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Hey everyone. Looks like I'll be hanging out with you guys from now on. I bought a Solomon Island Groud Boa yesterday at a reptile expo. She's 5 years old, presumeable captive raised. She was fed in the cage her whole life, so she is extremely nippy while in her cage (and out of the cage once in awhile I'm told). I just look through the plastic and she starts striking at the air.

I'm not going to touch her again for a week while she gets used to things. But I handled her the day I brought her home (who can resist?). And we completely freaked eachother out. A little background - I have a completely docile corn snake, and I have some experience with nippy snakes because I kept northern water snakes when I was a kid. But the ground boa threw me for a loop.

She would sit still unless provoked. When she moved she was pretty jumpy. I stupidly tried to take a picture of her and the camera cord dangled in her face and she hissed and jumped. And I jumped too! Then she quickly wrapped tightly around my wrist. Her face was almost pressed against the inside of my arm and I was worried she would chomp on me. I started freaking out! I could feel my pulse in my wrist because she was squeezing so hard. I am NOT used to that.

I lowered her into the viv and she headed for a hide and I unpeeled her back end from my arm and she released me. But I started having second thoughts about this boa thing. Very intimidating for such a small snake.

Tonight she cruised the viv and pooped in her water bowl. So all looks normal.

Here's my questions:

Is it normal for them to act that way (squeezing tight and moving quickly) when being handled? Or do they generally calm down?

Any tips on how to take her out of the viv without being eaten?

What is an adult ground boa bite comparable to? How much can I expect to bleed? lol

Right now my viv has a warm end at 82 degrees and a cool end at 73. Sound OK?

She is probably as thick as a banana. What size mouse/rat should I feed her?

Do you think there's any chance she will calm down with some patient handling? Or are they just generally jumpy, instinctual snakes?

I think that's all for now. I'll post some pics when I figure out how.

Thanks for any advice!

Hopefully the pics will show up

Well, candoia's are generally more aggressive captives, however alot of it depends on the individual. I have one that wants nothing more than to kill me. I also have some that don't seem to mind as much as long as you don't make fast movements...and I also have one that doesn't seem to care at all.

My paulsoni usually leave dozens of pin pricks whereever they bite...not usually to horrible of an experience.

Good luck and check out www.candoia.s5.com
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Chris Smith
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well, i can tell you about mine. she? is a soloman island gound boa paulsoni and 2-3 years old. mine is only like as think as a persons index finger maybe. i feed her f/t hoppers. she too can be fisty and jumpy at times. i had her out once and was just holding her when she suddenly gave me a bite but let go. they have LOTS of sharp teeth in there! but it didn't break skin. she doesn't like anything waving around her face/head. plus she was about to shed so that probably had something to do with it.

she sometimes has her moments when she wants to bite me when i reach in for her but i pick her up anyways. she has a great feeding response so that is probably why. i feed her in her cage. i do all mine. i also make sure i handle them between feedings so they don't get the idea everytime hands come in its food.

what was yours eating before? best to find out and feed her that. i've read these things can be hard to feed sometimes but mine has eaten every time i offered her food. i live in a warm climate, arizona, so i just have a light on her tank for day time heat on a timer. thats it. she is doing great. although i want to move her from the 10 gallon she is in to something bigger. she wasn't very big when i got her last year and the guy told me she was a 2 year old. they are very small little boas.
i don't know anything else. i just have 7 snakes. all pets. my biggest is a jungle python 7 foot long. then 4 corns and a tangerine milk snake.

>>She is probably as thick as a banana.

Hi – Well, judging from the size of your snake versus the size of those keys in the photo, you must get some pretty small bananas where you shop.

Anyway, who can say for sure if the snake will remain nippy all its life? For sure, some of them do. I’d suggest you wear gloves at first while handling it to avoid mutual freaking out. They can be a little difficult to work with hooks since they tend to grab on so strongly to anything available for support, as you discovered when it wrapped you up. Just be slow and gentle and let it feel secure by allowing it to grip onto your wrist or whatever.

Here’s a pic of one of mine – closer to banana thickness, maybe.

-Joan

oh, yours is beautiful! how old?? here is a photo of mine when i first got her.. she is a little longer now. i was told mine was like 2 years old. i've had her like 8-10 months.i'd have to look.she seems small to me but i guess they are small boas.

I don't know how old he is. I got him over 21 years ago as a wild-caught import when he weighed 81 grams and was approximately 23 inches long.

>>oh, yours is beautiful! how old?? here is a photo of mine when i first got her.. she is a little longer now. i was told mine was like 2 years old. i've had her like 8-10 months.i'd have to look.she seems small to me but i guess they are small boas.
>>

21 years?!

So you have some experience then.

What size mouse/rat should my snake be eating? I have no experience with non-coloubrids and I can't find an answer on any caresheets.

You said her previous owner fed her 2 hoppers a week, and she still fits in a deli cup? Why would you want to cut back on her food, then? She doesn’t look obese? Just keep track of her weight, and as long as she is continuing to grow while staying relatively slim, you (and she) will be fine. If you want to feed her less often, she looks like she could handle small mice. So maybe feed her one small mouse every 10 to 14 days.

-Joan

>>21 years?!
>>
>>So you have some experience then.
>>
>>What size mouse/rat should my snake be eating? I have no experience with non-coloubrids and I can't find an answer on any caresheets.

Thank you so much for putting up with my questions.

Every care sheet I've read says to feed them every 3 weeks or so. That's where I was coming from. I guess it comes down to whether my particular snake is putting on weight like you said.
I'll offer a mouse later this week if she ever comes back out of her hide.

Let the age and condition of the animal be your guide as far as size and frequency of meals. Also, you might consider just leaving the next meal at the entrance of the hide box without requiring the animal to come out.

