Hi all, new here and looking for some advice on my 2 year old male Motley.
I’ve raised my boy Troy since he was 6 weeks old. He had one small cut on his head during his first few months which healed up, and I assume it was caused by rubbing.
Recently, I’ve noticed these marks on his head and my question is, are these caused by rubbing or are they caused by touching the radiant heat panel?
I asked the manufacturer of these panels about heat guards and they said they don’t recommend guards because they absorb the heat anyway so wouldn’t achieve anything.
They also said that animals wouldn’t touch the heat panel for long enough to cause burns.
However, I’m concenred he may be burning himself on it. If these look like heat burns then I’ll replace the heat source tomorrow.
He’s currently in a 4x2 foot Vivexotic enclosure with a 125 watt Reptirad heat panel.
The nose looks like healed rub to me, like you said. Center of the head and back looks like folded scales or dry scales to me. I had something like that pop up on on of my boas for a bit. I feel like it was humidity related, in my case. Came about in the summer, when I have A/C running and took a while to heal - several sheds.
I was trying to spot the thermostat probe. Are you controlling your RHP with a thermostat?
Hey Smite, thanks for replying. Yes I have the RHP on a pulse stat and adjust it with the IR temp gun in these pics and aim for 30°c hot side.
The probe was previously coming out of the lower vent and attached to the wall (behind the fake plants in my original post). But he pulled it off ha ha. So I now have it hangning from the top vent (pictured).
His head seems to have healed up more now.
Also, what do you think about his body fat for a 2 year old? When he was 6 weeks old I fed him every 10 to 14 days and gradually spaced out to 14 to 21 days now. Being very mindful of over feeding and also under feeding.
He’s on what my local store say are XL rats, which are around the width of his widest body area. Cheers.
2 years old on XL rats seems fast but each boa is different. The feed schedule sounds appropriate. If you bump up a prey item consistently, I’m sure you can get quick growth. That said, he’s got good structure from what I can see. Great work, looks like a happy boa to me
Thanks man. I know what you mean about prey sizes. I’ve found that what one store calls XL rats are a different size elsewhere. So I’ve been eyeballing prey that looks around the size of his widest part.
Sometimes I give him a quail or guinea pig to mix it up.
We don’t allow feeding pictures or videos on this site as goes against community guidelines.
I have removed the post now,
Any pictures would need to be blurred before hand with a warning above stating it’s a feeding picture.
But an XL rat seem big for a young boy, how often you feeding him too?
We have a big red tail boa, she’s 7+ feet. Shes fed every 2 weeks, sometimes she’ll go every 3.
Apologies, I didn’t realise they were not allowed.
I’m feeding him every 14 to 21 days and sometimes more. I basically eyeball his body condition, bowel movements and activity levels to decide.
I’m unsure if you watched the video but the rat is physically the same width as my boa’s body at the widest point, which I believe is the correct sizing.
Perhaps XL rats over there in the US are sized differently to the UK?
Thanks, that’s a relief. I just measured him with a hdmi cable run along his body, and then measured that against a tape measure. He’s coming up as 5 foot 3 inches / 160cm at 2 years and 4 months old.
When would you move up prey sizes if not going by body width? And hiw many chicks would you give?
