The Newest Asylum Resident :)

I've wanted and wanted and wanted an RTB, and now...

http://i1285.photobucket.com/albums/...psefce8d1d.jpg

Mine all mine :) He's a little boy, has eaten twice according to his breeder, and is currently in shed (and trying to acclimate to his new home) so I'm leaving his little self alone. It's making me nuts, but I am a responsible reptile keeper, dagnabbit!

We're still working on his name. I'm thinking George.

Congrats, and welcome to boas!!! They have so much personality. :)

Thanks! I'm tickled, considering the rather reclusive nature of my other snakes :) He's now camped out in the bottom of his moss hide and, of course, I'm having to fight the urge to check him endlessly. I figure he knows humidity is what he needs right now anyway.

I swear, I'm so bouncy over this you'd think I was 5.

Welcome to the boaddiction.

Sent from my EVO Design using Tapatalk 2.

Thank you!

Great addition!
Boas make great pet snakes!

How did I not see this thread?

Congrats! The old moss hide trick LOL! I've been there.

Mine is in shed now too, but I've taken the moss and scattered it in clumps throughout the cage next to hides and corners. It works great to keep the whole cage humidity up.

Boas, still hide as most snakes are pretty secretive but you will most certainly notice they are much busier than the Royals.

The climbing stuff is really cool, and you catch your guy watching you in the room.

Yup - welcome to the boaddiction! Be warned - boas are like potato chips - you can't have just one!

He's an awesome little guy! Huge congrats! :gj:

Thank you everyone :)

We finally have a name: Leonhard, for Leonhard Euler, a Swiss mathematician and physicist who was blind in one eye. My poor little dude appears to suffer the same issue... the one blind eye, that is, not a propensity for higher mathematics.

We're just going to pronounce it Leonard, though. Makes life easier (plus Big Bang Theory references and shades of Leonard Nimoy don't hurt).

He was a breeder-described "B-grade" boa. I knew this going in, and I was aware that he has a little kink in his tail , but the eye issue isn't something I really caught on to until I was looking at both sides of his face at once on Wednesday night. I'd been so careful to leave him alone to adjust and finish his shed and I was so excited when I got him that I frankly screwed that up. Lesson learned :( Looking back at the pictures I took of him when I first brought him home it was evident even then; I totally missed it.

I've taken him up to my local reptile shop, though, and he's looking pretty good other than those issues. He's eaten for me (of course he insisted on live *sigh* -- and I don't FEED live, except apparently I do when I'm dealing with a baby snake who's slightly underweight), he finally finished his shed, and I have hopes of getting him to eat frozen/ thawed tomorrow.

I also would really appreciate it if he would please pass urates and defecate. Once he's managed to accomplish those things, I'll feel a bit more comfortable about his future. He's really a very pleasant little animal to handle, and so far doesn't appear tightly wound at all so I'm hoping the best for him, bless his scaly little heart.

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Originally Posted by AmandaJ

Thank you everyone :)

We finally have a name: Leonhard, for Leonhard Euler, a Swiss mathematician and physicist who was blind in one eye. My poor little dude appears to suffer the same issue... the one blind eye, that is, not a propensity for higher mathematics.

We're just going to pronounce it Leonard, though. Makes life easier (plus Big Bang Theory references and shades of Leonard Nimoy don't hurt).

He was a breeder-described "B-grade" boa. I knew this going in, and I was aware that he has a little kink in his tail , but the eye issue isn't something I really caught on to until I was looking at both sides of his face at once on Wednesday night. I'd been so careful to leave him alone to adjust and finish his shed and I was so excited when I got him that I frankly screwed that up. Lesson learned :( Looking back at the pictures I took of him when I first brought him home it was evident even then; I totally missed it.

I've taken him up to my local reptile shop, though, and he's looking pretty good other than those issues. He's eaten for me (of course he insisted on live *sigh* -- and I don't FEED live, except apparently I do when I'm dealing with a baby snake who's slightly underweight), he finally finished his shed, and I have hopes of getting him to eat frozen/ thawed tomorrow.

I also would really appreciate it if he would please pass urates and defecate. Once he's managed to accomplish those things, I'll feel a bit more comfortable about his future. He's really a very pleasant little animal to handle, and so far doesn't appear tightly wound at all so I'm hoping the best for him, bless his scaly little heart.

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I have noticed the boas are not quite as "regular" as pythons at least from what I can tell in my short time of having a boa. I do have a thicker layer of aspen so I may find several surprises when I clean the cage after this next shed.

No odors though so maybe he is super efficient and uses most of his food for growth, I have no idea. I rarely see him drink water, and I think maybe that is because humidity levels are good and the rats have a bit of water on them after the thaw.

Sounds like you are doing well, and don't get too concerned about the elimination of waste just yet. I think it's normal because I've have not noticed a ton of it up to this point.

Yeah, our guys at the reptile shop said to give him 2-3 weeks from the other day, then we could start worrying if he hadn't passed any sort of waste, so I think all of us are on the same page with it.

