- With me today is a pair of Columbian rainbow boas.
An adult male and adult female.
I don't know which is which.
Whichever one's bigger is the female
and the other is a male.
These are two rainbow boas
that I recently found on craigslist.
They were two pickups that I did in a recent vlog
if you wanna go check that out, in Charlotte.
And the craigslist person actually recognized me
when we met up so, hey if you're watching,
here's your snakes.
Well I guess my snakes.
Here's the snakes.
We've now been caring for these two boas for a few weeks
and I wanted to go over my first impressions on them.
This is not a care video, any care info I give
is simply from my research and googling things.
'Cause I haven't gotten much first-hand experience
and I literally am losing...
Blood to my brain.
So Columbian rainbow, ugh.
So Columbian rainbow boas...
Also this one is in shed right now so.
You are so strong.
Columbian rainbow boas are
one of the two species that you see
less frequently than the average snake.
You might recognize the Brazilian rainbow boa,
which is an arguably more beautiful related species.
That one has lots of oranges,
some kind of black rings and spots,
and lots of iridescence.
Which these also have quite a bit if iridescence as well.
They're more of a bland kind of earthy brownish gray.
Which I think is also pretty appealing.
Not personally what I would really seek out.
And depending on when you're watching this,
these two may be available at EmeraldScales.com
if you're interested in buying them.
Hopefully they're up on the site
and if you're watching this like
super far after it's been uploaded
they probably already sold.
But if you're interested in these.
I'm still gonna go ahead and give my opinions on 'em.
But either way, regardless of my opinions,
if you've been looking for one or if you're interested,
you can check 'em out and buy 'em there.
So like I said, they are less common
than most other species.
Obviously you don't see them nearly as much as things like
ball pythons, or corn snakes, or milk snakes,
all the basic species that you see every day.
They're just a really cool species.
And these are considered more intermediate.
Lots of people argue over like
what does beginner or intermediate even mean?
But some of the husbandry is a bit more difficult
than other snakes.
For example they're much higher humidity requiring snakes.
And low humidity for long enough can be pretty detrimental.
Even just short periods of time
can cause quite a few issues.
You're gonna run into respiratory problems,
shedding problems, lots of different health problems
that are not very fun.
Humidity is not the most difficult thing on Earth,
but if you don't know what you're doing
or if you just don't research it in advance
you might have some problems with that.
But keeping a nice humid substrate,
covering the enclosure if you're using something with mesh,
or using the right type of ventilation in a plastic tub,
will pretty much be enough for you.
Either way this is an issue that a lot of people run into
because they don't prepare for that.
Also they stay cooler than most snakes
that I'm used to keeping.
Most guides are saying about 80 to 85 for a hot spot,
and anything over that can also be pretty dangerous.
Long story short, they're more sensitive than other animals.
Like we keep our corn snakes with an 85 degree hot spot,
and then at about 30 to 40 percent humidity.
But you could leave a corn snake in like
a 70 degree room with just zero humidity for years,
and the chances are it'll be perfectly fine,
'cause they're such a hardy species.
Don't do that, if you can avoid it.
But with rainbow boas, that'll probably kill them,
if it's off by just enough.
Because they are not as hardy and they are more sensitive.
If you know what you're doing this shouldn't matter,
because you'll be having good husbandry anyway, right?
Oh yeah.
But that can be intimidating to some people,
if it's not quite as simple, and if they're worried
that there's gonna be a lot of fluctuation.
Also they're semiarboreal,
which means that they are super strong.
Semiarboreal meaning that they climb more than the average.
They're not fully arboreal
'cause they do spend time on the ground.
But they do enjoy that higher enclosure space
and I think that's interesting.
And like I said these are some examples of
just about full size.
There's gonna be fluctuation with the sizing
but you get a decent idea of how they're gonna look.
And honestly, personally, I don't care for 'em.
I don't...
Nothing against these personal ones
but I don't see myself owning Columbian rainbow boas.
