i may get a guyana red tail boa as my first snake,they look awesome and i have heard only great things about them,well,here are my questions

You may want to start with a Colombian, or common redtail. Guyana's are BCC, and can be a bit meaner, though not always.



1. should i get a male or female?which out of the males or females are bigger?

Females tend to get bigger



2.as an adult,how long do they get,5-6 feet?

Not sure on the guyanas, but I would say closer to 7 ft on average, bigger always possible



3.feed him once a week?

As a baby, probably. It depends on how often it poops, as you don't want to overload the little guy. It also depends on what size prey you're feeding.



4. what kind of cage should i get?(as in how many gallons).i want to only buy 1 cage,not getting cages as he gets bigger.can i just use a heatpad on one half of his cage,and not use a light bulb?

You'll unfortunately need to get more than one cage. Too big of a cage stresses small boas out, and floor space matters far more than 'gallons' Depending on the size of the baby, a 10 gallon tank would probably be good for a bit, or a 20L, if you want standard sizes. As an adult, depending on the size of the boa, you will want something that is 4 x 2 or longer and deeper, that's probably close to a minimum.

As for heating, a heat pad will work great, they're actually recommended over light bulbs, though the snake will need light in it's cage, from a window or something else. You will also NEED a thermostat or some type of temp controller on the heat pad, as they can get extremely hot and burn the snake.

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• new boa owner - adam_d, Wed Aug 20 18:43:16 2003
• RE: new boa owner - jenn_jeffery, Wed Aug 20 20:37:31 2003