Burrowing RTB

[Sparky1]

So my RTB decided he liked to burrow under his substrate. Is this common, has anyone else seen this? Histemps are good and his humidity, i was just curious if anyone else has seen this. He will not go in any hide i place in there, he does like to hide under the tree branch or up in it most of the time. Any thoughts??

[ladywhipple02]

Not sure how common it is, but it's not UNcommon, lol. What's really fun is when a six footer just disappears on you... Kinkers used to love to bury her big self under carefresh bedding.

[Sparky1]

Thanks for responding, i just found it wierd. He has never done it until recently he was just gone, then i noticed a big buldge in his bedding were he was hiding.

[drugaria]

Well my boa did it too. I moved it to her new 40gal breeder with aspen substrate and after exploring everything it went in the hide and burrowed itself under the substrate .My explanation for this behavior is that it was cold and wanted to get closer to the undertank heater ( it warms to about 96 degrees). I was concerned a little bit that it may get burned and dehidrated so I placed a few layers of cardboard over the heater area to insulate and discipate the heat a little bit. Like I said my temp and humidity were less than perfect since it is a new set up and this may have triggered that behaviour + it shedd the same day and I had to remove some leftover skin by soaking it and it probably got somewhat overhandled although it did not show it .

[frankykeno]

I've only had direct experience with three Colombian boas (a mature female, a younger male and a very young female). All three have occasionally burrowed even if they had hides and I've seen burrowing used as a way to ambush live prey too. I think it's just likely part of their natural way.

We do offer the boas good deep bedding to allow for this and the heavy female boa was on an aspen/double milled cypress bedding. Pure aspen was too light for her weight and tended to get packed down so the mix with the cypress created a really nice thick bedding for her that allowed heat through and also allowed her to burrow if she wanted to. The younger boas have hides and use them when they feel like it...sometimes they'll use the hide, sometimes they'll burrow, sometimes they'll just laze around on top of the bedding or on top of their hides.

Here's some pics.....

Severus, the 05 male tucked up in his hide this morning....



This is Sonja (aka Rauri) hiding her 6 foot self in her bedding. She actually scared the beejesus out of me because when I first looked in her enclosure she was completely hidden and I thought she'd escaped. I guess my bouncing around and moving her big enclosure disturbed her as she stuck her face out to check out what the crazy human was up to now. LOL

[cassandra]

My boa, Carmen, has never burrowed, but lives 99% of her life crammed into one of her two hides.

[MontyNSpike]

My pastel boa is burrowed right now. His temps and humidity are perfect too and has a hide...

[Pork Chops N' Corn Bread]

Only my biggest female nic burrows for me so far but then again I got 3 of the boas on paper for quarentine

[drugaria]

My boa, Carmen, has never burrowed, but lives 99% of her life crammed into one of her two hides.

So does one of my BPs, she is very shy .Sometimes I even wonder if she ever drinks from her dish