Yeah.
I don't know, I'm glad that they've been here,
but I've had no attraction to keeping them myself.
To me, the size is kind of average and underwhelming.
I think this is a perfect size for a lot of keepers
but nnnn...
For me, it's cool, it's okay.
I wouldn't mind 'em having around
and I'm happy that they're here
but I'm learning that I prefer larger snakes.
I actually got a much larger snake
that you'll see in a video soon, wink wink.
But things like BCI size and larger
are more up my alley, nowadays.
And these are longer than the average ball python
but they are thinner.
So that kind of gives you an idea.
And they are super strong,
like you saw that one was restricting my literal breathing.
Now I can pull it off of my neck no problem,
there's no safety hazard, no danger.
Unless you're like a...
Even like a toddler could probably pry one off their neck.
I wouldn't recommend trying that.
I don't know if that's true,
I'm not liable for your children.
Either way, they're like, they're strong
but they're not that strong, so there's no worry about that.
They have tiny mouths so a bite isn't going to kill you
and believe it or not, they're not venomous.
With that said though, like I said,
the size is not my cup of tea,
nor is the coloration overall.
I don't care for morphs that much, in general with reptiles
I think it's cool but not a necessity or a priority for me.
But at the same time I wanna appreciate
how an animal looks if I'm gonna own it.
And they're just kinda brownish.
The iridescence is really cool.
It's that reflective like rainbowy color.
Compared to a Brazilian rainbow boa
it's not quite the same to me.
I'm really hating on,
they're like the little sibling that nobody likes.
I just keep talking about the Brazilians,
I just want a Brazilian, okay?
I don't have one.
I'm just stuck with these lame Colombians.
I think I see rainbow boas being a little,
a little less docile, generally speaking
but that's not a good rule to follow.
'Cause as you can see, these are super friendly,
they're not doing anything, they're not even head shy.
Meanwhile you can find a quote "Docile species."
Like a corn snake or ball python
where the individual is just crazy,
super defensive, super angry, and "Mean."
Whatever word you wanna use.
So you can't, it's very stereotypical I guess.
But generally speaking, it does give you an idea
that they might be a little bit more difficult
to work with starting off.
But these have been super easy
and kinda boring.
Okay, I don't know what to say, I don't,
yes I'm literally trying to sell these snakes
on Emerald Scales.
But at the same time, I don't really want 'em.
Do you want 'em?
You can have 'em.
Just pay money and they're yours.
There's verification by the way.
All customers are verified to ensure
they know what they're doing before acquiring the animal.
Which is even more important with these,
'cause like I said, they are more difficult.
But for me the added stress of the husbandry
is not much, but it's not gonna offset
what I like about them.
They're kind of an average, quote, average size.
They're not too big, they're not too small,
but I want them to be too big, okay.
They're an average color.
I just keep repeating stuff,
we've already said their size and color.
What else is there to them?
Their eyes are cool, I don't know, their tongues are cool.
What I'm getting at is they're just a pretty...
Okay-ish animal.
If you know what you're getting
and like the idea of what you're getting,
then you should get them.
But if you don't want kind of just a slowish,
semiarboreal, kinda like basic, brownish color,
few feet long...
I don't know, they don't do much for me.
Usually I'm really hyped over my first impressions videos,
I'm like "This animal is so cool, I'm loving it,
"there's all these interesting things
"and there's these downfalls but overall it's awesome."
But in this case I'm just like "Mmm, they exist.
"They live. They eat. They move around.
"They're sweet, you can kind of cuddle this one a bit."
So I'm trying to think what I would need to do
to want this snake.
I think one, I would need to be more interested
in smaller animals.
Two, I would need to be interested
in something that's more difficult.
Like a lot of people like to,
like once they have a quote "Beginner animal."
They wanna seek out something more difficult,
for the challenge.
And I think this is a decent step
in the right direction of being more difficult.
Because they are sensitive, and they need that husbandry.
