Reptile & Amphibian Forums

---- I'll start by saying that I keep a small collection (10 /-) of BCI, and take the upmost care in reguards to cleanliness, temperatures, and all around general care. I've been raising/breeding boas for about 11yrs, and this is a new issue that I'm dealing with.
About 3 weeks ago I had an '01 male het for albino die. The night before , I picked him up, and this slime came running out of his mouth (I know your thinking RI)- about 3-4 ounces. The next morning he was dead. I took him to the universities' vet clinic for a full necropsy. They found that he had a large hairball lodged 1/3 of the way down his intestines, and the fluid was coming from an infection starting there, and spreading thru the intestinal wall, and into the bloodstream.
Oddly enough, about 4 months ago, I had a female who wasn't depositing a stool for almost 3 weeks. I saw the same fluid (not as much). A few days later, she passed a huge stool that looked like all hair. She is doing fine. I raise my own rats, and feed pre-killed. My temperatures are 82 in the cool side/ 87 on the hot spot. My humidity levels are 70-75% .
My local vet(who raises snakes) isn't real sure of this, but she said that it wouldn't hurt to inject the pre-killed rats with extra amounts of water to make sure that they're keeping hydrated. Their stools have been seeming good lately.
I'm hoping that someone, who may have had this problem has a remedy for me. Please share any ideas that you may have. Thankyou in advance. D

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Tim W
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0.1 Dumeril Boa
0.1 Domestic Housecat

I also inject the f/t rats with water. I started doing this a while back because a female bci that I have was not passing stools for long periods of time. Since I've been adding the water (not a lot either, about 5cc) to the large rats everything runs smoothly. Since captive boas are very inactive compared to free-living boas, it can't hurt to give them some help to avoid constipation.

I also use the water-injected f/t rats for my adult GTP and 16-month Jampea dwarf retic. The GTP was also getting slow in the plumbing and I occasionally noticed too-dry stools with the Jamp. Even if the cage humidity is spot-on, if the animals don't drink enough for a while they can get bound up. Just like humans.

You could also raise the warm area to 90-95 degrees. As long as you have a cool end of around 78 - 84.

Bill

NP
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Jared Douglas

Why 95* ?
Cooking the snake is a good thing ?
How many keepers/breeders can actually be proven to have roasting temps at that level ?
Real world data proves to be much different.

T/

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>>Jared Douglas
>>

Ihle keeps his hot spots at 106.
Boaphile - 95
Myself - 90-95

I don't think any of us have cooked an animal yet, and we live in the real world.
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Jared Douglas

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