boa question, from a boa newbie.

i had my new bci out earlier while i was cleaning his cage, and i noticed he breathes so incredibly hard. when active (i've seen him sleeping), he just breathes really hard... kind of like a bp does when it eats. could this be bad, or is he just still nervous?

thanks in advance..

Sprocket breathes really heavy... its just like when humans take a big breath and exhale. I don't think its bad tho cause there's no wheezing or anything with it.

cool, ya i can't hear him breathe. he just does it harder than most snakes i've seen.

Will, I've seen your boa pics. Very nice! I'm jealous!

Nothing to worry about.

cool, thanks beard..

and steel, don't be jealous... getcha' one! they make awesome pets man!

No problem. ;)

lol, it's definitely in the plan! probably this summer or fall as I'm going to build the home sometime around then. Unless I get impatient...........there's one at the petstore right now, housed with a bp! Wouldn't mind her, she's really sweet, but a tad overpriced imo.
I also want to check out don hamper's stock in June.......he seems to be on the ball (not a pun!) and his prices are friendly.
Would like to get the youngest I can find and give it a long happy life. Or just move to south america and go field herping every weekend and post pics to make you all drool! :lol:

housed WITH a bp? dude, turn those suckers in.

Turning them in will do no good. The HSUS and other similar organizations hate herps and only care for the "cute animals." Why do you think they're trying to ban herps altogether?

Yeah, with a bp. She insists they get along fine.....which they do. All intertwined and peacefull. I asked about sharing diseases and she knows the breeder and has them checked by a herp vet once a week (so she says, anyway). I still thinks she's nuts for housing them together even tho the hope is that they sell quickly so she can make a profit and all. I don't care how short term, I don't feel they should EVER be in the same tank. Maybe if they can be totally cleaned of disease and parasites medically so NO chance of infection..................is that even possible? Even so, why house together? They don't need company, aren't afraid of the dark, and you never see them hunting in packs in the wild. Although that would be a sight! Imagine, 8 bp's working a herd of gerbils like wolves.....hahaha
The pet store is a mom and pop, nice and clean, and on the whole the animals are very well cared for. They TRY to be experts on all the critters I'm sure, but damn I hated to see such a poor choice in husbandry! I don't think I need to turn them in to anybody, I can probably fix the problem with a good hard slap. :wink:

Not to mention that even perfectly healthy animals house bacterium that is endemic to their geographic locations........these bacteriums can potentially harm animals that are not from where they're from.

If I understand right...there's no way to detect IBD in boas unless they actually get sick with it...which is why it's so risky to bring boas from an unknown source into a python collection. You just can't tell until your pythons start dropping.

a liver test will show IBD in boas. but you might as well buy a few more cages to house your boa in rather then get a test... alot of people succesfully keep different species togehter succesfully. if its done right i suppose its possible. i still dont like it.

Sure its possible....alot of things are. But that doesn't mean we should emulate them, especially when our animals' health is at risk. There is absolutley no good reason whatsoever to house different species together. None. Nada. El Zero.

btw....I wasn't directing this post @ you, Mike....just a generalization. ;)