So my boa, Kai as many of you know is almost 3 years old. Recently in South Florida we have had quite a few days of extremely cold days and nights. Yesterday, my mom called me and took video of his actions. (1) He was trying to wedge his face in between a small gap in the slider of his tank. There’s a picture of the gap in the door below (2) Along with that he was also leaning on the glass.
When I came home and I checked his humidity in terms to see if that was the cause of the situation. I checked his temps with heat gun and they were completely fine (his hotspot was 91° is cold side was 78° and humidity was 66%) Tonight I came home and I found him doing it myself, and I checked temps and humidity once again and they were as follows, Hotspot is 91* cool side of 79* and humidity of 65%.
*I just want to say he’s cool side is normally 80° but because of the colder nights it is caused his cold side to hover around 79. And the pictures are below.
Is this normal for male boa almost 3 years of age?
Is there someway so I can prevent him from injuring his face?
Is this considered breeding behavior? (That was my first instinct)
This just seems like he has found a new part of the enclosure that interests him.
He likely thinks that there is a way out.
As it is where the glass tracks are there isn’t much you can do without causing problems to one side or the other. Maybe a really thin slice of plasic/polystyrene/wood could be placed in there to prevent access?
I think this is a spot on explanation.
Boas are very good at escape, and once they find somewhere they think they can get out, they will try and try until they can’t, and then try some more lol.
I think what you have here is Kai finding a place where he thinks he can escape, so he’s testing every inch of it to see if he can.
I wouldn’t worry about his safety while he’s doing this, perfectly normal behavior.
Yup I wouldn’t worry as you said he’s only done it twice. Once he’s finished exploring the spot you mention he’ll most likely relax. Then he’ll find something else or another interest point.
Is it possible to build a “curtain” over the doors? Kind of like adding something over the top that covers it so he doesn’t think it’s a way out. You could also put the “curtain bar” lower and add padding in between the bar and the doors so it doesn’t bend when he pushes on it.
You could cover the doors or add a one-way viewing tint. That should prevent him from thinking it’s a way out. Could it be that he smells something through ventilation in the front?
Not sure it helps but I noticed as my boas would get older they become more comfortable and begin to explore a lot more. Pushing in spots to see if the give but I didn’t notice anything negative as far as the boa hurting it self. Even our yearling is becoming more exploratory and even crawling on her branch more often.
