Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Anyone out there haveing any luck with their boeleni?

We have maitained boeleni for years with a variety of problems. When we rained on them heavily they gotrespiratory infections & sometimes pink belly due to the wet substrate (I assume). When we cut the rain down and dry them out a little the respiratory problems cut back but we got other problems.

I also often see mouth infections, swollen lips, and occassionally swollen eyes which sometimes re related but not always to a high trich infection.

Based on what I have heard about their nat hist, they are found in areas of high elevation, cool temps, heavy rain, etc...But they utilze heavy rick outcroppings to bask and maintain body temps.

So how to keep them cool, hydrated, but not wet?

Any thoughts???

The only way I can think of to solve this problem is to have a humid hide filled with sphagnum moss. Keep the humidity fairly high (like 70%) in that hide. Then use another hide that is the same temp and humidity as the cage(like 50% humidity), that way if it wants to hide but not be moist, it can. The snake should regulate itself, like if it wants to have humidity, it will go in the moist hide, if it doesn't, it will go in the other hide. That is probably the best solution. Another solution is to have a divided cage, one side gets rained on, the other side doesn't. Yet another solution is to use newspaper and have the cage rained on. Then, take out the newspaper and replace it with dry newspaper after the rain is over. That would solve the belly rot, but some humidity would remain in the cage. Hope this helps!

How much $ dit you spend on the boeleni group?
And you probably never went to see boelen's pythons in the wild, and find out all about the places they live.
Now here's the question.....
Why not? If you spend so much money on buying snakes that are known to be almost impossible to keep, why not spend a little bit more? go and see how they live.

Ow, I'm not attacking you or anyone else who keeps boelen's pythons, but it's what I would do, because nobody knows exactly how and where the snakes live, and all you here about boelen's pythons is problems.

Cheers,
Bas

>>Anyone out there haveing any luck with their boeleni?
>>
>>We have maitained boeleni for years with a variety of problems. When we rained on them heavily they gotrespiratory infections & sometimes pink belly due to the wet substrate (I assume). When we cut the rain down and dry them out a little the respiratory problems cut back but we got other problems.
>>
>>I also often see mouth infections, swollen lips, and occassionally swollen eyes which sometimes re related but not always to a high trich infection.
>>
>>Based on what I have heard about their nat hist, they are found in areas of high elevation, cool temps, heavy rain, etc...But they utilze heavy rick outcroppings to bask and maintain body temps.
>>
>>So how to keep them cool, hydrated, but not wet?
>>
>>Any thoughts???

They may be from regions that are cooler than we consider 'normal' (low 80's day - low 60's night - 365 days a year) but they're also masters at sucking every last drop of heat from the still very powerful equitorial sun. Their blacker than black coloration supports this theory. They probably have the ability to maintain a body temperature more on par with that of their lowland counterparts than we might think. I'm sure nature also provides them with plenty of insulated dens in which they can retreat to effectively maintain their body temperature. And again, probably more efficiently than we might think. Parasite free boeleni will thrive in captivity if kept warm like any other python, they will often suffer if kept cold. Somewhere in between lies the key to breeding them, but they must be healthy to breed and this requires warmth.

n/p