The link between religion and Brazilian Rainbow Boas

[TrpnBils]

I don't claim to be an expert in either field, but I believe that there is a link between the two. I think there's a special place in Hell where the worst offenders are banished to, forced to live out eternity not at the wrath of an unlubed pitchfork, but at the wrath of uncaged rainbow boas. We keep eight species of snake, and two of them (green tree pythons and macklots pythons) have terrible reputations for being aggressive. They are hands-down less aggressive by our pair of adult Brazilians... when we do public educational programs, these are the ONLY snakes that we will use heavy gloves or a snake hook with because they're not the least bit hesitant to lay into my arm. In fact, the last program we did without gloves with the male in these pictures, I spent the last ~3 minutes with him latched onto my thumb. Luckily he was coiled around my arm anyway so I just had to rotate my wrist a little and nobody knew he had bitten me (he was still holding on, so it hadn't started to bleed yet).

...but they're so cool looking! I had our male out the other night getting some pictures with a new setup I put together and sure enough he tagged my hand when I wasn't paying full attention to him. I did manage to get two cool shots out of that incident - before and after:

[adamsky27]

Those photos are fantastic. What camera do you use?

[TrpnBils]

Thanks - I have a Sony DSC-R1 . It's not being produced anymore unfortunately but it's awesome in my opinion. It's got a top-mounted LCD, a CMOS sensor, and I got a few close-up filters for on the front of it. I was using either a +2 or +4 filter in these shots.

I can't justify spending all the $ on an SLR camera and everything that entails, but I like this as an alternative... SLRs have better quality I'm sure, but I've never gotten around to actually trying one.

[OhhWatALoser]

Both our BRB are tame as can be, never even a hint of aggressive behavior. Same goes with the GTPs and Carpets. Only thing we have that bites is the amazon tree boa and a couple baby balls.

Pictures are amazing though.

[djansen]

I think BRBs are really hit or miss. Some are as tame as can be and some are just plain nasty. I have a trio and one of the females is hostile while the other 2 are calm as can be. Even some of the babies are really mellow while a couple just hate the world.
sounds like you got 2 nasty ones.
and those pics are amazing!

[TrpnBils]

On a more positive note, they were free because the former owners couldn't afford to feed them. We've had them about a year and a half now so they're doing better, but the male is VERY hit or miss when it comes to feeding... he'll skip probably 4 meals for every 1 that he takes.

[Anna.Sitarski]

haha i love that last picture... vicious animals (is that a viper in disguise haha) and very pretty

[aboutsnakes]

Those photos are fantastic.

amazing shots!!!!!!

[RyanT]

Haha, nice comparison. And those are some gorgeous Rainbows.

[TrpnBils]

The female's nighttime colors blow this guy's colors out of the water, but every time I get a few free minutes to get some shots of her it's always right at feeding time or she's shedding or something else....