He palpated Leonhard's abdomen and felt a bit of fecal matter in there, but not much, so I'm kind of with you in assuming he's using everything he can for growth matters :) And since the boy's shed, he's gorgeous! Blind eye or not, he's just beautiful :D

Awesome!! My guy is in shed right now too. He is growing pretty fast and I'm feeding just slightly more than you would feed a breeding male. According to Gus Rentfro its not a given that males have to always be smaller than females. He stated specifically to me that most of the advice I was getting was from breeders that purposely keep their males on the smaller side.

I'm still feeding conservatively but I'm not a breeder and I want this guy to grow a bit. It seems as if they do pretty well with processing their food during growth spurts. The key is to make sure they always look like a loaf of bread. If they lose that look and get wider than tall they are getting too much food.

Congrats on the little boa boy! He's a little cutie, and looks pretty happy in his new home. Don't even let his little imperfections bother you, because I can guarantee that they won't bother or affect him one bit. In fact, they just add character ;) Oh, and post more pics when you can so we can see him

Only thing I'll ask is this....is the kink in his tail before or after the vent? If it's after, then there will be no issues at all.

Edit: From looking at the pic again, it looks like the kink is after the vent. ALL GOOD!

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Originally Posted by rocknhorse76

Congrats on the little boa boy! He's a little cutie, and looks pretty happy in his new home. Don't even let his little imperfections bother you, because I can guarantee that they won't bother or affect him one bit. In fact, they just add character ;) Oh, and post more pics when you can so we can see him

Only thing I'll ask is this....is the kink in his tail before or after the vent? If it's after, then there will be no issues at all.

Edit: From looking at the pic again, it looks like the kink is after the vent. ALL GOOD!

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Way to look out for the snake! I know what you were getting at with that question. Nice to have lots of experience and knowledge here.

As stated,, that snake will be perfect for the owners with lots of added character.

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Originally Posted by AmandaJ

He's eaten for me (of course he insisted on live *sigh* -- and I don't FEED live, except apparently I do when I'm dealing with a baby snake who's slightly underweight), he finally finished his shed, and I have hopes of getting him to eat frozen/ thawed tomorrow.

I also would really appreciate it if he would please pass urates and defecate. Once he's managed to accomplish those things, I'll feel a bit more comfortable about his future.

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Don't worry too much about the food, these guys are little piggies compared to BPs. We refer to ours (lovingly) as the 'garbage disposal.' Rats, mice, frozen, fresh, live, she doesn't care she'll eat it. Let him settle in, he'll adjust in time. And the urates etc move on their own schedule. Congrats, he's a cutie, and I love the name!

His kink is actually pretty near his vent, but it doesn't appear it will inhibit the passing of urates or feces. That's something we're going to watch for.

Yes, I'll totally be doing the happy dance of joy at the sight of snake poo. Heh.

In other, much more fabulous news, he ate his f/t rat pink today -- yay! I had to offer it about three times, though, because he'd bite it and then just drop it. He finally agreed to eat it after a stunning rendition of the Zombie Rodent Dance by yours truly :P I swear, he's as bad as my male BP. Sheesh :)

But hooray for f/t!!!!! I'm going to go for a mouse fuzzy or weanling next week.

Thanks again, everyone :) I do have some pictures of him since he's shed that I'll post tomorrow. We're heading out to my younger son's parkour group in mere moments. Worse yet, my husband and I have delusions of playing too... so the next post could be from the hospital if one of us breaks something :P

Congrats on the successful f/t feeding!! :banana:

Okay, pics I promised! They're not the greatest -- I have trouble taking pictures with one hand while holding the snake in the other -- but they're okay-ish. Plus he's freshly shed which totally rocks :)

Here's his good eye:
http://i1285.photobucket.com/albums/...psf51848ab.jpg

Here's his blind eye (sorry for the picture quality):
http://i1285.photobucket.com/albums/...psad544201.jpg

And here's a top perspective. Note that his right eye is somewhat sunken in:
http://i1285.photobucket.com/albums/...psb9c353e2.jpg

Outside of his eye issue, that last picture also shows a gorgeous pinkish cast to his sides. I think he looks like some exotic mosaic :)

Beautiful snake and good luck on the future with him. I picked up a suriname boa about 6 months ago and she is just gorgeous. Dont worry about him not going to the bathroom. This may be because they are taking in all the nutrients from the food and also make sure there is a visable lump. And congratulations on switching him to frozen thats definitely one sigh of relief. By the way what type of red tail is he ?

He was just sold to me as a common boa -- I'm assuming BCI, because of his price although he has some interesting saddle shapes :) He might have similarities to some locality boas, but I'm still newer to this area of herps so I'm clueless LOL

Oh i was confused because this forum topic says red tailed boas so thats why i was confused because only suriname, guyana and peruvian are true ted tail boas. But yes he is a common columbian BCI boa. I can tell by the saddles. BCC boas would have saddles with peaks in them that kind of look like the batman symbol lol. But yes you can ask me anything about boas because i have alot of first hand experience and information