Brazilian Rainbow Boa in norther climats - few questions

[palvin]

Hey there,

Friend of mine always wanted a snake, so I want to give her one for 25th bd (pun intended).
I´m big time admire of BRB, due to restrictions in Norway (where I live) I never got one. She lives in Russia, so it´s not a problem for her.
I did some research for the past few days, but still have couple of questions and hope you guys can help me.

First thing first. I was talking with a guy in here in Norway who do keep snakes. According to him, they don´t need that much humidity (all websites says 75-80% at least, preferably 90+). His logic, they are 3-10th gen or so, so they acclimated to northern climate, instead of Brazilian.
Sounds like BS and torture of snakes to me. On the other side, if they did get used to 60% humidity and we place it in 80+, it won´t be too happy neither, I guess?

Now, that leads me to my second question, ventilation. Most places recommend to reduce venting as much as possible, to increase humidity.
I found information about temperature, humidity, cleaning, setup, lightning, etc. I did find an aquarium of suitable size. Will it be enough to drill few holes in the top lid for ventilation?
So, would normal (fish) aquarium with few holes in top lid work? Provided daily handling/opening of top lid as additional venting? Or does it need something more than that?

That would be all for now. I´ll come back with more questions, for now I´m figuring out macros


PS: Most likely I will move to another country in the nearest future and get one for myself as well!

[dannybgoode]

The humidity thing is pure BS. A few generations in captivity v many millenia in the wild. Evolution just doesn't happen that quick.

You need to balance the need for ventilation to reduce the chance of mould etc against the need for higher humidity. I don't like stale damp air so I have to work harder to keep the humidity up in my vivs.

Note I do not have a BRB but have researched them quite extensively. Hopefully one of the more experienced keepers will be along to add further thoughts.

[Andy_G]

The guy you spoke to is wrong. No debate there.

As far as the ventilation issue goes, Danny is correct, it's finding the balance needed and that will have a lot of dependencies and it may be something your friend will have to experiment with.