Reptile & Amphibian Forums

what do all of you think about amazon tree boas as a first arboreal snake. iv never owned any kind befor and i was told that they make a good starter for arboreals, and i wanted to know what the experianced thought

thanx nevin

I honestly do not think amazon tree boas are very good, I find carpet pythons much easyer to keep then amazons. But thats just my thought, would it be the first aboreal or first snake? If its the first snake I would get a ball python or corn snake, they are much better then aboreals. But if you all ready have experence I would go after a jungle carpet python, which are aboreal, but I have never kept the jungles, I keep the coastals and a coastal diamond intergrade. The problems with amazon tree boas is that most of them are very aggressive and can inflect bad bites. They also have to have high humidty which can be a challange at first to keep up depending on the cage you keep it in. Also all aboreals can be hard to work with and to remove the cage and do the normal cage cleanings and record keeping, they like to coil around any thing near them and hange on for dear life, and they are good at it to! How ever, amazon tree boas can be taimed down, but only to a degree, its hard to find a true taim amazon, and still they will have there aggressive nature. But if you dont mind doing all that, they make great captives, and are very intresting to work with and watch. If you get one I would get a CBB baby, and besure that it is healthy and eating good on f/t pinks or fuzzys, some babies can be picky eaters.
Well good luck!
Philip
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1.1.1 amazon tree boas
0.1.2 normal corn snake
1.0.3 snow corn
0.0.3 amelanistic corns
0.0.2 anerythristic corns
1.1 goins king snakes
0.1 argentine boa
0.1.1 red tail boa
0.0.1 Coastal carpet python
0.0.1 Ball python
0.1 columbian rainbow boa
0.0.1 Black rat snake
0.0.2 eastern garter snakes
0.1 Speculated king snake
0.0.2 Red eared sliders
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1 gelding horse

thanx for the advise, but it is my first arborial snake, and i really wanted to move on to gtps but that is why i thought atb would b a good bet, but ill prob wind up taking your advise.

My first arboreal was 3 amazon tree boas that I got from John Camp. 1.1 gardens and 1.0 Red/Yellow, the red/yellow is psychotic as they come, both the gardens are handleable. I keep them all (except small babies which I keep in shoebox type tubs) in Barrs cages with dowl rods screwed inside for hanging places. John Camp keeps his amazons in the same manner. I mist mine 2 to 3 times a day. The key is to spike the humidity and let it dry off again. Too wet is bad. I keep them heated with blacklights in dome lamps controlled by a thermostat. I get perfect sheds almost every time with this method. Knowing this information, I don't think it's too far of a stretch to owning an Amazon as a first arboreal isn't too far of a stretch. Here I have some pics of my old steup at my old house. Check the Isis, Osiris, and Snappy pics. The others are kinds cool too

Image

Oh, and in case you were wondering:
5.2 Amazon Tree Boas
1.1 Striped Albino Cali Kings
1.1 San Mateas and Joshua Tree Rosy Boas
2.1 Ball Pythons
1.0 wierd dark central american boa(not sure where from)
1.0 Corn Snake(Florida locale)
1.0 Dumerils Boa
1.1.4 Crested Geckos
2.3 Leopard Geckos
1.0 Whites Tree Frog
1.0 Degu(wierd rodent thing)
1.1 White Mice(pinky farm)

Good post, the reason I did not recomend amazon tree boas is a few other matters. First can some times can be hard to find good healthy amazons depending on were you look. At the ky reptile expo I go to I have only found 3-4 good healty amazons there in the 2 years I have been going. The rest are just imported parasite loaded junk. I just got one from there from a guy who took awful care of it, it was a nice 3 foot very nicely colored high red with good yellow eyes. I was looking at buying it from the breeder a few months ago, and ended up buying a halloween phase insted, this guy sold it to some other vendor, and 4 months latter it was in the worst shape ever. Had stuck shed all over it, its eye caps were all messed up, and its lower jaw was hanging down slightly. He was trying to sell it for $120.00 but I was able to talk him down to trade for a baby snow corn and $20.00, not a bad deal. So far I got allot of the stuck shed off, and a good friend helped me get the stuck eye caps off. His lower jaw is doing better and no signs of RI, he also has a die hard feeding responce.

This is the reason I dont recomend them, its very easy to slack off on there care and the resultes can be deadly. Let the humidty drop to long and you might end up with RI and bad stuck sheds and dehydroaton (spelling?) also there temperment can make it easy to neglet them. So as long as you can find a good healthy CBB one that has a good bill of health and is eating good on F/T rodents, and your willing to take on the task then they are good beggner aboreals, just a warnning, it will be allot diffrent then your ball python or corn snake.
Any how,
Good luck!
-----
1.1.1 amazon tree boas
0.1.2 normal corn snake
1.0.3 snow corn
0.0.3 amelanistic corns
0.0.2 anerythristic corns
1.1 goins king snakes
0.1 argentine boa
0.1.1 red tail boa
0.0.1 Coastal carpet python
0.0.1 Ball python
0.1 columbian rainbow boa
0.0.1 Black rat snake
0.0.2 eastern garter snakes
0.1 Speculated king snake
0.0.2 Red eared sliders
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1 gelding horse

