidity up in the enclosure without a humidifier in the room. I could humidify my entire room but i'd rather not. They obviously need adequate ventilation but high humidity, so how do you guys manage that? Thanks!
-Steve

 

[Cowin8579]

Those things alone will keep enough humidity in the container due to evaporation. You may also spray the substrate etc. You will not need to adjust the humidity in your room. If you did, and had standard walls.. you would have mold issues. If you do a plastic container, I would have a few holes drilled in there.

 

[skips]

Those things alone will keep enough humidity in the container due to evaporation. You may also spray the substrate etc. You will not need to adjust the humidity in your room. If you did, and had standard walls.. you would have mold issues. If you do a plastic container, I would have a few holes drilled in there.

Great. it's just hard getting a good routine down before you buy an animal because so many people assume that anecdotal evidence applies to every animal, and people arent as specific as they think when they explain things.

I was also thinking of making a plastic box and filling it with wet polyacrylamide gel to keep humidity up.

 

[jt39565]

I used to breed Brazilians, they are a highly resiliant species. Humidity is not a huge factor, CBB are adaptable to normal humidity even when breeding. I kept mine on newspaper and sprayed once a week, and had a learge water bowl( which was frequented often) I would advise a tight hidebox would be much more appreciated than high humidity.

 

[pitbulllady]

I keep mine on course aspen shavings with a large water bowl, and keep his enclosure on top of a large Boa's cage, which has an undertank heater, and the rising heat plus the water bowl helps maintain correct temps and humidity. Mine loves to soak in his bowl and burrow down under the aspen during the day and I only see him come out in the open at night. He will also only eat at night.

I can attest to their resiliency, though. Mine was a foundling, a true rescue, which I found inside an empty house after being called out to collect what I assumed would be a Corn Snake by the person who was cleaning up the house. This was in like early May, and it was still pretty chilly at night, and he'd been exposed to some really low temps and low humidity, and was very dehydrated when I got home with him. He drank, non-stop, for almost half an hour when I put him in his first enclosure. He had an ominous-sounding "rattle" in his lungs, but once I warmed him up and got him hydrated, it stopped without any antibiotics. He is simply a gorgeous little snake, and the little girls especially "oooh" and "ahhh" over him when I take him to reptile presentations, since there's few things little girls love more than a rainbow!


pitbulllady