Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just wondering if there is a better way to remove a large adult female Boa from her cage.
How do you all do it?

This is my situation:
I have her housed in a Boaphile cage with the front door that folds down.
To remove her, I grab her by the back end and try my best to lift and pull....supporting her body as I get her out. Sometimes her belly scales will catch on the edge of the cage as I'm pulling her out. It's a real fight to get her out.
She is a bit nasty, so I don't want to pull her out of the cage head first.

Thanks!!!!!!

Cover head with a towel, then you can remove her head first.
-----
Thanks,

Dave Colling

www.rainbows-r-us-reptiles.com

0.1 Wife (WC and still very fiesty)
0.2 kids (CBB, a big part of our selective breeding program)

LOL, to many snakes to list, last count:
26.49 BRB
20.21 BCI
And those are only the breeders

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

I don't trust any of my Boa's. I hook all of them, to remove them from the cage.

On the big girls I use a hook to contol the head until I have a grip on their next for the smaller ones I just use a hook to hold the forend while I maintain their tail.

It takes effort but I havn't been bit in a long while.

I find 90% off the bites I recieved were from reaching into the cage. It doesn't matter how many time you clean your hands statistically someone will strike. It just depends on how many time you do it. For me a dozen times a week adds up, and I have a tiny collection.

I also don't like playing Dentist so the hook works best for me.

Cheers
Jeremy

Trying to handle a less-than-cooperative snake is even more difficult when face to face. I now have Freedom Breeder racks, as well as some homemade ones, and this allows me to approach my snakes from above....much easier.

Sorry...not a Boa....

-----
"He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he can never lose." (quote from Jim Elliott, "Shadow of the Almighty"

I agree racks can help with certain size snakes. But there is a personal preference for Larger animals to be kept in cages. And Yes I understand FB and ARS make some huge racks but I still prefer the front opening sliding door style cage.

You only have to open the cage as much as you wnat and only expose yourself to a known animal. Sometimes with racks you don't necessarily know where the animal actually is.

Again this is a generalized opinion.

Cheers
Jeremy

and it's also nice to be able to SEE those snakes that we spent so much money for.
I actually didn't get racks until I got Blood Pythons...when I had Boas, I used conventional caging and did quite well with it.
All the best-
Jim
-----
"He is no fool who gives up what he cannot keep to gain what he can never lose." (quote from Jim Elliott, "Shadow of the Almighty"

>>and it's also nice to be able to SEE those snakes that we spent so much money for.

Very True...

However I check on everybody nearly everyday. I track health issues so monitoring defication helps unsure proper husbandry as well as food cycle.

I'll tell ya what Boa's always seam to deficate when its inconvienent to clean immediately!!!!

I'm sure python's are the same.

Aint that the truth. No poop before i go to bed. But before i rush out the door to get to work, BAM a big ol stinky deuce.

For the bigger ones that are less friendly I use a pillow case. I haven't had to deal with any issues of being bit from the bigger fiesty ones in awhile doing this. For the calm adults I use hooks to situate then remove them by hand.
-----
Randall L Turner Jr.
Boas make the world go round.

Looks like it's time for me to do another one of my little videos!
-----
Boaphile Home
All Original/Boaphile Plastics
The Boa Network

That's so funny that you mentioned that. I searched through all of your videos hoping to find one that had you pulling a snake out of the cage.

i wish you would do a video on this. i am just a hobbyist...for almost 30 years now, but have never bred. i would like to take a swing a breeding one of my female suri's, but i am concerned about how i would "handle" her if she became fiesty.

i just sold 2 boas because i had them in front opening cages (they were small) and they started stricking at the door everytime i went to open it...and i handled them frequently...
-----
www.theboahouse.com
www.myinfoservice.com

____

signature file edited; contact an admin. phw 7/19/05

One of the techniques I like use if it's a particularly nasty girl or she is gravid is put a sweater box from one of my other racks in the cage with the female. Within a few hours they almost always have taken up residence in the tub! Then just take the tub out, slide it into your other rack, clean his/her cage replace the tub and once he/she has crawled out back to the hot spot remove the tub! You cleaned the cage and not even had to touch the respective snake! I like to put the tub on the cool side that way you know you are not taking up the hotspot with the tub and they always have to move to the cool after warming up which doesn't take too long! I only use this for the nasty one which fortunately I only have one of all the rest of my girls are like puppy dogs! Hope this helped!

Al Brown/Brown's Boas

Wow what a beautiful tip. Thanks a lot! : ) That's awesome.
-----
Caden Chapman
slithering.serpents@gmail.com
http://slitheringserpents.com