Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I purchased my first tree boa (amazon) about 3 days ago. I have five years experience with snakes and I decided to get an ATB because I liked their color, long body, and large head. They are very neat snakes and I'm ready for something different.

Due to technical difficulties I was not able to post my pics on kingsnake, but you can see them if you go to
http://www.scalywonders.com/atb.html

Anyway, my boa is a female that is captive bred and two years old (about 3ft). I'd like to know what variation she would be considered. She is mostly light tan/brown with some pattern (mostly dorsal) but I don't think she is a "yellow". Is she still considered a garden phase?

I'm rather concerned about her weight. I know that ATBs are long slender snakes, but I think she looks underweight. I don't know if you can tell in the picture. I plan to feed her every 10 days, however I'm used to feeding snakes multiple mice per feeding. Is this also done with tree boas? I know they have a slower metabolism. I'm thinking I should feed two hoppers, maybe smaller (judging from body width). Does this sound ok?

I have gotten the humidity up to 70 percent. Does this need to be constant or only peak high about once or twice a day? I think I read that mainy people mist the enclosures twice daily?

One more thing..
I read that a temp. higher than 85 F can kill an ATB. Right now my boa is in a 29gal tall tank and I have a 40 watt bulb at one end. The top climbing branch temp. peaks at 86.2 F and the bottom of the cage ambient temp. is 75.1 F (where the hidebox is). I'm not supplying any belly heat. A nocturnal light comes on at night. Does this sound ok or should I lower the wattage even more?

Thanks for any help with my new addition.
Jessica

Hi Jessica. Congrats on your new ATB. She's a really nice looking garden phase!! As far as feeding goes, I feed mine, wait until they poop it out and then feed again. My big male (around 5ft long) eats two rat crawlers every 5-7 days, my female (about 4 feet long) eats 1 adult mouse every 5-7 days and my little female (about 2 feet long) eats 2 fuzzies every 5-7 days as well. Keep in mind that they all process and eliminate (i.e. poop!) their prey animals in that time frame. My temps are room temp and I live in S. FL, so they vary from nighttime lows around 76-77 to daytime highs around 88-90. The temps only hit that high for a few hours late in the day, and I would say the average daytime temp is around 84. They get no supplemental heat this time of year. I believe that high temps killing tree boas is only if they are forced to stay at excessive temps for long periods of time. If I owned your snake, I would start her off with 1 mouse, wait until she pooped it out and then offer another. She should have a lump in her body for not more than about 2 days. If the prey item makes no lump, increase the prey size or offer more items and if it stays more then 2 days, you've overfed and run the risk of a regurge. For humidity, make sure it stays around 60% MINIMUM (70% is better) and you should be OK. Of course, make sure that increases to closer to 100% during shed cycles. It can be a real pain (literally!) trying to manually shed an unhappy ATB! I hope that answers some of your questions and now you have the task of getting to know your snake and what will work for her and what will not. Good luck! Billy

>>I purchased my first tree boa (amazon) about 3 days ago. I have five years experience with snakes and I decided to get an ATB because I liked their color, long body, and large head. They are very neat snakes and I'm ready for something different.
>>
>>Due to technical difficulties I was not able to post my pics on kingsnake, but you can see them if you go to
>>http://www.scalywonders.com/atb.html
>>
>>Anyway, my boa is a female that is captive bred and two years old (about 3ft). I'd like to know what variation she would be considered. She is mostly light tan/brown with some pattern (mostly dorsal) but I don't think she is a "yellow". Is she still considered a garden phase?
>>
>>I'm rather concerned about her weight. I know that ATBs are long slender snakes, but I think she looks underweight. I don't know if you can tell in the picture. I plan to feed her every 10 days, however I'm used to feeding snakes multiple mice per feeding. Is this also done with tree boas? I know they have a slower metabolism. I'm thinking I should feed two hoppers, maybe smaller (judging from body width). Does this sound ok?
>>
>>I have gotten the humidity up to 70 percent. Does this need to be constant or only peak high about once or twice a day? I think I read that mainy people mist the enclosures twice daily?
>>
>>One more thing..
>>I read that a temp. higher than 85 F can kill an ATB. Right now my boa is in a 29gal tall tank and I have a 40 watt bulb at one end. The top climbing branch temp. peaks at 86.2 F and the bottom of the cage ambient temp. is 75.1 F (where the hidebox is). I'm not supplying any belly heat. A nocturnal light comes on at night. Does this sound ok or should I lower the wattage even more?
>>
>>Thanks for any help with my new addition.
>>Jessica

There's nothing worse than seeing an ATB with 3 layers of shed on it so be very mindful.

If my ATBs fail to shed in one piece I use a hydration chamber to get the humidity up. I take a small, clean, ventiliated tupperware container with wet moss and the snake and place it about 1/3rd of the way over the heated area in the cage.

Otherwise I think Billy Boy covered everything you need to know.

Nice snake by the way.