Reptile & Amphibian Forums

First, the hide box issue. Do boas need to keep their hides into adulthood? I have a 7ft almost 4 yr old male that is rather shy and would prefer to hang out in a hide with just his nose sticking out. I know that boas have a tendency to be rather shy, but I would prefer him to be more 'social' with make him insecure and defensive in his cage. He has outgrown his current hide and can't fit all of coils in it. So he has been spending less time in it, either because of the size, or because of the time of year, not sure. I'm getting him a new cage this week, should I replace the hide?

Second, thermostats. I'm ordering an AP cage. If I get the belly heat option, I obviously need a thermostat. I'm also ordering a larger cage, so I'm already spending quite a bit of money. I know that snakes require $$ for proper care, but I'd also like to save where I can. I don't have high end herps, nor do I breed my large snakes. Can I get by using the ZooMed or Alife thermostats which run under $40 as opposed to the ones which run over $120. With two higher end thermostats, my caging costs are going to put me at $1000 and that's a hard one to explain to the hubby!

It's tough to say if boas REALLY need a hide once they have reached adulthood. I would give him one just to make sure he feels comfortable and to make sure he isn't stressed. Having a stressful boa can lead to other issues - illness, being agressive, trouble digesting meals, etc. - so I would rather be safe now than sorry later. I don't see how having a hide (even though he is an adult) would be a bad thing, if he feels secure in his surroundings, he won't use it. If you have the cage space, you can use a plastic cement mixing tub with a hole cutout on the side for the hide. Home Depot has them and it's definitely large and cheap too!

As for the thermostat, I think the old saying "you get what you pay for" would apply here. You can certainly get by with a ZooMed or Alife thermostat, but I personally wouldn't trust the quality of either of those thermostats. Do they have a fail-safe ability built in to make sure that if they fail they don't get stuck in the "full heat" mode? You could always get lucky and it could last for a long time, but I just wouldn't want to take that chance with a cheap thermostat. The thermostat is where you want to spend a few more dollars in my opinion. I know you said that you don't have high end herps, but to me it doesn't matter what $ figure is on an animal, it's still a pet and is relying on you for its care and safety (now I'm starting to sound like PETA, LOL). $80 more for piece of mind is a small price to pay compared to losing a treasured member of the family...I'm not trying to be preachy, it's just my 2 cents...Use your woman/Jedi mind trick on the hubby - what's $80 more when your spending $1,000?? It works all the time on me when my wife says it to me !

Best of luck!
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Kevin Blumenthal
www.blumenboas.com

The zoomed thermostat is decent, I had one that lasted for two years before the dial broke off, the alife one is pretty much guarenteed to get stuck with the heat on. There are a few higher end on/off thermostats for $50-$80 or you could get 2 zoomeds for $50-$60 and run one through the other so if one gets stuck you have a backup. You could also try using a rheostat for around $10.
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MY COLLECTION:
1.0 '04 Columbian BCI
0.1 '05 Blood Python
0.0.1 Hypo Sonoran BCI
0.2 Ball Pythons

MY WISHLIST:
A Northern Blue-Tongue Skink
1.1 Brazilian Rainbow Boas
1.1 Hogg Island Boas
1.0 Salmon BCI
0.2 Columbian BCI
1.1 Sumatran Short-Tail Pythons
1.1 Borneo Short-Tail Pythons
1.1 Suriname BCC
1.2 Spotted Pythons
2.4 African House Snakes
2.4 Bearded Dragons
1.2 Rankins Dragons
2.6 Crested Geckos
2 ferrets

I use hide boxes for all of my snakes that are not in a rack system, and vise versa. I just use shipping boxes, turned upside down and cut an entrance hole. I would definately recommend getting a proportional thermostat. They do cost a lot, but are worth it. You could look into getting one with more that one output. Spyder Robotics has the Herpstat 2 and Herpstat Pro. The 2 has 2 outputs, so you could run both cages heat with the same thermostat. The Pro has 4 outputs so you could run either 4 cages heat, or 3 cages heat and 1 lighting, or how ever you would like. I would suggest this to anyone running more that one cages heat. They also have built in night drop for each output. Hope this helps.