Boa Care & Handling
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- Опубліковано 16 гру 2015
- BOA CARE:
Boas can generally start off in a 41qt tub and then gradually moved up to a 4 x 2 x 1 foot enclosure when they reach adulthood.
Baby boas usually start off on hopper mice or rat pinkies and eventually get up to eating large, XL rats, or even rabbits when full grown (feed at night time you will have better success).
Belly heat should be provided at all times with a hot spot of no greater than 90 degrees. The cool side should roughly be 80-85 but if you are cooling your boas for breeding the cold side should get no lower than 75 degrees. Boas are nocturnal so they do not require a UVB-UVA bulb. You should provide 12 hours of light and dark (day and night).
Boas come from a semi-tropical climate and should be kept around 60-80% humidity at ALL TIMES! Humidity is important for proper sheds and bowel movements!
Boas can be kept on many different types of substrates such as: Cypress mulch, Aspen (chips or shreds), Jungle Bark, Melaleuca mulch, newspaper, butcher/packing paper or paper towels.
BCI- Very common form of boa constrictors with different sets of locality. Usually stay smaller around 5-9ft depending on the type.
BCC- Not very common and considered the "mainland" or "pure blood" of the boa species. The one that is actually called a Red Tail and for good reason. These darling creatures get a whopping 9-14ft depending on sex.
Great pets to keep and personally one of my favorites! Thanks for watching and be sure to catch me on Instagram @xskullpunisherx to keep up with the reptile family! - Домашні улюбленці та дикі тварини
That's some snake collection! wow
I'll be honest wasn't expecting valuable information but you are gut loaded. feel like your channel is definitely underrated you deserve way more subs
This actually had a good bit of info i hadn't read yet
Same
I had herps all my life and bred boas for about a decade....BCI mostly but also BCC. I fed mine once week and none were obese and never had any abnormal health issues. And i had right around 250-300 boas at any given time. The key is just not overfeeding. You just gotta give a appropriate size pretty item and its no problem. But it's really up to the individual. I did feed my males once every two weeks instead of weekly until i got them to 4ft, as smaller makes make better breeders. Always glad to see someone enjoy their animals. Good luck! 😁
Great video :)
Thank you so much
THANK YOU for the rant on feeding, the amount of over-feeding is mind boggling, and people think if their boas aren't 6' by 2-3 years old they're "stunted." Even feeding them conservatively, they can still grow fast (ish seems fast when it's 4+ years later and you're looking back haha). As far as getting them out, I've had the opposite experience with my 4. If I take my time, that's what pisses them off. I'll get a hiss, my hand bucked off, and my ghost female might put in a few swings. She's my moodiest, touchiest snake by far. I usually open their enclosure, give one or two rubs, and pick them up. As an owner of a 6.5' BI and a 6.5' retic, my retic is just as strong as my boa, and 10x more determined. She's just thinner and half the weight so she's easier to maneuver.
I know how it is! I own 7 Burms and 5 Retics, been an owner of the big guys for about 4 years now (on and off keeping them) and they can be a handful. My eldest boa is 25 years old, gonna be 26 this year and she's a sweetheart. My snakes are flip flopped about how I go at them. Some of them like me going in fast and some of them won't tolerate being too quick they want me to give them a moment to catch up lol. Each snake is different!
She's my first retic and she's still quite manageable for now, but man she gets into EVERYTHING. She's not that big yet and I have a feeling the way her breeders/keepers fed her is going to keep her small for awhile. She'll be 2 in October, but she might be 7' at most, she's 6.5' according to SerpWidgets. The people I got her from fed her a single fuzzy MOUSE every 2 weeks for the first 6 months of her life, she was 3' when I got her at 6 months. I've been taking it slow on the feeding so she doesn't explode in growth too much and hurt her organs/skeleton, but she's still growing fast now that she's on bigger rats and small rabbits. My ghost female is my odd man out, the other 10 are perfectly fine once I have them out, if they're any trouble in the first place, but she remains twitchy and jerky (in response to movement). With all my snakes I just make a quick introduction and scoop them up, I've had several previously bitey/strikey snakes calm down within just a few weeks to a month or two doing it in this way. The ghost female's face swelled up about a month ago so she's getting antibiotic shots and it's making her worse, but I'm hoping once they're over and I can handle her without having to stick her she'll calm down again. Getting her out is easy, but once she's out she starts swinging.