But at the same time, once you've nailed the husbandry,
it's gonna be pretty simple overall,
it's totally just setting it up
that you just have to be careful
and make sure it stays consistent and good.
Other than that they, as a species, don't appeal to me.
I really do love these individuals.
If I were to keep rainbow boas
I would love to have these two specific individuals
'cause they're very healthy, they're very comfortable,
super docile, easy to work with.
The whole shebang, it's good.
But since I don't really want rainbow boas
I don't have a reason to keep these.
Also something interesting is, they are live-bearing.
That was the most appealing thing to me I think,
is the idea of breeding them and having live birth.
Meaning that there's no incubation, no eggs,
no wait time other than them growing inside the female.
But they just shoot 'em out and you've got babies.
Which I love the idea of that.
But at this moment in time
there's so many animals that need to be rehomed
that breeding is not a priority.
I would still like to breed at some point but even if I did,
I shouldn't breed them just because they're live-bearing
'cause I think I would get bored of the young 'uns.
A very cool couple right here,
they're not housed together, they are seprate.
And it would be super cool to breed them, so.
I love boas, I'm learning that I'm less of a python person,
less of a colubrid person
and boas are more of what I'm looking for.
But that doesn't mean every boa is.
And rainbow boas are not one of those doing it for me.
If you've never had a snake this would be and amazing...
Ooh I shouldn't, should I say that?
I was gonna say an amazing species if you haven't had one,
'cause everything's gonna be interesting, but.
The question is if you should recommend
a more difficult snake to a brand new beginner.
And I think it's very individualized.
There's people that have had experience
with hundreds of snakes
and I wouldn't trust them with these animals.
Meanwhile there's a lot of you out there
that have never owned one
but I would happily give them to you
because you've researched and prepared
and know what you're doing.
So I don't think you can go off with that.
If you're looking for a snake that's not too big,
that's easy to handle, that's strong but not a threat,
that eats generally easily-ish,
they're not the most picky animals
but they're not necessarily the easiest.
If you want something that's a bit more humid,
a bit semiarboreal, I think this is for you.
But that's not what I'm looking for.
So my first impression is, I don't want a rainbow boa
but I think that a lot of people, understandably do.
So what do you think of them?
What do you disagree with me on, what do you agree on?
Do you have one, do you want one?
Leave it all I the comments.
These are the boas.
Thanks to all of you, supporting Emerald Scales
that have been purchasing animals.
To some of you it probably sounds super weird
buying an animal from craigslist
just to sell it and find it a new home.
But I'm totally comfortable doing that.
Because one, it lets me make really interesting content,
I get to work with really cool species,
and I get to kind of like
run a little company in the process.
Because I think of it as flipping animals purely for profit.
And although money is obviously and aspect of it,
it's not the only aspect.
And I think the other biggest concern
is that the animals are stressed because of it,
because they're moving homes so frequently.
But in our experience with over 150 reptiles
over the past couple of years and doing this.
The amount of stress that's shown,
completely does not at all offset
the worth of what comes out of it.
'Cause most of the animals really don't care at all
and really don't take more than a day or two
to adjust to the new home.
And then those that do are animals
that needed new homes anyway.
From people that didn't have an outlet
to find them places to go.
So I am comfortable just buying them from craigslist,
doing a video on them,
and now obviously posting them on the site
for those of you that are interested.
And I get to experience them
and learn more in the process and make some cool videos.
So that's it, thanks to the members
for helping support projects like this.
If you wanna join, you can.
You can get early access to videos,
private Discord server room,
easier access to contacting me personally
and stuff like that.
So you can check it out at goherping.com/membership
Hopefully the names are on the screen
and you get to see 'em all flow by.
I don't know, when I support people it's really cool
to see my name on the screen.
So hey, if your name's there, that's pretty epic.
You impacted my life in a way,
'cause I had to type your name out ad put it in the video.
But that's it.
So these are the boas, I'm Alex, and thanks for watching.
(uplifting music)