look at what i brought home today

That's right, hockey season! Is Luke ready to introduce Sev to the wonders of the Red Wings? =D

well i guess i'll have to tolerate the hockey season then eh? since she's sure to love it... but maybe just maybe since she's a girl... she'll prefer something else.

i got a wonderful letter with her... letting me know her care and personality etc. some back info on her parents... stuff like that. i really love that her owner cared about her new mama having all that info. :wuv: i'm so pleased - and i'm being patient. i haven't even peaked into her enclosure.

oh and jo... is it a RTB trait... do they all love being out of their enclosure a LOT?

on the letter from her old owner it says:

she was their pick of the clutch of 31 babies - born july 2, 2005 (surinam red tail) her parents were both 6.5' long. they own the papa.

she is big on soaking and loves to urate and defecate in her bowl.

She has spent a large part of the day hanging out on your head, wrist, arm, while driving, or at the computer, in the shower, or watching tv. When she senses activity she will beg to come out. (can't wait to see that LOL)

she is currently eating 1 large adult mouse or 2 small adults f/t on a 7-9 day cycle.

so here's my question: i'm thinking 2 mice would be too much for her. she's not very big - only about two feet long - does she really need that much? i'm thinking of feeding her one mouse (whatever size i can get, i always ask for the largest they have) once a week - same day as everyone else.

what do you all think?

Just to give you an idea. Luke's BCI who will be a year old soon is around 3 feet long (maybe a few inches more) and 550 grams in weight. He eats two rat pups per week or one recently weaned rat. I'd think that female would easily take 2 mice per week but that's really up to you. At some point she's going to get big enough to have to switch off mice but they don't seem to be anywhere near as prey imprinted as BP's are.

I can only tell you stuff from our experience with Rauri and Severus, Aleesha. What I've seen is they seem to take to handling very well, aren't easily startled, don't seem to stress over much, love to climb and will stay very quiet and lazing around (this is to lull you into a sense of security) then as soon as you look away...immediately blast off to hide down the back of your couch LOL. They are very sneaky snakes!

Rauri and to some extent young Severus have body postures we learned to read. Rauri would give you this look and posture that said "hey I want out", another one for "I made a huge stink in here...clean it", another one that was all business and meant "dinner...NOW!". We are slowly learning young Sev's cues. He's already learned where the clips are that open his home and when we approach him will arch up and shove his snout at that area (I'm sure he's convinced we are too stupid to remember how to open his home LOL)

Both BCI seemed to enjoy out of enclosure time and like most boa's are a handful to get back in their homes...just when you get the butt in, the head's out the other side...or you get the head in and the tail hooks onto your shirt or a nearby doorknob. They are extremely inquisitive. Watch your Xmas tree...we almost ended up with 6 feet of boa in the tree last year LOL. However you'll need to find the right balance with your own snake as far as what is appropriate for length and frequency of handling time.

We haven't had any problems with aggression with Sev nor did we have with Rauri. We had one very small bite and one SFE with Rauri (both we consider completely our fault). When hunting or hungry though never underestimate how strong they are, how sharp those teeth are and how long and aggressive their strike is. Personally I'd never feed by hand. Sev eats live, Rauri ate all methods and our only SFE was in offering him a pre-killed prey on a set of hemostats that were far too short to use with his long strike range.

Before Rauri we had no real interest in them, now we can't imagine the house without a boa in it and can't wait for Sev to get bigger.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by recycling goddess

on the letter from her old owner it says:

she was their pick of the clutch of 31 babies - born july 2, 2005 (surinam red tail) her parents were both 6.5' long. they own the papa.

she is big on soaking and loves to urate and defecate in her bowl.

She has spent a large part of the day hanging out on your head, wrist, arm, while driving, or at the computer, in the shower, or watching tv. When she senses activity she will beg to come out. (can't wait to see that LOL)

she is currently eating 1 large adult mouse or 2 small adults f/t on a 7-9 day cycle.

so here's my question: i'm thinking 2 mice would be too much for her. she's not very big - only about two feet long - does she really need that much? i'm thinking of feeding her one mouse (whatever size i can get, i always ask for the largest they have) once a week - same day as everyone else.

what do you all think?

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Boas are almost like burmese pythons when it comes to food lol.For her first feeding with you try what you think is of correct size and amount and procced from their;) .Did the owner mention whether or not they fed her in her enclosure or other tub? The boas i have had in the past i used welders gloves to reach into there enclosures to get them out.My largest female was the only one out of several that would strike at anything moving,this included me and my glove:P .Like mentioned a few posts back there stiking distance and quickness are very fast and accurate.I am not trying to make you fear your new snake just mentioning a few things from my experiances with them :D .

oh i'm not afraid of her... i'm afraid of drake our hog island LOL (not really - just VERY respectful)

i'll be sure to get some longs tongs as mine are short and... i'll just simply trust the old owner - from what i've been told she's an amazing snake mama and obviously she's cared for this little girl for over a year now... so she knows her well.

one of the main reasons i bought her is because both her parents are on the small side - so i figure she may be as well and that she's been held so much. even though it was her first time with us... we brought her home on us (no box) and she was good as gold. just a complete love. i had to hold onto her at times cause she'd forget to wrap her tail etc and hold on better... but i could tell when she wasn't holding on (my year of snake experience paid off).

i figure... we have drake - so large prey and large enclosures are in our future... so my hubby building a trio of stackable housing rather a double - well that's no biggie at all. after all... we have a nice size house, aren't planning on moving ever and as our children age... we'll have more rooms to fill with critters!

always thinking ahead :D

jo, it's funny you used the term sneaky snakes... cause her name was sneaky! LOL

what does SFE mean?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by recycling goddess

what does SFE mean?

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Stupid Feeding Error ;)

SFE's are things like sticking your nice warm bare hand in with a feeding snake, using short tongs with a big snake with a long strike range, "helping" your snake re-orient his prey, stuff like that. Basically anything that as soon as you did it and your snake nailed you...you go..."how stupid can I be!" LOL