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hello all, i am new to this forum. short bio - i keep a 75 gallon reef system, i have had 2 ball pythons for about 4 years now, and am the excited/nervous new owner of a red tail boa. if you know anything about saltwater aquariums, you know that successfully running a large reef tank takes a large commitment, and the fact that i have kept my pythons for 4 years shows that i am willing to raise animals right. i only say that because i asked this question in a different snake forum and i got very negative feedback telling me that i was cruel and that i shouldn't be raising animals. i was insulted and left that site immediately, so hopefully i will receive a warmer reception here.

long story short -

i lived next door to a guy for about 8 months and he had a red tail boa. from what he told me, it was a little over 2 years old when he moved in(making it about three now). from what i observed, he took good care of it and raised it right. he got a very demanding job about a month after moving in, and he seemed to stop giving it as much attention as he had been up until then. he moved out about a week ago. he gave me the boa.

so now its mine, and he tells me the other day -

"oh yeah dude, just so you know, i havent really been taking good care of the snake lately"

so here is the situation -

snake hasnt been fed in about a month and a half, hasnt been given water for a couple weeks AT LEAST. hasnt been taken out or handled in a while. tank is dirty and appears to not have been cleaned in a while. tank is a 55 gallon tank with some sort of bark shavings for the substrate, has one tree decoration, one cave like decoration for him to crawl into and be covered, although it seems way too small for him to get completely covered, and one water dish that is pretty good size. heat lamp that is moderately warm, im not sure how many watts, it doesnt say, temp is about 89 degrees.

i filled the water dish immediately, snake went to it and drank right away, drank for a while. so it is responsive, if that is any indication of anything. tomorrow i will be cleaning the tank and buying a larger crawl/hide space. i will be feeding soon.

my concerns -

#1. will this snake bite me? i have heard that handling regularly is important to keep them sociable, and less likely to bite you. i have a pair of work gloves, and i think i will just wear them to be safe. is there anything i can do to reduce chance of being bitten? go in before feeding? after feeding?

#2. could the snake be sick? are there any signs that would point to it being sick or healthy? should i take it to a vet?

#3. what do i do to get it back to normal? i would assume that i should just get it back on a normal feeding/handling schedule, as well as the obvious things like keep water in its dish and keep its tank clean. are there any things that are not so obvious that i should do to help out?

thank you

try to feed it see how it reacts. if it refuses dont panic try a different approach.If you notice any wheezing or bubble blowing take it to a vet. Also if you see it doing what I call "Ray Charles" take it to a vet. Beyond that good luck wish you the best. My friend gave me an 8ft boa and come to find out it had a bad RI but its all better now. Hoping next year to have her produce.

#1 All snakes can bite. Handling helps . Do not handle food than reach for snake. Do not handle after feeding for a couple days.
#2 Snake should be fine as long as it isn't making popping sound while breathing, holding head upright, or having a mucous discharge out mouth or nostriles (possible Respiratory Infection). There are other less common illnesses. Compare boa to pic's of health boas posted for body weight.
#3 Snakes can go a long time without ill effects from lack of food. Offer a meal preferably not alive. Live food can injure even a healthy snake. You'll be amazed at how resilient snakes are. Look around the rims of the eyes for little dark spots (mites). Good luck, Chris

I agree with everything in the above post.

1. The month without food isn't that bid a deal as long as the snake had decent body weight to begin with. Unless he's been underfed for a long time he/she should be OK.
2. Dehydration is a big deal. Keep water in there (duh), maybe give the snake a shallow soak.
3. Illness in the form of RI isn't a major concern as long as the heat was kept up. Just check him for bubbles ect. like the previous posts mentioned. I'm more concerned with an illness that the dirty cage may cause.
4. As long as the snake was handled a lot in the last year it should settle back down pretty quick. I don't handle mine that often (once a week-month), but anyone of the snakes that were handled a lot as babies stay calm. I've picked up a couple that were not handled as babies and they are nervous...not something I would recommend in an 8ft boa. Check the mood of the snake before you handle it. Touch the boa well away from the head (make sure your hand is protected) to make sure it knows you are picking it up. Check its reaction and if it is still mellow go for it.

