Reptile & Amphibian Forums

The boa in question has been in my possession since Dec 24, 2002 - so she isn't someone new and I've never had a single problem with her. What she is doing is inflating herself and making a VERY loud hissing sound while 'scrunching' her lower body up...a few times in succession (2-4). She did it this morning and she did it once before a couple of weeks ago. It almost reminds me of the way my cats will try to hack up a hairball. She has plenty of fresh water, humidity is fine, temps are fine, she was bred to one of my males but doesn't look gravid, and there are no signs of an RI. Any ideas? I'm totally puzzled about this.

Raven

We had one that was doing the same thing. At first we thought it was just trying to hack up a hairball, but it turns out he had a RI. It was in the beginning stages and he did not have mucus comming from his nose and mouth. We raised his temps and treated
him with Tylan. He is all better and doing great !!

Good luck.

Kathy

I had a Borneo rescue a long time ago where it did that. I did exactly that. I attributed it to obvious poor husbanbry. (Not saying that you are doing that just so we are clear.) They had the borneo housed with a large boa who tried to eat it. Then they housed it with a smaller boa in a screened top cage. So, there was no humidity for an animal that really needs it.
I tried to rescue it........But, it died soon after I had it. The vet verified that was the problem before it died. I was just too late unfortunately.

I really hope yours does better than mine. And, I'm sure it will.
John
-----
"To be the best..........You must lose your mind."

"I attributed it to obvious poor husbanbry."

If I didn't know how she had been kept, I'd come to the same conclusion. Her humidity ranges from 40-60% (still have to run heat here as the temps dropped back into the 50's daytime and 40's or less at night, so it dries the whole place out) but I try to keep the cages misted to boost humidity. The temps are ambient air in the house of 70-75F with the cages averaging ambient of 80F with a basking spot around 88-92F. FWIW, none of my other four adult boas are acting this way and none of the other snakes in the house are. She's only done this three times that I know of - twice a couple of weeks ago and once yesterday morning. I'd also suspected an RI, but she shows no other signs of one....I'm boosting her temps anyway, just to be safe. This is just so odd for me...the only health problems I've ever had were from rescues. This girl has been in great shape since day one when I got her. To top it off, of the three adults I have that I got as adults, she's the sweet one...the other two are flighty and don't care much for handling. Guess I'll continue to keep an eye on her and if this continues we'll be making a trek to the vet.

Thanks for the input!
Raven