+GoldintoBlack02 Yeah it gets crazy and her feeding as a baby is ridiculous! Any of the babies I've ever produced (retic or burm) were on RAT fuzzies straight out of the egg, feeding every 5-7 days. They should be growing at a steady rate, not too fast and not too slow. Also, snakes can be weird sometimes, depends on genetics and how often they are fed affects their growth rate.
My retic has a nice feeding response, nothing too crazy (unless she's getting a rabbit, she LOVES rabbits). Beyond striking and coiling, she's easy to work with, doesn't strike at me and a quick rub from the hook calms her down. When I got her she was big enough for rat pups, easily. I started out feeding her 10-15% of her weight and then upped it to 15-20% when she didn't grow any for several months, and now that she's older I'll probably drop it down again, and focus more on the lump it leaves than weight. She hasn't been growing very fast except start of this this year, she's almost 2 and she's only 6.5'-7', once she got on medium rats she grew 1.5' in 2 or 3 weeks, no exaggeration, she outgrew mediums before I could get more larges in and had to be fed 2 mediums for a bit there. Now she's on jumbo rats and x-small rabbits every 2 weeks, been feeding her weekly while she was on larges and below. Her growth hasn't been as crazy as that one incident, though.
+GoldintoBlack02 Keep up the good work with her! She's in good hands with you I can tell :)
My retics can be sketchy sometimes but otherwise they are pretty easy to work with. One of my sweet girls has such a strong feeding response it's crazy sometimes but once she notices it's me she calms down on her own lol.
If it gets hotter than 90 degrees in my house do I just shut off the heat mat?
Wow I thought I was going easy on the food once every 7-14 days but now I guess I need to stretch it out more.
I do applaud you on your god given craft of keeping the type of animals you love to do i know they make you feel out of sight and gives you full of joy and a amazing cleansing of soul full fill ment. i am very happy for you and i will work on mines in due time. " yes i am a boa person also " .. Don't let no reptile hater stop what you love to do if they come smash emmmm ,, " i know" ,,,, well keep doing what you love to do ... i am proud : )))
I don't even own a snake yet . But I'm sure going to get one when I get my own place
I just put down a deposit for my first boa! Female IMG het albino. Is 6-7 feet still big? I was hoping for 8 feet but maybe 6-7 feet is ok for my first boa. She is a baby and was born in July. What do you think?
Her dad is just under 5 feet and her mom is just under 7 feet, so the breeder thinks my snake will also reach the size of her mom. I just heard your comment about these not being beginner snakes. Oops! 😋
Any feedback is appreciated!
what kind of tubs are those where did you get them?
Taevian Montgomery. B
They are Sterilite 41qt tubs and I originally bought them from Wal-Mart. They should be super easy to find!
If anyone has advice for me, I'd love to hear it. I have had my ball python for a while, and at a recent reptile expo I decided I was ready for the boa that I had always wanted.I picked up a baby BCI, set her up and after 5 days she ate well.The day after she ate, though, she peed on her newspaper substrate. I've read that boas regurgitate if you mess with them after they've eaten so I decided to wait a few days before swapping the substrate because I knew I couldn't pull everything out without disturbing her. Did I make the right call? She seems happy and healthy so far, but if I should approach this differently next time it would be nice to know.
Normally when you get a new addition of any animal you want it to be in quarantine for at least 3 months.
