Boa Constrictor Q's

Hello everyone my name is Austin and I'm from Capetown, South Africa. I have been working with snakes native to Africa since I was 11. I have alot of experience with native snakes and recently received my first foreign snake, a lovely boa constrictor!! I think she is a beautiful snake but a young one at nearly 70cm ( thats around 26in). I have read a few books about them but have no hands on experience and have only seen live specimens in zoos. I noticed that her skin is quite loose and after she is coiled for a while lines appear where the fold is, I thought it might be dehydration and started soaking her for two hours every other day for a week but still her skin is loose. She eats well and was constipated for awhile so i fed her one pink mouse and then skipped a week until she defecated (I didn't want to fill her up to much). Her temps are good and her humidity is kept between 50 and 80%. I dont have a hide for her, could it be stress? As you can imagine snake vets around here don't have any experience with boas. Do boas just have naturally loose skin? Please help, I'm worried my boa may die.

Perhaps you can post a pc from her "loose skin", that we know what you mean with that. I t could be sth. like dehydration, but can also be loose skin, perhaps in shed?
But I think that naked mice are never an adequat prey for boas with 70 cm...much to small in my opinion (perhaps your snakes weight is only not much enough...)

What do you mean constipated? You know boas sometimes will only deficate once every several weeks. Especially if not fed enough. Sounds like she/he be underfed. Where was the boa bought from BTW?

-Damian

Yes, don't worry right now about "filling up too much". Power feeding is a worry (but that consists of pretty much sticking another food item in the boa's mouth as it's almost done swallowing the first), but shouldn't be an issue if you are feeding an appropriate sized meal and not too large of a meal. If the snake will eat an appropriately sized meal once a week, do so to make sure she has enough fat reserves. Some people do larger meals every two or three weeks, but I'm of the opinion that smaller meals more often may be a little less stressful to the digestive tract.

The loose skin may also be neck folds indicating the snake will shed soon (sometimes pre-shed skin gets crinkly-looking). But this is hard to tell without a photo. Could be dehydration, malnutrition, or pre-shedding.

Make sure the snake's cage has enough humidity, as well.

I would have a stool sample checked for a possible parasitic
load. ?
The prey items for a snake that size should be around 34-38 grams.

M/

Yeah, I reread the post - one pinky mouse every two weeks is probably not enough food depending on the girth of the snake. Don't worry about the snake being constipated. Only worry if the snake has not defecated for more than 5 weeks or so after eating regularly. Withholding food from a snake will cause the digestive tract to slow down, and they may defecate even LESS often then.

I love snakes because they only poop about once a month- easy-to-clean

Sorry I should clarify, I was feeding her one adult mouse every seven days for 4 weeks and she didnt poo once so I didnt want to fill her up to much so one week i fed a pinky mouse the next i gave her nothing. I soaked her everyday for a week and finally she pooed so i switched her to a medium sized rat pup this week. I dont think shes underfed and I dont see how she could be dehydrated her humidity is always between 50 and 80% I spray her cage very often because of a high evaporation rate. she started into her opaque cycle last night but I've had her for a month and her skin has be loose ( maybe not as loose as it is now) the whole time?

My boa is having a similar problem I soak her, I catch her drinking after a meal, she eats well but her skin is still loose too. Mine is going into shed as well I hope thats it.

On some areas of their body like towards the "neck" the skin will fold, loose skin can also mean underfeed. As she starts to gain weight her skin should tighten up on her. Other then that I'm not sure. Where did she come from Capetown?

She came from a breeder in Namibia, I met him at herpetological symposium in Johannesburg. I called him and asked but he just said "oh shes fine".