P.S. The reason I don't handle my snakes that much is that they don't "need" the interaction. I don't count checking their health as "handling" though.
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Travis Rose
Lazy S Snake Ranch
(859) 582-7310
1.0 100% DH for Snow Boa
1.0 Hypo, 66% DH Moonglow Boa
0.1 Normal Boa
0.1 Circle Back Normal Boa
0.1 66% DH for Snow Boa
0.1 Albino het for Snow
3.3 Adult/sub adult Kenyans
0.5 Baby kenyans
0.1 Jungle Carpet Python
0.3 Dogs (1 Full Pitbull, 1 Pit/Husky, & 1 Bernese Mt. Dog cross)
0.3 Cats (1 fat, 1 old, and 1 insane)
0.1 Very understanding wife
1.0 Toddler (WC...still bites and musks)

thank you very much for your quick responses. the snake appears to be healthy; no visible defects, no holding his head vertically, no bubbles or popping noise. it is a very attractive snake, and i may be interested in trying to breed it later on.

what age/size is appropriate for breeding a redtail? how do i know if the one ive got is a male/female? should i just take it to a vet and have them tell me? how do i know what type of snake it is compatible to be bred with?

thank you for any help.

also, as mentioned, the heat lamp i have got on it keeps the tank at about 88-90 degrees, is this acceptable?

Is the whole cage 89 degrees? Just like your ball pythons, the boa should have a temperature gradient. 90 should be the hot end... the cool end can be about 82 or so. A cheap infrared thermometer ($20 or so) would be good to get so you can point a a spot and get a temperature reading, rather than one of those stick-on thermometers, especially because you have several snakes.

Boa care isn't much different than ball python care.

If you're nervous about handling the snake at first, long sleeves might help your nerves, and you might want to get a snake hook. Some snakes are nervous if you "grab" at them to get them out - but are fine once they are actually out of their cages.

Try to handle the snake soon so you can get a good look at it - if it has mites, they could spread to your ball pythons. Mites aren't terribly hard to treat in small collections, but better if you spot it soon.
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Lauren Madar - OphidiaGems.com | CageMakers
1.1 Ball Python, 1.0 Hog Island Boa, 1.1 Hypo BCI, 1.1 Surinam BCC, 1.1 Saharan Sand Boa

Boas probably need a bit more humidity than a Ball python and probably tolerate slightly lower temperatures than a Ball Python.

Baby boas that look like they will bite, in a defensive position, can easilly be picked up by showing them the palm of your hand, coming down on them, and just scooping them up. Your hand must cover their head/face. You don't want them to be able to look you in the eye for this to work.

Some snakes (certain pythons for example) will deliberately bite the hand or arm that holds them. Boa constrictors generally won't. Once in your hand, they will focus on your face.

By the same token, a large boa you think might bite can be picked up in the same manner, however you need something like a couple of newspaper pages. A towel works fine. With the palm of your hand centered on the backside of an open newspaper page, come down on the snakes head in one deliberate motion and gently grab the snake behind the neck. Gently pull him up. Grab his body with your other hand for support and lift. Once you have established a good supportive grasp, drop the newspaper. As previously stated, the boa should focus on your face.

NEVER place a snake near your face. What spooks a snake, same as it does most animals, are your eyes. When you bring a snake to your face and look at him eye to eye, his immediate thought is you are fixing to put him in your mouth and eat him. He's going to lash out in a desperate attempt to avoid being eaten.

Long and involved, but actually very straight forward and simple.

jsc

thank you both very much. i purchased a book on boas and will be reading it tonight as a study break (i have an advanced physics exam tomorrow, wish me luck!). im going to try to feed him tomorrow, ill post how it goes.

also... if you had to say, how long will my 55 gallon tank be an adequate home for him. as i mentioned, he is about 3 years old, and about 4 and a half feet long. i plan to keep him for the long haul, and i am fully aware that he will get BIG, and when he does, i will be getting him a large enough home. i am just curious to know how long i should expect this 55 gallon to be okay. thank you.