New animals that look healthy on the outside can have some underlying internal (some times external) issues that can pass on to other reptiles in the vicinity. Make sure to keep your new boa on paper towels to observe anything unusual. Paper towels make it easier to spot things like mites. Make sure not to feed it too often, as a baby you want to feed it every 7-10 days. Make sure not to overdo it! Remember that boas don't quite have the metabolisms that pythons have so you have to be more careful on the feeding.
Congrats on getting your first boa! You will not be disappointed! They are fantastic animals for sure.
It's usually best to clean up their mess right away. A minor disturbance probably won't cause any digestive problems or whatnot. You can spot clean and just take care of the affected area. I wouldn't swap out the substrate until after they've had a few days to digest. Complete digestion can take up to five days. You can put a towel over the snake's head while you work around them. They will just chill out under the towel, oblivious to the work you're doing. That's been my experience.
because boas are more aggressive than ball pythons do you have to use the hook for their head when handling them forever?
James Dean
No. Boas usually have a calm temperament in captivity unless you get one that isn't so nice. All snakes have different personalities so of course it depends on the snake. You will have to experiment on what is comfortable for you and what is comfortable for the snake. I hook train my retics because of their high food response but boas are usually calm enough where I don't have to use a hook all the time.
Is a rainbow boa a bci or a different type? I'm doing research since I want one as my second snake.
Woah woah woah....no they aren't..rainbow boas are completely different species of boas.
I never use substrate period. I use paper towel and it's very easy to clean. I'm building a cage for my redtail boa and I'm putting in all tile. But great vid.
brian pugh
I use paper towels and bedding. I have several animals and babies on the way so it is a little bit of everything lol!
Thank you for your comment.
Wrong you just feed the size of the boa in girth. You can feed a boa every 7 day days. My Male ate 4 jumbo rats a week and was still square looking not round!
Great Video! First and foremost, OMG no one ever talks about OVERFEEDING, so kudos for bring up that into the conversation! Your 2-year old hypo is obviously properly slow-grown; beutiful! My only critique (and this is totally subjective) is that i feel like a bci is easier to keep than a rb for a beginner only because i find husbandry to be the most challenging part of herping, and the rainbows' demand for heat and humidity is, for me, more daunting than a bc's size. best of both worlds might be a central american, small and hardy! Just my opinion; wouldn't have even given it if you hadn't asked for it in the disclaimer ;-D Again, GREAT video!
Thank you! I do agree, Rainbows do require a lot more than BCIs and I probably should have mentioned that instead of saying what I did lol. Though, the size doesn't get crazy like most boas so I did have a point with that! I do appreciate your critique though, opinions always matter here unless they are obviously ridiculous lol. Glad you enjoyed the video. And yes, people do tend to power feed their boas without even realizing it.
Hi there! You done an amazing job on your video. :) I only own a male Ball Python named, Ryuu and I am looking to maybe getting a F BCI because I am looking to get something larger and I also wanna challenge myself. Please let me know what you think? I am saving up to order her cage first though before I order my Boa.
Boas are great pets as long as you're able to handle them! Females get very large so I would honestly start off with a male instead unless you don't mind a 9 ft snake lol. They are also incredibly strong so make sure you have someone with you in case something goes wrong. With babies it's no problem. Do whatever you think you're capable of handling :)
+Teri Landa Thank you Teri Landa! :) I've been definitely doing my research on them.
+Teri Landa Hi there again! Just wanna let you know that I am for sure getting a baby Boa. I am more than excited. I already ordered her and yes it is a female. She's an Khal Albino possible her Anery. 😁😁😁
Do you have a Facebook by any chance..? Thank you.
+Leanna “Reptile-Queen” Brown
Yes, I do have a Facebook. You can see all my latest activity on my page Keepin' It Real Exotics. I try to update info on there as much as possible and is a great way to keep in contact with me for any questions! So glad to hear you did indeed decide to get a boa! I'm happy for you!