I fed the red Candoia in the photo only 8 times last year; the meals ranged from one mouse up to one 100 gram rat. But that is an old animal which I allowed to feed too frequently in the past and he put on too much weight.

-Joan

>>Thank you so much for putting up with my questions.
>>
>>Every care sheet I've read says to feed them every 3 weeks or so. That's where I was coming from. I guess it comes down to whether my particular snake is putting on weight like you said.
>>I'll offer a mouse later this week if she ever comes back out of her hide.

So she's not quite banana size. I've read that boas can take comparatively larger prey than a corn snake. And I haven't found any information on what size they generally like. The person I bought her from said she was feeding her 2 hoppers. Every WEEK. yipes. From what I read the snake should be obese by now. I'm going to let her go a full 21 days before feeding from here on out.

That is a beautiful animal in that photo. I guess my snake was just hanging on for dear life instead of trying to teach me a lesson or something . Looks like in the photo yours has a good grip on your arm.

At first I wasn't sure if these snakes are generally nervous or if they calm down. I guess they vary across the board.

Hopefully next week she'll be ready to come out of the cage and say hi.

One thing I'm still concerned about - my substrate is 84 degrees over the heat pad. But the air temp is hanging around 72 throughout the cage. The humidity stays around 60%. Does this sound OK? I'd rather keep a higher background temperature but I'm finding it difficult.

Thanks for the responses guys! Keep them coming!

'hanging on for dear life' seems to be common to c.carinata, my adult female and juveniles I handled in the past both displayed this behavior. For such a small snake they have a startling grip!
I suppose some will remain snappy their whole lives but all I have worked with settled down once they became used to my scent. I would reccomend using a small snake hook to pull the boa out of the tank, as my female is a very aggressive feeder and will strike at moving objects passing 20 feet away when she is hungry. As for the bite, they do have a lot of sharp teeth and a big head, but fortunately stay small, my female is 10 years old and just over 3', I believe the maximum size is around 4'. I have never been bitten by my female, but I imagine it would be no worse than a defensive strike by a large colubrid (adult corn/rat/gopher, etc.) As well as the gripping, she has always remained frightened of fast/excessive movement and anything getting near her head. If I am careless and touch any part of her head or neck, she will immediately give me the death grip, jerk her head back near or under her coils, and occasionally retaliates by peeing all over me. My advise would be constant, daily handiling (use a glove on one hand and let the boa strike at that for a while, it may soon realise how futile its actions are and start to regard you as just another harmless, moving tree). As far as food size, ground boas are some of the most primitive snakes, their jaws and skull are not as flexible as most pythons and boas. I feed my female small rat pups; she is certainly capable of killing and consuming a larger rodent but I feel that the smaller rats are easier for her to handle. When she consumed larger rats, she would get about to the shoulder, and then spit it out, reposition the food and try again, sometimes it took her more than 10 trys to get it right. So now I just give her 3 small rat pups once a week instead of 1 larger rodent. Good luck!
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Heather J. Martin
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1 Solomon island ground boa, female
1 Green iguana, male
1 Ball python, gender unknown
1 Green anaconda, juvenile, gender unknown
1 Burmese python, 9', female

I made a mistake at the end of the post, sorry! It's three small rat pups a month, not per week...
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Heather J. Martin
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1 Solomon island ground boa, female
1 Green iguana, male
1 Ball python, gender unknown
1 Green anaconda, juvenile, gender unknown
1 Burmese python, 9', female

She has been sitting in her hide for 13 days since I got her and I decided to take her out to make sure she's still OK

My plan is to take her out and put her down on the back of a chair or something and let her sit for awhile. With dim lights and no distractions. Then I'll just put her back in her cage. I'll do this once a week and then start handling her more.

Anyway. I dumped her out of her hide into my hand and she seemed calm. So I put her on the back of a chair and she just sat there. Her colors are COMPLETELY different than the day I brought her home. She was grey with a black head. Now she is entirely reddish brown. I think it's because she's calmed down a lot.

Anyway, I sat there watching Seinfeld while she explored the chair. It was funny - at first she started moving so slowly it was barely noticable to the naked eye. Once she got into the fake leaves, she started crawling around more. Whenever I walked by she would jerk her head back and freak out a bit though.

When the time came to put her away, I didn't even have to untangle her from the rungs of the chair. She was a little nervous about being grabbed, but she didn't put up a fight. Once in my hands she was kind of exploring around.

Put her back in the cage and she went for a little dip in the pool and back into the hide.

So all went well! I'm so excited because she didn't flip out or attempt to bite.

a couple more shots. Sorry they're so crappy. I didn't want flashbulbs going off in her eyes at this point.

Hey, pretty snake! And I see what you mean about her size now. That must have been a big deli cup in the original photo. Candoia are definitely snakes which can go from light to dark in coloration.

-Joan

cool! looks like the same coloring as mine now. a paulsoni. is that what they told you yours is? she must of been stressed that is why she was so dark. mine is not even that big yet an i think she is like a 3 year old now. seems like she will never get as big as yours or the other big red one. must take years for them to get that size.

Very pretty! They can change color when stressed. Yours almost had the coloration of a Viper Boa initially. I think any snake that isn't handled sufficiently will be started easily and possibly nippy. Just take her out on a regular basis and she will chill. Looks like she's adapting well.
Has she eaten for you yet?

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1.1 Ball Python 1.1 corn snake 1.0 Bearded Dragon 1.0 Solomon Island Boas 0.0.2 fish 1.2 cats 3.1 kids 1.0 husband

Thanks. I haven't been handling her a lot yet (she tends to strike at my face, so I think I'll need a beer or two before I get her out of the cage again ).

She eats well. I've fed her adult mice and even a medium rat, frozen thawed. She definitely has no problem with feeding response.