Central American Boa - Need Suggestions - Page 2

01-13-2009, 10:18 PM

Thanks, its fantastic to get this great advice.

He is thin, you can see his ribs, as well as his muscle definition.

The people I got him from said that he was a Colombian, but the people at the pet store *Markheims* in Amherst NY, said they were nearly positive it was a CA.

I also got some good advice from the Pet store, telling me I should have the snake checked by a vet they recommended by the name of Dr. Wade, and I will surely have her do Fecal test for parasites.

As soon as someone gets home here, I'll be able to get some pic's of his full body, I wasn't able to last time, he had just eaten, and I didn't want to bother him.

I also noticed that he has his head up every once in a while, the people at the Pet Store said he could be "Star Gazing", and having difficulty breathing at times, they said I should put another lamp over the basking spot to get it warmer, and help his breathing.

01-14-2009, 12:02 AM

01-14-2009, 07:07 AM

Looks like a Colombian to me. Granted, could be crossed with another ssp, but he has a lot of characteristics found in Colombian Boa, that you don't normally see in a CA Boa. The head spear for one. Most CA Boa have a bit of a cross on their head spear (marking), some have them very distinct. Colombians and Boa from SA tend to have just a strait line looking sorta like a sword more then a cross. The circles on the back, most CA, but not all, tend to have these really tight circles between their saddles which are round. With Colombians, those circles tend to more oblong, then round. And the length also speaks Colombian. He's fairly long for a male. Most CA Boa also tend to have thinner saddles, where Colombians tend to have a bit thicker saddles like yours has.

Either way, after seeing those pictures, I change my stance a little. If that's a CA, he is underweight. If he's Colombian, he's grossly underweight.

As for which he is, I'd guess Colombian, but that's only a guess based on the pictures. When you cross ssp, it is possible for the offspring to take on the phenotype of either parent, or a mix of both parents. So looks are no longer a guarantee these days.

Lights. Not a good heat source, because they will work against your humidity efforts, and humidity levels are important for good lung health. Lights dry the air, and he can get an RI from that alone. Although I agree, a little extra warmth may be good for him right now, a light is not what you want to use. Get a UTH or flex watt or something along those lines.

Hope that helps you out.

01-14-2009, 09:30 AM

I agree with Rick, looks like a Colombian to me, and he does look underweight, but no need to panic as far as feeding goes. So long as he is eating every week or every two weeks(there is no need to feed him every few days)I would not be concerned about his weight. I am not saying that he should stay at that weight, you just need to be patient and realize that he did not get so underweight overnight so he is not going to gain the weight back overnight either. Make sure he has lots of clean water available at all times to drink, get him checked out by that vet, treat him for parasites if need be, and eventually,he should be fine.

I am also not a big fan of using lights for heating, I think belly heat is more effective. You can go to most any big chain pet store or your local reptile shop and pick up an undertank heating pad and a rheostadt. I would get both so you can control the heat output of the pad. I have also found heat rope used with a rheostadt to be effective. I have used foil tape(available at any home improvement store) to secure the heat rope to the bottom of the enclosure.

Good Luck with him..

01-14-2009, 05:01 PM

You mentioned that he had shed. Unless he was in blue in these pics, or its just the pic (or my eyes,) it appears that he has retained eye caps in this pic:
http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i2...0/DSC00168.jpg

If he does have retained eye caps you should soak him and put eye drops in his eyes daily. Watch the water temp.
After they are loose you can use a wet q-tip to rub them off. Be gentle though, and do not force them off! If they don't come off just continue soaking and putting eye drops in.

If he is showing signs of a raspatory condition take it easy on the misting and maybe take the moss out of his hide. Too much humidity can be worse than not enough. Definitely pick up a UTH, and use good quarantine and husbandry practices.
I would feed him 1 medium rat every 5 days, or 1 large rat every 7 days until he gets to a good weight and condition. If he is underweight and is fighting a resp infection/cold he will need the nutrition. If his resp problem gets worse he may start refusing food, so I would take advantage of his healthy appetite(without overdoing it.)

If he does regurge those Jumbo rats wait at least 2 weeks before feeding him again.

The people that are helping you here now (Richard, and Seamus) are more experienced than I am, so if they disagree with me, listen to them.
Good Luck!

01-14-2009, 05:18 PM

Sorry Marc and Alex, You both are probably more experienced with keeping Boa's than I am also. I just couldn't remember everyone that had posted.

Everyone has offered great advice here so far. I do have one question that may help Zach though.
Richard, You said that he should put his weight back on with a normal feeding every few weeks.
Seamus said smaller meals spaced a few days apart.
I was also thinking an appropriate sized meal every 5-7 days.

I would wait about 10-14 days before feeding again because of the 2-3 Jumbo rats he has already eaten, and then feed a single medium rat every 5 days, or a large rat every 7 days.
Would that be correct, or too heavy of a feeding schedule?

Feel free to correct any of my other suggestions(I know you would anyway,) I know y'all are more experienced than myself.

01-14-2009, 06:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RJK890

Sorry Marc and Alex, You both are probably more experienced with keeping Boa's than I am also. I just couldn't remember everyone that had posted.

Everyone has offered great advice here so far. I do have one question that may help Zach though.
Richard, You said that he should put his weight back on with a normal feeding every few weeks.
Seamus said smaller meals spaced a few days apart.
I was also thinking an appropriate sized meal every 5-7 days.

