Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,

I have a 3 month old kenyan sand boa, and she skipped a feed last week because she was shedding, and then again this week for who knows why. When I was putting her back in her cage, I filled up her water like I do every week, and decided to show it to her just because she hadn't buried herself yet. When I put her nose in the water, she drank for a good 5 minutes. Since she drank so much this morning, I showed her the water again, and she still drank quite a bit. Do most kenyans drink out of their dish, or should I continue to show her the water once or twice a week? Also, could this have anything to do with her skipping the food, or is it probably something else?

Usually they find the water fine on their own, but babies drink more than adults. Did the snake shed in one piece? If so it's probably getting enough water. It's not entirely unusual for them to skip a week eating either. I'd just try again next week.
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Peter: It's OK, I'll handle it. I read a book about something like this.
Brian: Are you sure it was a book? Are you sure it wasn't NOTHING?

actually, she did not shed in one piece. She shed the front half of her body just fine, but the rear half did not shed. I put her in her feeding container with damp paper towels for about an hour and a half, then returned her to her cage, when she hadn't shed by the next day, I used a wet paper towel to peel back the edge of the skin, and then held it tight while she crawled out. I think I will go get her some sort of container to turn into a humidity box this weekend. The fact that she didn't shed completely didn't correlate with her drinking so much today.

A humidity box would probably be a good idea, just make sure the overall humidity in the rest of the cage doesn't get too high. If the Kenyan doesn't use the humidity box (I have snakes that won't), try a larger water dish.
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Peter: It's OK, I'll handle it. I read a book about something like this.
Brian: Are you sure it was a book? Are you sure it wasn't NOTHING?

Does anyone know what the max humidity for Kenyans would be? I have a humidity thing in her cage. Its the humidity/temperature thing from when I had an iguana. We live right next to the missouri river, so the humidity is generally pretty high no matter what. It probably wouldn't take much to get too humid, and I'd hate to make her sick trying to help.

I think 60% is pretty much ideal, they'll always shed quite nicely and don't get sick. At any rate, a humidity box will let the KSB choose its own humidity and we can hope he won't stay in there long enough to give himself a cold. Just in case you didn't know, symptoms of colds include a popping sound when the snake breathes. I've never had a Kenyan get one except for my first one. The pet store I got him from told me to keep a solid lid on his cage for humidity and I was too much of a newbie to know better... by the time I figured out what was making him sick it was too late.
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Peter: It's OK, I'll handle it. I read a book about something like this.
Brian: Are you sure it was a book? Are you sure it wasn't NOTHING?

Marvelous, thanks for all the info. The humidity is about 38% right now. I bought some disposable tupperware containers today, and will build her a humidity box tonight. You've been a great help, and I really appreciate it.

No problem, KSB's are my favorite and I like to help others out when I can. I've got something like 22 of them! The good thing about them is that they very rarely have problems, they're pretty hardy snakes. The bad thing about them is that they like to go on very long feeding strikes as adults and yelling 'It's been four months! EAT!' at them doesn't work at all...
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Peter: It's OK, I'll handle it. I read a book about something like this.
Brian: Are you sure it was a book? Are you sure it wasn't NOTHING?

Since I'm talking to a fellow KSB fan, I guess I'll share my pics too! There are three pics of her in this album, from when she was 2 months. Yes, her tail is crooked, she was born that way. The kink is about halfway between her vent and the tip of her tail, so it hasn't hurt her so far. I actually picked her out when she was 12 hours old because of that little kink. She just kinda stood out from the crowd.
Link

Something was wrong with the pics, I'll try again later... I really want to see those bettas!
Here's a pic of what I think is my prettiest Kenyan.

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Peter: It's OK, I'll handle it. I read a book about something like this.
Brian: Are you sure it was a book? Are you sure it wasn't NOTHING?

Yeah, That would definately be a pretty Kenyan. MSN was messing stuff up last night. I don't know whats up. Its not just my pictures either, its everyones. Is ther another way to post a picture? I have them on my hard drive, but its usually easier to just post a link to my photo album.

Well, I hope so anyway

Ok, so I can't load the pic, heres a link instead.

Is it working yet?
Chanana's pic