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Rainbow Boas

Epicrates cenchria. There are nearly a dozen subspecies of rainbow boas, inhabiting much of Central and South America. The Brazilian Rainbow boa (Epicrates cenchria cenchria) is the largest, maxing out at a slender 7 feet or so. The smallest is found only in the Jonestown area of Guyana in the wild, but the sub-species (E.c. ssp.) is becoming common through captive breeding programs, at least in the US.

Rainbow boas live in wet areas; by rivers, streams, lakes or swamps. These areas tend to be somewhat inaccessible to humans and these snakes are shy and nocturnal, so they have not been widely studied in the wild.

Here is my Rainbow Boa Care Sheet.

My Rainboa boas:

• Rain Boa - Male Colombian Rainbow boa (Epicrates cenchria maurus). Purchased from a pet store in 1990. He was about 1 to 2 years old at the time. He was quite possibly wild caught, with origins in Costa Rica. (Louis Porras, pers. comm.)
• Zephyr - Female Colombian Rainbow Boa (Epicrates cenchria maurus). Zephyr came to ZooHerp in Sandy, Utah early in 1992. She was probably around 2 years old at the time. She is also quite possibly wild caught, with origins in Costa Rica. She is large, over 6 feet, with a nice reddish brown coloration and distinct dark brown markings. With a little help from Rain, Zephyr gave birth to 13 babies on July 7, 1994 and 23 babies on May 6, 1997. Rain and Zephyr were seperated early in 1997. All of the offspring were sold. Zephyr was also sold in August 2001.
• Cloud - Female Guyanan Rainbow Boa (Epicrates cenchria ssp.). Cloud is captive bred and came to Colorado by way of Virginia in April 1995. Dave Ruska (a former breeder of rainbow boas) identified her as a member of a small subspecies originating from Guyana. She was born in the summer of 1993. Cloud is a very pretty little snake, only about 4 feet long and slender. Her markings are in shades of caramel, chocolate and cream. Cloud was sold in October 2001.
• Mist - Female Colombia Rainbow Boa (Epicrate cenchria maurus). After a while I started to regret selling Zephyr and Cloud, so when I ran into a 6-9 month old juvenile at a local reptile show I bought her. That was late January 2006.

In captivity a neonate Rainbow boa will feed on pinky or fuzzy mice. Some will only start on live fuzzies. As adults mine were happy with frozen/thawed rats. Cloud ate mostly small rats. Rain prefers small or medium rats. Zephyr happily finished all the large rats that were left in the freezer after Daemon died. Mist started on hopper rats but now eats small or medium rats.

Rain currently lives in this big cage, although sometimes he ends up his 48 inch Neodesha cage in this rack. Mist is currently in one of the rack cages.

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