Yeah i was that kid just acting like Steve Irwind All the time.
I agree, space and distance or something blocking line of sight works well. I get bit every now and then because i never use hooks and forget to decent my hands. Ussualy hapens from food response or me moving quickly through cage. I had an older boa I could feed by hand because she would never strike me. She never coiled the food and would just slither it down.
My hands are alwas around them even when they are eating. I think they know by now i am not food. Hopefuly i dont get beat up to badly for what i am saying.
Rubbing Alcohol works good for getting the stink off you. Cant agree more with training them to know you are not food. Most of that training is basicaly interacting with your animal on the regular so that you know them and they know you. If that requires a little tap on the head or body rub to say high then do it all of the time except when you feed.
They eat monkey and deer in the wild. Rabbits have more mass and bone density which requires more energy output to eat/digest. Less frequent feedings with bigger larger muscle mass snake. I personally use both lump and toms style of feeding and depends on the animal.
@jawramik I started wondering, when you touch your snake with a hook and take its bowl away, do you touch it again when you come back with water?
@adon87 I think no one can beat you, everyone is responsible for their own hands. It’s interesting that your snake doesn’t constrict… It touches me that she thinks the mouse is alive because it’s warm, and then she decides it’s sufficiently constricted. It’s amazing that animals have all this in their DNA, they don’t need to learn it from others.
@tommccarthy I have an internal need to give her something more than just a mouse. I think it stems from my feelings for her. Besides, I’m wondering if it would be easier for her to poop, because I was hoping she would after this mouse, but that didn’t happen.
The update on the shedding is that she has a bit more color now. I thought she had slightly blue eyes, but it was just my imagination. Now I think her pupils are unusually dilated. I admit that I have never seen them like that before. I’m stressed again.
Edit: Alright, I think that’s it because it’s evening and it’s not as bright anymore. I can see in some past photos that it looks the same when there’s not much light… Being a mother is exhausting.
Does anyone have a picture of albino eyes when they are blue or when shed?
You just need to do it once to stop the feeding response. You want the snake to know you so eventually you wont need the tap on head from object. The tshirt trick is probably the best followed by feed response Interrupting trick.
It is crazy how docile they can be. The docile nature is why I feed frozen/thawed prey.
Take a picture and post it so we can see what your talking about.
You are worried over nothing. Just be patient, and she will shed sooner than you know. Her eyes will clear up before she sheds.Then it should be two or three days and she’ll shed for you.
As for feeding, I would put her on rats. The rat can be the size of her mid body circumference. Mice are too small now for her. That’s probably why she’s not pooping on a regular basis. She is using all the nutrients from the mice. There’s not much left for her to poop.
I get all my baby boas on rats as soon as I can. If they can eat a small or adult mouse. They can eat fuzzy rats.
No, I guess I don’t. But I do keep eye on their body language when I put the bowl back, just to ensure they don’t seem too excited to see me. But I haven’t ever found it necessary to tap them down again after removing the bowl. Once I tap them, pet them, and remove the bowl, they seem to get the message that they’re not getting fed.
If you’re wanting to add variety to your boa’s diet, you could look into chicks (either chicken or quail, depending on the size of your snake). I’ve heard boas love them…though I’ve heard their poops are messier. But there’s certainly nothing wrong with offering some dietary variety, so long as the prey you offer is an appropriate size and is safely sourced.
@tommaccarthy Are you sure? I give her mice because that’s what the breeder tell me to do. I still have a few mice for her in the freezer. I can order rats for her, but should I then feed her every 3 weeks like @lumpy?
Personally, that’s what I would recommend. I like to slow grow my boas because I’m using them for breeding, just keep that in mind. It’s better for your snakes in the long run, but you could still feed them at a healthy rate that’s more than I feed.
@z-a-r-i-n-a I totally agree with @tommccarthy because He Knows Boas. Period. When a boa gets large enough to take a rat fuzzy then the boa should be eating a rat fuzzy and then progress with rat sizes from there.
In that case, that’s exactly what I’ll do. I see that rats are available in sizes 35-45g, 60-80g, and 90-110g and more. Which ones should be appropriate? I see that they also have mastomys.
I would go to rats once they can handle a sml rat 50g to 75g size. Xl mice 30 to 45g will be fine until they get to the size were they can throw down a sml Rat. Sometimes it takes alternating from smaller more frequent prey feadings until you can move up to larger less frequent items. It usually around that 2 to 2.5 year mark were they start going through a big change in size. Males can handle xl mice well into 2yr range. Larger growing animals or females can and will blow past this example a lot earlier.
Your picture looks like she could handle small rats. I would say 75g should be ok. Maybe in the 50 to 80g range. 100g might be to big. Start at 50/60g and work up to be safe but i think 75g should be ok.
I never go by weight. I just go by the mid girth size of my boas. Try some rat pups / fuzzies first. They are normally the same size as an adult mouse. If to small move up to small rat’s.
@adon87 In this photo, it looks particularly massive, I think it’s a matter of the picture. I’m uploading a photo from today, which I think accurately represents reality. Still, I think that the XL mouse is not as big as her thickest part in the middle of its length. I think the rat you took a photo of would be more similar to her circumference. I think it feels the same when you hold it in a hand. It’s very difficult to imagine what a rat of a given weight looks like, thank you for the photos. I think I will order this one, plus maybe a few of the smaller ones just in case, but I just thought of something: is a rat of the same weight as an XL mouse different for a snake, or is it very similar?
As for the shedding, her colors have completely returned to normal, the tension in her body is strong again, and today it was as if nothing had happened before. I plan to feed her according to the schedule this weekend.
It happened! Today, I found a ball of shed skin in her hide! I thought it would be closer to the branches because she would use them to rub against, but she took it to her hide. It was in two parts - the body and the tail separately. I checked to see if it came off her eyes properly and everything is great! I didn’t see her eyes turn blue during this… Well, I guess I just don’t know how to recognize it!
@adon87 Oh my God, they’re just amazing! And the way they’re so close together really highlights how different and beautiful each of them is! Does the brightest one not have blue eyes already? Why are they together in the photo? I’m not sure if I can say this about snakes, but they look like they’re being affectionate with each other.
They are in shed cycle. The blue caps clear in a few days. All males same age group and size so i house them together. I think thats just the spot and they maximize heat and energy that way. Glad i was able to show the differences and help.