While we're on the subject -- something I just noticed. If you swing the food item like a pendulum across from right to left in front of the snakes face, you'll get a better feeding response than otherwise. You know, move it like the hypnotist that says - "you're getting sleepy".
It was an epiphany, a moment of clarity when I correlated that to something else my snakes do.
They let me know when they're hungry -- How you ask? When I pass by their cages they'll oftentimes strike at my silhouette as I go by. They're in opaque tubs. Can't really see me, just a shadowy silhouette to them. Why are they doing that? Why? Because that's what they do when they're hungry in the wild. They're ambush preditors. They find a scent on a rodent trail, sit in wait and ambush the next critter that comes along. Prey items traveling across their field of view from side to side initiate a strike/feeding response.
Of course, this point is mute with good feeding snakes.
Just my opinion, really.
jsc

Well, if he's a male, he might stay smaller - 5 to 7 feet. If "he" is a female, she might get larger - about 8 feet. But this isn't a hard and fast rule... just like there are short people and tall people, some boas will just stay smaller, and some will get bigger than the average.

A general rule is to have a cage with *at least* one square foot of floor space per foot of snake. So, an 8ft snake could be kept in a 4 foot x 2 foot cage. Floor space is more important than height in a cage for boas.

I can't recall the dimensions of a 55gal tank, but you should be ok for now. Depending on how much yours grows, you might want to invest in a 4ft plastic cage later on (plastic cages are much easier to heat and keep humidity at the right level). Most 4ft plastic cages tend to run a little above $200, and there are quite a few good manufacturers (look around the forum, you'll see). They also make 6ft cages, which should house the biggest female for a bit more.

But, you can also keep average sized adult boas in plastic bins - my favorite is the Iris VE-175 (sometimes available at Walmart as a "christmas tree box" - though I've never seen it locally) - you can get it online at reptiletubs.com. It's about 53" long and 18" wide and has a locking top. Just drill some holes, slap some flexwatt (with a thermostat) on the underside, and you have an instant adult cage for under $100. Not the prettiest, but works. Might not be large enough for a VERY large heavy adult female, but good for most boas.

Try not to be too afraid of the snake. I started off with a ball python, and boas can be much more intimidating. They seem to have better eyesight and "follow" you more with their eyes. Not to mention their faces are more "wolfish" than ducky-looking ball pythons. But really, if you are confident and handle the snake with common sense, you shouldn't get in trouble. I've never had my larger boas strike at me. Only gotten bitten by babies, and usually because I scared them for one reason or another.

The tips about newspaper or towels was good - I have a couple of snakes that don't initially like being picked up (never bitten, but just start "sliding away" if they know what's going on) - I use a pillocase inside out over my arm to pick squeamish ones up, and once they're out, I drop the pillowcase. (That's a good way to "bag" a snake, too, just invert the pillowcase around the snake's body after grabbing them up). Just so they don't get freaked out by seeing a warm human limb reaching straight for them. Once in hand, they pretty much treat you as a tree.
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Lauren Madar - OphidiaGems.com | CageMakers
1.1 Ball Python, 1.0 Hog Island Boa, 1.1 Hypo BCI, 1.1 Surinam BCC, 1.1 Saharan Sand Boa

This has been addressed but as a general rule, anything with teeth CAN bite (even people!).

I agree with a shallow soak since this snake has been dehydrated.

As for sexing, a special probe is inserted into the vent of the snake and depending on how far it will slide in determines its sex. For obvious reasons this needs to be done by an experienced individual (vet or not, make sure they know what they are doing, there are some vets I wouldn't let anywhere near my snakes and I'm a vet tech).

I would take a gander through Clay English's Ultimate Care Guide for boas, it should really have all the basic information you'll need. Jeff Ronne has a section in there on breeding, but I wouldn't even consider breeding until you are thoroughly knowledgeable about boas and especially until this little one is in better shape. Obviously, the only compatible animals to breed to would be other boa constrictors.
http://www.redtailboas.com/care/TheUltimateCareManual-Published.pdf

Practice good hygiene too as you have ball pythons at home that can contract illnesses from boas and vice versa. The "Ray Charles" move mentioned earlier is also known as stargazing, which can be a symptom of a fatal disease known as IBD (inclusion body disease).

All in all I think you have a really good grasp on things. Just do some fine tuning and let us know how feeding goes. You came to a great place.