Do you have a colombian red tail?
You can use a small towel or cloth bag to put on top of their head when you first open the cage. They won't strike when their head is under it, and they'll quickly realize that you're not feeding them. I used to use my snake bag (really a laundry bag with a draw string) for this purpose, and I never got bitten when I did that. Actually, she never bit me except maybe three times or so, always when she thought my hand was a rat. ;)
Yeah getting bit doesn't entirely concern me anymore lol. I've lost count on how many times it's been!
Though with my bigger snakes I always either use a towel or the tap training method to avoid getting hit. Rather not get my arm broken by a 16ft animal!
How can you tell if you have a bci or bcc 🤷
No hides for the bigger ones in the cages?
I don't personally use hides for the bigger snakes. Babies get more stressed than my adults and the hides I do have for bigger snakes aren't used when I have them in the cage. At that point it just becomes wasted space.
Well I’m getting a Columbian red tail boa but I hear that that one is one of the smallest boas
Columbians get huge...
Those aren't red tails. Still common boa..boa imperator. 10ft at the longest usually if female. Males get 8ft at the longest usually.
Where did you get your hog island boa?
I do not believe I showed my Hog Island in this video.
The male I currently have I bought from a local breeder a few years ago. I'm searching for a female as of right now but it is so hard to find a pure. The ones I usually see for sale are mixed with red tails.
Also what do u use to heat those huge boas ?
brian pugh
RHP (radiant heat panels)
ok im so confused this is the only person i have heard say you cant feed the bigger then there size but other then that every thing else i have heard
They can have have big meals (i mean i wouldn't give a baby a adukt rat ir anything. But about the thickest part of there body is the witch you want there food.
is the cage suppose to be 2 ft tall or wide?
+Anton Bennighof 4ft L x 2ft W x 1ft H :) and I'm glad this helped you out!
Do you still help people?
Is it normal for them scale to be poking out when it wrap around my arm and also skin a bit lose
ChriZyourboy 23 loose skin is a sign of being underweight
You have an 8ft female in a 4x2? I can’t help but feel that is a bit on the small side. General rule of thumb is the enclosure should be ATLEAST the length plus the width to total the size of the snake. Just so they can stretch out a little more. So a 6x2 would be a bit more suitable. Do they not have any hides? And maybe a branch or something to climb. They are semi-arboreal. I also kinda think your feeding schedule is a little off. Feeding them too much is bad as you don’t want a fat snake, but letting it grow large is natural, where doing what you seem to be doing feels like maybe your stunting their growth a little regarding their first 2 years of life.
But this is purely my observation and I have misunderstood what you stated in the video
It is hard for me to put hides in for bigger snakes. It is also easier for them to feel like they are in a hide with the enclosure being the way it is. The snakes get taken out regularly to do educational shows so I am not worried about them maintaining proper exercise and stimulation. You want to keep a boa constrictor nice and square for the body otherwise it's overweight. Newborns are fed once a week until they get about a year then it's usually every other week. Most of my boas don't typically climb on the objects that I have put in their cage. Baby seem to do it more often than the adults do.
@@xskullpunisherx ahhh you have cleared up most of my concerns thank you :-) not that you had to justify yourself to me anyway.
I would say though it would be easier to get some hides in the enclosures if they were bigger. the problem is a viv cant really feel like a hide as snakes like to be surrounded on all sides, and when there is a glass front its kinda hard to feel totally secure.
but thanks for responding. you do have some cute looking snakes
I love boa constrictor's I rescued a female i believe she was 12 to 13 feet in length she weighed under weight as the people who owned her only fed her mice at her size so she was skinny. She was friendly once out of the cage But she had a bad case of cage aggression. they left her in a small 40 gallon fish tank at her size if she was any fatter she would have killed her self.
sadly i had to give her to someone who could deal with her major cage aggression that she had I just got her out of that horrible situation and got her fatten up i just could not deal with the aggression she had due to the neglect but she was a sweet boa once out of her cage.