I would wait about 10-14 days before feeding again because of the 2-3 Jumbo rats he has already eaten, and then feed a single medium rat every 5 days, or a large rat every 7 days.
Would that be correct, or too heavy of a feeding schedule?

Feel free to correct any of my other suggestions(I know you would anyway,) I know y'all are more experienced than myself.

No, I actually said "Even a malnourished Boa will put their weight back on with a normal feeding every couple weeks." Meaning like 2, not a few.

To elaborate, I feed every 2 weeks, or 3 or 4, with all my Boa that are healthy, (right now that's all of them

) and they only get one item, and none are under weight. Boa Constrictor IMO, being the sort of predators they are, naturally do a lot of laying around, and they are rather efficient at nutritional absorption.

Reason 2 would be already mentioned above. Snakes have evolved past the stage where they use UV radiation to help synthesize needed chemicals for proper digestion. They use an enzymatic/micro-organism action to digest, and if this guy is under weight, and not in good health, then he is likely deficient in his GI tract. So he would need more time between meals, to build up sufficient enzymes and micro organisms in the GI tract, to get the best out of the next meal. An increase in heat could help boost this action though. So can this stuff. Nutribac df

Reason 3 would be that Boids when feeding undergo physiological changes. Chemicals and hormones flood the system, heart rate increases, blood pressure goes up. Although these things are natural, so is testosterone. What happens when a man has too much of that? Hair falls out, they rage and lose control, etc. IMO the scenario applies to critters too. Although natural, too much, or too often, can have adverse effects. (wish I still had the link to the study I am referring to, cuz it was neat. But I lost it when the HDD went.)

Anyway, 5 days I will disagree with emphatically, even if God himself told me so. But people do, what people do.

Every week, well, if the heats turned up, maybe that ain't so bad given the circumstances, but not for long term. 10-14 days would be best IMO, for the snakes long term health.

Don't get me wrong, I fed every week, fairly good sized meals, for over 15 yrs, maybe closer to 20. Also never had a Boa live past 10-12 yrs of age in that time. You have big breeders that fed the crap out of their snakes to get them up to breeding "size" in a year or 2, and I'd wager money, none of those animals are alive today, and I personally know of some that passed away at 6 and 7 yrs old. I believe wholeheartedly, it is because of our propensity to feed them.

Hope that helps explain my take on things. Doesn't mean I am right, it's just my belief, based on science, and hard evidence.

01-14-2009, 09:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RJK890

Sorry Marc and Alex, You both are probably more experienced with keeping Boa's than I am also. I just couldn't remember everyone that had posted.

Everyone has offered great advice here so far. I do have one question that may help Zach though.
Richard, You said that he should put his weight back on with a normal feeding every few weeks.
Seamus said smaller meals spaced a few days apart.
I was also thinking an appropriate sized meal every 5-7 days.

I would wait about 10-14 days before feeding again because of the 2-3 Jumbo rats he has already eaten, and then feed a single medium rat every 5 days, or a large rat every 7 days.
Would that be correct, or too heavy of a feeding schedule?

Feel free to correct any of my other suggestions(I know you would anyway,) I know y'all are more experienced than myself.

Long term, I agree completely with Richard. Adult boa constrictors only need to eat an appropriately sized prey item about once every two weeks.

Short term, for an animal that's underweight, it's a judgment call. How underweight matters. If the animal is underweight enough so that it's likely to start developing health problems as a result, that needs to be corrected, carefully. If it's thin but not unhealthy-thin, then a normal feeding schedule will bring them back up just fine.

Increasing the caloric intake for snakes has a few variables that can be manipulated. The surface area relative to the mass of the items fed changes the rate of digestion. The actual composition of the tissues involved; percentages of hair, bone, fat, skin, muscle and so on... a baby rabbit might have the same total mass as an adult rat but they're very different nutritionally, the same can be said for rat pups versus adult mice. And then the frequency of feeding can be manipulated, using smaller meals that are more completely digested more often- the same total mass of prey is put in the front of the snake over the course of say, a month, but since it's more completely digested, there's a greater net benefit from the items that have been fed.

And of course knowing enough to know when the animal has stopped being dangerously unhealthy thin to "just a little skinny" is important.

I definitely agree that a lot of captive animals are overfed and powerfed. Snakes spend most of their wild life unsuccessfully hunting for or waiting to ambush prey. There's some differences between species, but most of them are built to take full advantage of food when it's available, because it's unlikely to be regular.

01-15-2009, 01:20 AM

Good point about the different prey items Seamus. Maybe Zach can get a hold of some hairless rats to make digestion easier on the snake. (If that is what you meant.)

Richard, I did not mean to mis-quote you or anything. I thought you said "few," not couple, and didn't want Zach getting confused.

I also agree with you that feeding every 5-7 days would be too heavy for a long term schedule. I just thought that an appropriate sized meal every 5-7 days, with higher temps would help turn this snake around.
Once he is not unhealthily skinny, maybe moving to a 7-10 day feeding schedule, and then up to every 10-14 days once the snake was back in shape.

Anyway, I think y'all have given Zach some good advice and that is what this is all about.

Good luck with the Boa Zach.

01-15-2009, 06:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RJK890

Richard, I did not mean to mis-quote you or anything. I thought you said "few," not couple, and didn't want Zach getting confused.

No worries. I try not to take things personally.


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