Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,

I made a rather uneducated purchase this weekend. I'm sure everyone who is reading this is rolling their eyes at me etc. But please bear with me. Anyway, I got a 2 month old red tailed boa this weekend. It's currently residing in a 20 gallon fish tank. The breeder told me I could control her size by feeding and habitat. Upon reading once I got home from the show, I found out that's not true at all.

She's really a very lovely friendly creature, and I would love to keep her. But I am a small person, a hair under 5 feet tall. I just want the opinion of experienced owners, will I be able to handle her?

Hello there. Nope, no lectures from me...I've bought animals on impulse as well (as I'm sure many people have). The important factor is that you're trying to do right by the animal you've bought. In my personal opinion, I don't think you'll have any problems handling an adult boa. I'm 5'6" and 4 of my adult boas are in the 7' range - with the exception of one incident (totally my error), I've rarely had any problems. My best friend is 5'2" and quite petite...and she regularly handles her 8' female boa and her 7' male boa with no problems.

Fed reasonably, your baby boa will take several years to reach her adult size. In essence, you will grow together because as she grows you will learn her behaviours and moods and adjust accordingly. As to feeding schedules, I feed my babies 1-2 appropriately sized prey animal every 7-10 days (usually hopper or small mice), juveniles & sub-adults 1-2 appropriately sized prey items every 2 weeks (usually large mice for juveniles and small rats for the sub-adults), and adults an appropriately sized prey item every 3-4 weeks. By appropriately sized, I mean a prey animal that will leave a slight lump once swallowed - roughly 1 1/2 times the snake's widest diameter. Sometimes I will occasionally feed two smaller prey items instead, but usually just a single prey animal. There are others who recommend a heavier feeding schedule, but I personally prefer to grow my boas at a slower rate and keep them leaner. Obesity isn't healthy in any animal and because many boas and pythons are quite sedentary animals, I don't believe in feeding them quite so often. If nothing else, you can follow a defecation schedule where you feed your boa after it defecates its last meal.

It is also important to the health of your boa that her environment is correct - temperature, humidity, fresh clean water and hides are all important factors. Learn as much as you can and you'll find yourself with a wonderful pet for many, many years.

Raven

Ya, pretty much everything Raven said. It's ok to buy an animal on impulse if you atleast have some kind of idea what your in for and know you can handle it atleast, but just learn more in the future. And i wouldnt reccomend controlling growth by temp and feeding at all, just keep on a good healthy feeding schedule like Raven said.

I about purchased a mite ridden calabar python Saturday on an impulse buy.I even had them talked down to 20 bucks just to take it off there hands.We all do it and it seems just to get worse as we get older.
It isnt going to be about how big and strong you are.It's about understanding your snake and reading your boas body language.
Your boa will let you know if he doesnt feel like being handled.
Purchasing a snake hook now and learning how to use it will come in handy for when your squirt grows up to be 20-40 pounds.
And for God's sake never smell like food.Dont have whatever your feeding your boa in the same room when handling.I agree with the above post about powerfeeding,just dont do it.My Guyana's are between 6 to 7 feet and around the 10 pound mark.There not fat lazy slugs and there not starving either.
Have fun with your new snake..Paul

We have all done it with something in our life, cars, jewelry, snakes….snakes….snakes…. So don’t feel too bad. Just make sure you have the ability to care for it when it does grow larger. A male will be smaller than a female and a BCI (AKA Colombian/Central American) will be smaller then a BCC (AKA True Redtail, Suriname, Peruvian etc). You will need to take several things into consideration….
1) you won’t be able to keep it in the fish tank for long, a custome cage will be needed at some point.
2) it will need to feed on Jumbo rats at some point so you will need to find a supply
3) It will need heat and humidity in its cage so you must be able to provide those things.

If you feel that you may have taken on too much to handle in 2 years then you should consider taking it to a reptile shop and maybe switching it for a smaller snake like a corn snake or ball python, both fantastic animals. If you try and hang onto it until he grows up then you will not give then next owner of the snake the chance to grow with it and they may never lean to trust the animal. If you feel you can raise the animal then they are truly great snakes with beautiful marking. Please feel free to browse through my web page, on the FAQ page you will find a lot of info about care for these guys.
Good Luck
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Jim Hopkins "Hoppy"
Hopkins Holesale Herps
Hopfam1@aol.com