Brett,
I live in Oregon and thus your locality meant nothing to me. Checked my De Lorme atlas software and found a Forestville in Sonoma county and then a Foresthill in Plumas county. Could not find Sugarpine Reservoir. If you found the boa in Plumas county then it is a member of the large morph and thus most likely is about 2-3 years old. Had you found the boa in certain areas of S. Calif. where the dwarf form of C. bottae occurs, depending on the sex of the boa, it could have been older by two or more years.

With very few exceptions, I have mimicked what occurs in nature and thus do not keep my boas up all year round at warm temperatures. The choice is yours as to whether you wish to try and get the specimen to grow as large as possible and as soon as possible which requires maintaining specimens at active temperatures all year long and trying to get it to feed frequently. In the early to mid 1970's, I did this once in order to try and get some captive born boas to maturity as soon as possible so I could conduct some controlled crosses. It worked but I have not tried that scenario since.

So my preference is to put specimens under cool temperature conditions for a few months. Boas are underground at this time of year where humidity conditions are such that they maintain proper internal water balance. Captive conditions often are such that specimens might dehydrated. To avoid that possibility, I periodically soak my boas for a few minutes in very shallow water once every 4 - 6 weeks during the winter.

If you take that route, you need to allow the boa to digest its meal first which at room temperature may take a week or thereabouts. I am doing the same thing with the female from Shasta county and will soon place her with the other boas once I believe her very large meal is digested. She has yet to pass a scat so she is still not quite ready to put up for the winter.

That your specimen took a lab mouse is a real plus. Good luck. And by the way, the rubber boa site is the creation of my son Ryan who lives in Utah.

Richard F. Hoyer

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