Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was talking to a friend of mine about her boa. She rescued this boa from what it sounds like was just underfed or perhaps had a problem eating, and lost weight. It's doing well now, beginning to gain weight, very alert, strong feeding response she told me.

Here's what we didn't know. It's a red tail boa, I believe though it's a boa constrictor imperator, not a true red tail (B.c.c.). With that said, she told me the saddles really aren't all that red, they are mostly brownish/grey. They should be red however. This isn't some designer morph or anything that is supposed to lack color. I know I know, that B.c.i's have a variety of saddle colors, I'm just going on the word of my friend. She does know the difference between red and brown, and told me at one point the animal had reddish saddles.

So we wondered, would the snake get its normal pigmentation back ever again? If so, would full spectrum light be needed? Should she cover the mice in some sort of vitamin powder before feeding? If so what vitamin powder would people recommend. I have only used vitamin powder with the normal feeding of lizards.

I know full spectrum isn't needed by snakes. Some people have suggested (and maybe they are right, I don't know) that whatever happened that caused the loss of this snake's normal pigment is now permanent. Is that true? Or generally true?

I never heard of this before..so it made me go "hmmm" She doesn't have a digital camera, otherwise I would have posted pics.

Without seeing a picture, it's hard to give an answer on the color.

B.c.i saddles are quite variable. Normals can have red, orange, brown, near black, etc. They can be fat, thin, bowtie shaped, etc...and still be normal...not a morph.

Now if the boa started out one color and had a dramatic color change in one shed, that could be a nutritional problem. But keep in mind, boas do change color over time.

Amie

Well as my friend told me, it wasn't something overnight. She doesn't know how long the snake wasn't fed enough food.

She (and me via the conversation), just assumed that the color change was due to not being fed enough at all. It would make sense to me, that the body would let chromatophores go, that is not maintain them in an effort to supply available nutrients to more vital cells.

THOUGH, I hadn't considered that the snake could go from one color to the next over time naturally. I mean I know that happens. I usually hear of boas getting prettier with time if any change is going to happen. As opposed to losing color as I have mentioned.