Is this a Jungle hypo Boa?

[Salamander Rising]

Sorry for asking on the Beep forum but the Boa forum isn't very busy....

[Capray]

It looks like it. He's nice!

[Daybreaker]

My first thought was hypo jungle

[Corey209]

Reduced black and an aberrant pattern, I'd say so.

[Salamander Rising]

Reduced black and an aberrant pattern, I'd say so.

Thank y'all very much....

[Salamander Rising]

So, I bought her, a female Kahl Albino and a big BCI who was thought to be male but as far as I can tell by probing and utter lack of spurs, is female plus a really nice 5' x 2' x2' Boa enclosure from a kid who went off to college and his parents were no longer wanting to feed the snakes [cost them a fortune for feeders at PetSmart].

They were handling the big girl with big heavy gloves.

[yeah, I know]

We made the 3+ hour round trip through a frigging blizzard and when we got home, the big BCI was no longer in her enclosure.

Oh, happy day.

"It's never escaped so we didn't need a lock".

Took 30 minutes to get the snake out from under the driver's seat.
[daringly, sans gloves and with no hint of aggression whatsoever..seems to be a nice, pleasant Boa]

Anyway, these are the young'uns.







No photos of the big gal as we hadn't planned on buying her but she was cheap and the parents were begging to be rid of her.

What a way to spend Christmas Eve.

[Only a Boaphile would understand]



Now, to put some weight on these young ladies.

They were still being fed mice at the alleged ages of "2 or 3 years old".

They look more like yearlings, to me...unless they weren't eating appropriately sized prey all this time.

I do have a question;

Is belly heat or overhead heat better for Boas?

I'm reading wildly conflicting recommendations.

And since it's after midnight, MERRY CHRISTMAS BP NET PEOPLE!

[Daybreaker]

Congrats on the Christmas boas!

My preference is belly heat for all my boas: the Hog, Colombians, and Argies in tubs and vivs.

[Salamander Rising]

Congrats on the Christmas boas!

My preference is belly heat for all my boas: the Hog, Colombians, and Argies in tubs and vivs.

Thank you.

One of the websites said they couldn't digest properly with belly heat *or* thermoregulate themselves.

I'm very concerned right now about that because my big Hypo girl is dealing with a slight, possible RI after her mite ordeal and I was very worried that the belly heat was not enough/proper for her.
[she may have aspirated water while soaking in a tub while I treated her enclosure]

When I took her out of the soak bath, slimy(?) water *poured* out of her mouth and she was open mouth breathing for a while.

It seemed to go away, she's eating like mad and the mites are gone but I noticed her slightly opening her mouth when she takes a breath.

No bubbles or rattles, great appetite, just as cuddly and mobile as ever.

I'm baffled.

[Daybreaker]

^ Hmmm, I'd keep an eye on her and take her into the vet asap if you see her getting worse/being odd.

I would have RHPs and belly heat/flexwatt in vivs if the room was kept colder, but I've had no problem with just belly heat in a viv (snake room kept at 80). Doesn't make sense to me why a snake couldn't thermoregulate themselves/digest properly with belly heat if they have an appropriate hot and cold side?

If the room is colder I would do both, but I've had no problems with digestion/thermoregulation/RIs with any of my boas in both vivs and tubs with only belly heat.

[Salamander Rising]

^ Hmmm, I'd keep an eye on her and take her into the vet asap if you see her getting worse/being odd.

I would have RHPs and belly heat/flexwatt in vivs if the room was kept colder, but I've had no problem with just belly heat in a viv (snake room kept at 80). Doesn't make sense to me why a snake couldn't thermoregulate themselves/digest properly with belly heat if they have an appropriate hot and cold side?

If the room is colder I would do both, but I've had no problems with digestion/thermoregulation/RIs with any of my boas in both vivs and tubs with only belly heat.

I have no idea why the person was so adamant about non-belly heat.

All my snakes eat their supper and then slither over to their hot spots for the rest of the night, at least.

On very cold days, they'll hang out there too but mostly [especially the Boas] they tend to stay on the cooler side.

Maybe mine are just weird.

I tried upping the Boas' temps to 91-92 and they flat out booked.

Wouldn't lay on the warm side at all.

They seem to like it around 88 or so.

On the custom condos, there's a 'dual floor' setup where the bottom floor has the heat cable and another floor is over top of that.

It's pretty good for making a nice, gradual heat gradient.

I'm hoping this will be the spring that my upstairs spare room gets made into a dedicated snake room.

Right now, everybody's in a room that's situated between normal living spaces [sort of like a big foyer] and temps can fluctuate depending on the weather.

I have so many IR guns it's not funny.

All I do is check/recheck them all day.

I'd start clearing out space myself right now if not for the bitter cold and the yard being so mushy from all the rain.

Can't get the trailer back there to haul away all the junk.

If we get a really hard freeze, I just may try to get as much done as I can by myself.


Right now I'm 'steaming' the Hypo to up her humidity which is really low due to electric heat.

The only vet within driving distance who will see snakes doesn't know much about them.

I think he'd stroke out if I asked him to open their mouth and swab them.

So far, he's only seen one of my Beeps and that freaked him out.

I fear a large Boa would blow his mind.

Is there any way I can swab her mouth and take the sample for him to culture?

It would definitely make it easier on him.