Awsome video I subbed :). I want a red tail boa so bad but I can't until I move out my parents say it gets to big big this Christmas I'm getting a baby brazilian rainbow boa I'm so excited I'm going to post a bunch of vids on him or her.
Also your animals are awsome :) your boa collection is beautiful
+Reptile club Remember Brazilian Rainbows need lots of humidity (70-80%) and fresh water provided at all times or they will die from dehydration! They come from highly tropical areas and their cages need to be cleaned frequently to prevent the growth of mold/fungi. They can also get pretty big depending on the sex of the snake. 6-9ft still for Brazilians but still slender compared to a boa! You should start out with a BCI if you got a "Red Tail" (which is considered a "true red tail" a.k.a BCC) it may be a little too much to handle on your first go! They are extremely heavy bodied animals and definitely not a beginner snake.
+Teri Landa Thnx for the info but ik all of that I've studied the animal since last year I have everything I need plenty of hides so coco fiber substrate I gut sphagnum moss and some plants to help keep up the humidity. Thank you tho :) I really appreciate it
+Teri Landa Also I bought a hydrometer and a thermometer so I'm set :) but thank you for the info I'll be posting vids on it probably in January because I don't want to stress it out with the camera and stuff
+Reptile club That's a good idea! Always let an animal chill for a week or two (especially a baby) before putting a camera all up in it's face lol. I didn't mean to lecture you! I'm glad you've been doing proper research before getting the animal because most people just go off of impulse to buy a snake. I would love to see the videos of your baby once you get him/her :)
Are those Boa phile Vic's?
*vivs?
Sorry, stupid me didn't watch all the way through
They are from Boa Master lol
Red boa or cool.
Why’d u stop vids??
I've had a lot of personal problems I've been dealing with the past couple of years. Now I can safely say that I'll be up and back doing videos later this year! :)
Teri Landa hell yea❗️ ur the best snd most helpful
Thank you! It has definitely been a long journey since I first started making videos and I've learned a lot so I have much to share. Stay tuned for more vids soon!
I'm hoping to get it up and running in August.
Hi i wondering of u can message me on Facebook bc i have some questions bc i just got my first snake thank u
Jessica Agent
You can contact me on Facebook @ Keepin' It Real Exotics
Teri Land thank u for let me messaging you and help me
I totally agree with your rant about pet stores I asked a girl what substrate should I use for a brazilian rainbow boa that needs 80% humidity........she said sand lol . To everyone j suggest going to Undergroundreltiles.com I gi to the store and their customer service and quality of animals is amazing also their good prices!!! I bought a bearded dragons from them and I've gone just to look at the animals they have in the store and I'm buying a BRB from them Christmas so I'm looking forward to it :)
+Reptile club I encourage people not to buy substrate from pet stores. If you do, be sure to treat it for mites before putting it in with your reptile! This may take time but it is worth it. Mites are a pain and once they infest one snake they are already on every single reptile in your collection. Provent-A-Mite is a good preventative against mites. Put substrate in a Tupperware container and use the Provent-A-Mite several times within a few weeks time span. Also putting bedding on a cookie sheet and putting it in the oven is a good way to make sure there aren't any mites! Trust me, you're reptiles will thank you!
+Teri Landa Ok thank you I don't but my pet supplies at pet stores only at reptile stores and at Amazon.com they have everything for really cheap cuz I got prime :) so yea
@@xskullpunisherx i would just use newspaper , and how do i change the heat on a heat mat
@@triping4141 You would just replace the entire heat mat once it breaks.
@@xskullpunisherx i mean is there a way to change it to 29°c or what (sorry im still researching)
I got a free red tail boa constrictor and his tail his very red
Skallie
Some BCI animals have nice looking tails but unless it is a BCC it can't truly be classified as a "red tail".
huh?..