Reptile & Amphibian Forums

On this Valentine's day, I was wondering if anyone had any really old boas, like the one from the Philadelphia zoo that lived about 40 years. If you have a story, please include your husbandry secrets. Thanks in advance for any replies.

I don't have anything 40 years old, but I do have one male boa that is 13 years old that I've had since he was a neonate and a female who is 11 years old that I've had since she was roughly a year old. I also have a ball python that I've had about 10 years and a Colombian rainbow boa I've had about 8 years. As for husbandry secrets, I don't overfeed them and I make sure they have the right temperatures, plenty of water, and clean cages. I think if a person provides the proper care for their pets, there is no reason they won't have a long healthy life together.

Raven

Thanks for the post Raven. So many posts are made of everyone's babies, and I LOVE THOSE POSTS, but with an animal that has the potential to live a very long time, I, (for one) would like to see more "mature" boas once in a while. Maybe even a "It happened to me" story that we could all relate to.

Here's a "It happened to me" story that you might enjoy.

My oldest snake is a Colombian rainbow boa that's about 16 years old, but I've only had him 7-8 years. I had gone into a pet store to pick up some mice and rats for the snakes I had at home and posted next to their door was a piece of paper offering a Free Rainbow Boa and the phone number. Well, who am I to pass up a free boa? Not to mention I knew someone looking for a rainbow boa. What I didn't know back then was that there was more than one type of rainbow boa and what I was about to find was not an orange and black beauty. I get home and tell my other half about this boa and he endulges me that we can go look at it.

I call the owner up and he says that he's looking to get rid of the snake but he's keeping the cage. Okay, no problem there. I knew exactly where he lived when he gave me the address and we went by there. He leads me into a spare bedroom to a ten gallon tank, with a fried heat rock (originally white like quartz but with an obvious brown burned area from a short), an empty water bowl, a fair amount of dried urates and feces and bits of old shed, and a 3 1/2-4' skinny brown snake with a lot of retained shed. He stated that the snake had bitten him and he was now afraid to handle it (or clean the cage, or water it, or feed it....). I looked at my other half and we both knew we'd be going home with the snake even though I had no clue exactly what it was. I reached in and picked up the vicious man-eating snake, who was cold to the touch and curled up quietly in my hands, not so much as a hiss. Did I mention it was fall or winter (can't remember which now, but it was cold) and the dufus had just gotten back from a two week vacation...and had had the electric company turn off the electricity so there would be no shorts in the wiring to cause a fire while he was away? I wanted to throttle the guy.

He told me the snake was 9-10 years old and that he'd had it since college (amazed that the poor creature lived that long with him). He claimed that it had eaten a mouse recently and how often it was fed. I listened patiently and quietly, knowing there was no way he'd done what he claimed if the snake was in the condition it was. If ever an animal was grateful to be rescued, I'd say it was this guy. After a good soaking to get rid of the old shed and plenty of water to drink, he settled in to his new warm home just fine. I took him to a friend who worked at a pet store that specialized in reptiles and asked him what kind of snake it was...being told a Colombian rainbow boa. After getting some basic advise on setup and reading what I could find on them, I started the slow process of bringing him back to health.

A vet visit or two and some supplements later, he started to fill out, his pattern started to show, he got his irredescence back, and he's grown to about 4 1/2 to 5 feet in length. These days he's plump, happy and healthy. As for being a biter, he's bitten me once in all the time I've had him - just within the past year. I had him around my arm while I finished up cleaning his cage and felt a scratching sensation (thought it was his scales digging into my arm while he crawled). When I turned to look, he was chewing on my forearm. I gave him a light tap on the head and he let go. Seems I was just tasty that day. As for the terrible bite? It didn't even hardly break the skin, just a few surface scratches. So much for the vicious snake, eh?

Raven

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