Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Getting ready to start building a cage for my 8 month old dumeril boa. I only want to build one so it has to be big enough for when he's full grown. I was thinking 6 foot wide by 2 feet tall by 2 feet deep. All my reading tells me they're strictly terrestrial and do not climb - everyone agree with that? Do these dimensions sound right? What's the longest I can expect him to grow and how long will it take to reach that length? Thanks for your input!!

Hello, as far as length of your animal I have had adult animals from 4ft-9ft, with an an over all average of 6-7ft. Growth rates depend on feed and linage. My Arancio phase male is a little over 5ft at 4yrs( I grew him slow and didnt feed heavy, feeding every 10days or so since 3ft) I also have a sibling female I held back with because she looked exactly like mom. Mom was well over 9ft and 40 some pounds when I lost her. However the female has been a stubborn feeder and might just be touching 4ft at 4yrs old. Ive had other that were 5ft in two years. It depends on feed responce and linage. As far as climbing out of curiosity they will however unlike other species its kind of an up and down thing. They wont hang out on a perch or anything to that effect like some radtails or other species will. Its just kind of a new toy in the cage thing they have to explore. I use mainly alll Vision cages and for dumerils prefer the 432 models 54x36x18high. This size cage gives enough space to allow planty of room for temp gradients. One common mistake with Dumerils is people tend to lump their care in with that of common boas, temps, feeding etc. And when this is done youll wind up with an overfeed fat snake that look like a slug. In the smaller cages you cant get the you can in a bigger one. My 5fters will be 110 or so in the hot spot and room temp(mid 70's) on the cool side(except breeding season everything comes down a bit) All my Dumerils will spend a fair amount of time in both sides. While the 4ft cages I have theyll spend most in the cool side and why a basking area in the 90's its hard to get the cool side under 82. When kept in the 80's all the time it increases their motabolism, they eat more and digest it faster. Which causes them to pack on more weight. Most people veiw Dumerils like blood pythons these short thick bodied snakes and theirs nothing wrong with a nice trim Dumerils. Everyone I have spoken to thats seen them in the wild agrees that they were not these fat snakes that we often see in captivity. Anyway sorry for the rant. but 6x2x2 sounds great and will work great. Its just a personal thing of mine but I prefer them 3ft deep. I do all my breeding in Visions however have a couple cages I built that were 54x36x18 so that way I could stack them with my visions. I dont know what your building it out of but 6x2x2 you can get the cage done out of 2 sheets of 8x4 plywood, meliman etc where a 6x3x2high would require 4 sheets. Anyway hope this helps Jason
-----
Jason & Danica
Heads I win tails you lose. Get out of my way I am coming through. Roll the dice and dont think twice when we crush....crush....crush em...crush em! Now I lay you down to rest. You'll never be more then second best! Megadeth
Classic Dums frozen feeders

Those cage dimensions sound fine to me. Just make sure if you're putting the snake in it now that you have plenty of hides for it. They will go off feed if they feel insecure and they are secretive snakes anyway - in the four years I've had mine I rarely see them out in the open in their cages. From what I understand from the breeder of my own pair of dumerils, they grow slower than redtails and should be fed on a more moderate schedule...in other words, not as often as a redtail would normally be fed. They are prone to obesity if overfed potentially causing a host of other problems. My pair were born in 1999 and the female is roughly 5 feet long, the male about 4 feet long (he was a picky feeder when I first got him and didn't take off like she did). They should reach somewhere between 6-8 feet in length, pretty much the same as redtails. Hope this helped. Raven

the female I was speaking of above, feeds great these days. The only way I can get her to eat though is by keeping her in a sweater box in a rack unit. I also have another male like that hes in the 4.5ft range. If I have either of those two animals in anything but a sweater box they will not eat.
-----
Jason & Danica
Heads I win tails you lose. Get out of my way I am coming through. Roll the dice and dont think twice when we crush....crush....crush em...crush em! Now I lay you down to rest. You'll never be more then second best! Megadeth
Classic Dums frozen feeders

I learned about the necessity for hides because of my male - had a terrible time getting the picky little snot to eat...lots of trial and error. Letting them burrow in aspen shavings is another option...did that, too. You just have to be careful reaching into the cage...my female was (and is) notorious for lunging from her hiding spot and latching onto anything moving. SHE never had an issue with feeding. LOL It's also good seeing someone else recommend a more moderate feeding schedule for dums. I've heard so many people say they're just heavier bodied than redtails...and that it's normal...when in fact they've simply been overfed. And I've gotten a lot of flack over the years I've had my pair by choosing to feed them more moderately - was even told once on another forum that I didn't deserve to have my snakes because I was obviously starving them. Funny, my vet seems to think they're in great shape. I'll take my chances though, I'd rather have trim snakes with muscle tone that thick, nicely-patterned sausages. lol

Ya'll have a good weekend!

Raven

I feed mine in the same habitat she is housed in. No problem feeding either live or frozen. Just about all of the time she stays under the sheet moss (which is where the under tank heater is). At 30 inches she is feeding on 1/2 rat size prey. She is one year old as of Oct.

Thanks for the great input. I was going to go with 2 foot deep for ease of placing on a shelf system - biggest support bracket they sell is 22 inches. I guess it still wouldn't tip off the front of the shelf if the cage was 30 or 36 inches deep - I'll think about it some more. It certainly increases the floor area and gives more room for a temp gradient. Speaking of the gradient, I was going to fashion a long plywood "box" the entire 6 foot width of the cage with openings at each end as a hide so he can seek out a desireable temperature even when he is in his hide. A 3 foot deep cage would let me make this hide a little wider for his comfort - I think I've talked myself into the 3 foot depth!!

You guys scared me a little with the stories about feeding problems. I must be lucky - Zorro is the best eater of my 5 snakes, hands down. Getting a medium f/t rat about every week. He's never refused a meal yet.

Again, thanks for the great input!!

If you're worried about the 22" support bracket, you could cut the depth to 28"-30" (2'4"-2'6". Two of my adult Colombian boas (one 6 footer, one 7 footer) are housed in 48" X 28" X 28" Vision cages and seem fine with it (neither are terribly active snakes). As for why that size cage...I got a good deal from a breeder selling off his old cages. I'm also in the process of planning to build a multi-cage unit and plan on those being 4' X 2 1/2' X 1' per unit with an overall height between 5'-6'. While I like the deeper cages, you can still shorten the depth somewhat and still have a cage large enough to house the snake comfortably. Just another thought.

Raven