Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i figured i would post this because some people who get boa or any kind of snake, do not know the care involved, and some people are just plain cruel.

in 2007 i saw an ad for a snake a boa a dark colored boa, for sale or trade, from supposedly a "breeder" the photo i was sent all you could see was the boas face, i traded a argentine rainbow boa for this snake, later i got the rainboa back and and gave her to a breeder i knew.
after getting this snake home i notice she had retained shed, from months. so i began working on that issue, she went into a plastic tub and very high humidity.
after she shed out i noticed a "kink" in her spine, beyond the kink she had limited movement, she also has very deep scarring and the ribs seem to be "shorter" in that area...
after i got her to shed the first time, i thought i was going to lose this snake she looked horrible... i was told by a few breeders and my vet to put her down, i wasnt ready to give up on this girl...........
this is the first set of photos from the first shed...

the second shed she began to look alot better, even began to eat small meals, even her color improved...

over time no one even believed this was the same snake

at this point she can move her body past the kink, it looks as though she was shut in the cage top or a door though we can only speculate what really happened.

You did the right thing. Some people are simply (what you said earlier) MEAN and don't care about the well being of animals.

It's always positive to see such a great outcome!

Thanks for sharing-
Ryan DeCaro

i actually plan to get some photos of her today, to really show the difference.

You did a miraculous job on that rescue.

That is sad. I'm glad she is recovering for you. I take in rescues at my petshop quite often, and I've seen some scary ones too. I have a 7 ft female columbian currently whose head is deformed. Her head was crushed by a rottweiler dog, and she surprisingly survived. She was healed up when I actually got her 2 years after the attack. I named her Crunch since she was crunched by the dog. She is missing one nostril and the other is off-set, so she has difficulty breathing whenever stressed physically or emotionally. Her teeth stick out some around her mouth so she is very prone to cases of mouth rot, but she is still very sweet. I can't put her to sleep, but I don't know if it would ever be safe to breed her with her breathing issues. Handling stresses her physically, so I don't know if it would be right to adopt her out as a pet, either. I feel bad every time I have to move her to clean her cage cuz she has to resort to breathing through her mouth from the physical stress on her body.

I also took in a 4 ft c.a. boa male named Eddie Spaghetti. The teenager who fed him threw a live medium rat in his cage and walked away. Eddie got puctured through the top center of his head and through the center of the roof of his mouth by the rat. His head swelled up so bad that the front of his mouth is folded upwards like he's snarling at the world. The teenager's mother gave up on Eddie and was going to put him in the freezer if I didn't take him in. He is doing great, but this one will take a long time to heal fully. I've got him eating and he is in shed curruntly. I'll have to get a pic of him after shed so everyone can see this poor guy. I'm just having 1 problem with him. He won't eat anything dead and he won't eat a rat. It's hard to keep him satisfied on large mice alone without feeding him a lot of them. Once he sheds (this will be his 3rd shed with me) I'm wanting to try to convert him to eating dead rats. If anyone has any advise on doing this, I would love to hear it. I've tried down to rat fuzzies, scented the rats with mice, tried live and dead...nomatter how hungry he is, he backs away in fear if he smells rat now. What else could I try???

heres what i did and it might work for you.

at first laga wouldnt eat any thing, once she was able to shed she began eating, i tried a f/t didnt work she refused 3 weeks in a row. i didnt want to try a live rat because i knew she would end up getting bit being she was in a weakened state.

she refuse a prekilled rat.

my next attempt i took the prekilled rat and wacked on the floor, the rat had blood coming out she then took it with the scent of blood.

another method i have heard and found to work was to remove the water the day before feeding, thaw a frozen rat and put it in the enclosure wet, most of mine will take them that way.

with mine i have noticed it is like trial and error.

I have tried the pre-killed with a bloody nose, but he is stubborn. As soon as he smells rat he retreats to the far side of his cage. I've never tried a wet rat when he's thirsty, though. Thanks for the pointer. I'll try that as soon as he gets through this shed.