Oh, agreed, I give people the benefit of the doubt to know what to look for and do their homework before they go to buy a snake. I have gotten lucky as my first ones came from John Camp who is just about the biggest and best Amazon breeder around imo. I have seen some at shows I would have thought hard about before taking home for free.

thanx alot guys. snakes are my favorite animals and i have never niglegted any of the snakes i have owned. from balls to corns to milks and all differant kinds of boas, adn right now i have a 3 1/2 ft brazilain rainbow boa (shes my baby). so yeah i do no alot about parisites and infections and such, and i have done alot of research, and alot of it said that they do make good beginers, but i figured i would ask some down to earth ppl rather then just beleaving the "experts". so like i said thanx alot and ill take both ur advises.

nevin

Most of the bad things you mentioned are husbandry related and not at all amazon specific. Slack off that bad and ANY snake will suffer. Take care of them like you should and they'll do fine. Common sense pretty much takes care of everything else you said. So, other than that, do you have any other reasons to recommend against someone getting into amazons? I just don't understand why you would be on the treeboa forum discouraging folks from pursuing an interest in treeboas. Seems like the anti-treeboa thing to do.

>>Good post, the reason I did not recomend amazon tree boas is a few other matters. First can some times can be hard to find good healthy amazons depending on were you look. At the ky reptile expo I go to I have only found 3-4 good healty amazons there in the 2 years I have been going. The rest are just imported parasite loaded junk. I just got one from there from a guy who took awful care of it, it was a nice 3 foot very nicely colored high red with good yellow eyes. I was looking at buying it from the breeder a few months ago, and ended up buying a halloween phase insted, this guy sold it to some other vendor, and 4 months latter it was in the worst shape ever. Had stuck shed all over it, its eye caps were all messed up, and its lower jaw was hanging down slightly. He was trying to sell it for $120.00 but I was able to talk him down to trade for a baby snow corn and $20.00, not a bad deal. So far I got allot of the stuck shed off, and a good friend helped me get the stuck eye caps off. His lower jaw is doing better and no signs of RI, he also has a die hard feeding responce.
>>
>> This is the reason I dont recomend them, its very easy to slack off on there care and the resultes can be deadly. Let the humidty drop to long and you might end up with RI and bad stuck sheds and dehydroaton (spelling?) also there temperment can make it easy to neglet them. So as long as you can find a good healthy CBB one that has a good bill of health and is eating good on F/T rodents, and your willing to take on the task then they are good beggner aboreals, just a warnning, it will be allot diffrent then your ball python or corn snake.
>>Any how,
>>Good luck!
>>-----
>>1.1.1 amazon tree boas
>>0.1.2 normal corn snake
>>1.0.3 snow corn
>>0.0.3 amelanistic corns
>>0.0.2 anerythristic corns
>>1.1 goins king snakes
>>0.1 argentine boa
>>0.1.1 red tail boa
>>0.0.1 Coastal carpet python
>>0.0.1 Ball python
>>0.1 columbian rainbow boa
>>0.0.1 Black rat snake
>>0.0.2 eastern garter snakes
>>0.1 Speculated king snake
>>0.0.2 Red eared sliders
>>--------
>>1 gelding horse

I say go for it! Amazons are awesome! And they're not at all difficult to keep healthy in captivity. In fact, I find them to be extremely hardy in comparison to many other species. Just don't be a bargain shopper. Spend the extra money to get yourself a nice cbb or a nice cb from a trusted source. Start with a good one and it'll be as rock solid as any snake you own.

I am not "anti tree boa" I keep 4 amazon tree boas my self and I breed amazon tree boas. It just makes me mad seeing people all the time (Im not talking about on here, im talking about what I see at the shows) jump into them not ready (heck I was, I was 12 and knew nothing), most of the time the animal ends up being neglected on the humidty part of there care, then the animal starts to get a bad shed, retained eye caps, RI and some times mouth rott.

They are also not the best starter snakes becuse the new keeper reaches his or her arm into the cage to remove the snake to clean the cage, and bam they are bit, after that the new keeper is afrade of there little pet and it starts to be negleted. Now it sounds like this guy is ready, he gave a list of his herps, and sounds like he has experence, and with BRB which are high humidty snakes. How ever, I will never recomend ATBs to starters, I feel like they should get more experence with other snakes first. I am not ant tree boa, I love these animals the most, and I want other people to do the same. If they get off on the wrong foot they wont.
Thanks for reading,
Dident mean to offend any one.
Philip

p.s
A few pictures.

-----
1.1.1 amazon tree boas
0.1.2 normal corn snake
1.0.3 snow corn
0.0.3 amelanistic corns
0.0.2 anerythristic corns
1.1 goins king snakes
0.1 argentine boa
0.1.1 red tail boa
0.0.1 Coastal carpet python
0.0.1 Ball python
0.1 columbian rainbow boa
0.0.1 Black rat snake
0.0.2 eastern garter snakes
0.1 Speculated king snake
0.0.2 Red eared sliders
--------
1 gelding horse

Ok, now we're on the same page.

>>>I love these animals the most, and I want other people to do the same.