Odaria. My new baby viper boa.

Hey, been a long time. A lot has changed since I was last here that I may post about in the future (namely some frogs and a LOT of invertebrates of all kinds), but for now I'll share the latest, very special addition to my critter crew. I've had my eye on Candoia aspera for quite a while now, but between wanting a more red/orange individual and the species overall being difficult to find captive-bred, I couldn't settle on one for the longest time. Until around a month ago I chanced upon a listing on Morph Market, and after extensive discussion with the breeder, I brought this beautiful girl home with me just last week.

Meet Odaria. :aww:

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The images do no do her justice. Her colors are practically radiant they're so vivid. Couldn't believe it when I first saw her in person. Extremely calm too, didn't even recoil when I touched and briefly handled her while looking her over. And she's even already had her first meal with me with no issue.
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Quite amusingly, I weighed her when she first came in. She was born in March 2023 (so around a year and a half old). She weighs less than Mira (my Vietnamese blue beauty) did when she wasn't even a full month out of the egg. I knew Candoia grew super slowly but my goodness. :rofl:

Yay I'm so happy for you! Candoia are gorgeous little snakes. I will be following this thread for sure!

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Originally Posted by Snagrio

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Cool. Love those keeled scales! I didn't realize they came in different colors. I held one at an expo once. It was dark brown. It's pattern was nearly faded out. Will yours keep its coloration and pattern into adulthood?

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Originally Posted by Homebody

Cool. Love those keeled scales! I didn't realize they came in different colors. I held one at an expo once. It was dark brown. It's pattern was nearly faded out. Will yours keep its coloration and pattern into adulthood?

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More than likely what you held was WC (most in the hobby are). The majority of viper boas are plain brown, and the ones fresh from the wild look even more dull since they still have the "jungle skin" (they live on/in the ground and take a VERY long time to shed so what you see most of the time isn't what they actually look like so to speak). Her colors will hold true with age, they don't fade out like BPs do.

They can come in all sorts of colors. Varying shades of brown and beige, almost black, banana yellow, blood reds. And variations of dark dorsals with red/orange/yellow undersides amongst those colors.
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Originally Posted by Snagrio

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The one at the expo looked like this one. It was definitely wild caught. Very tame, so, probably half dead, poor thing. I see yours is taking rodents. I read they're frog & lizard eaters. Do you plan to keep her on rodents?

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Originally Posted by Homebody

The one at the expo looked like this one. It was definitely wild caught. Very tame, so, probably half dead, poor thing. I see yours is taking rodents. I read they're frog & lizard eaters. Do you plan to keep her on rodents?

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From what I've read they're similar to Western hognoses where they are generalists with a lean towards frogs/lizards, but do well with rodents. In the future I do however plan on ordering frog reptilinks all the same to see if she'll take them to offer a healthier variety (iguana would be optimal but they don't come in sizes that she could swallow). She had been raised on pinkies though so that's what I went with to start to make sure she's eating under my care. As it is she also feeds very infrequently, every two weeks (when I fed her it was right on the dime of that time frame). Basically treat her as I do my BP compared to my colubrids.

I love small pythons and boas. If I see that you have a positive experience with her, maybe I'll pick one up for myself.

Had her out for a brief handling session to really get a good look at her. The head and eyes look almost draconic, and the tongue is pitch black. Never noticed either of those details before now that I see one up close like this. Also of note is now I see firsthand how viper boas tend to look so dulled out, she already looks noticeably muted from being in the substrate. But it makes her happy so I don't mind. :giggle:

https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...503&height=671
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She's so incredibly calm too. Very slow, doesn't flinch or recoil to anything (but still alert and not lethargic in an unhealthy manner). So glad I found her.

Neat little snakes- I hope she does well for you.

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Originally Posted by Snagrio

Had her out for a brief handling session to really get a good look at her. The head and eyes look almost draconic, and the tongue is pitch black. Never noticed either of those details before now that I see one up close like this. Also of note is now I see firsthand how viper boas tend to look so dulled out, she already looks noticeably muted from being in the substrate. But it makes her happy so I don't mind. :giggle:

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Does she spend a lot of her time buried in her substrate?

She doesn't really burrow (at least in the sense of fully disappearing into the dirt), but because the substrate is moist and she tends to soak herself in the water bowls it basically is the same as burrowing as far as it getting on her scales.

She's been staying under her warm hide for solid week. I check on her every night before bed and her water bowls are untouched so I can tell she isn't moving around, and it can't be a warmth issue either since the weather here has actually spiked back up into the mid 70's the past several days. Deduced that it's likely too humid since everything is perpetually damp and dripping, so I added a ton of holes to the lid to help ventilate more.

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By the way, are the images I'm posting disappearing from the forum threads for anyone else on here? Not really sure why it's happening.

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Originally Posted by Snagrio

By the way, are the images I'm posting disappearing from the forum threads for anyone else on here? Not really sure why it's happening.

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Yes. Sadly, your images are disappearing.

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Originally Posted by Homebody

Yes. Sadly, your images are disappearing.

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Odd. I noticed that all my old threads are missing the images too...?

I noticed that when I was using images hosted on Discord, those images in my forum posts would disappear. Don't know if that's what you were using, but could be the cause.

If you have some technical ability, I recommend setting up an AWS S3 bucket to host your images. Cheap enough that you'll be billed $0.00 monthly until you have a ton of photos (and then it'll scale slowly to $0.01), and seems to be compatible with this site.

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Originally Posted by Starscream

I noticed that when I was using images hosted on Discord, those images in my forum posts would disappear. Don't know if that's what you were using, but could be the cause.

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That is what I've been doing all this time, yes. I take pictures on my phone, post them from my phone onto Discord (since I'm also in herp groups on there) and then copy/paste the image link into here. Something about Discord-linked images that this site doesn't like for some reason.

For some good news though, she's two for two with eating. Completely crushed this pinky.

https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...503&height=671

Trying a different method of uploading images. Hopefully they don't disappear this time:

There's going to be a potential freeze next week and there's no safe way to increase heat for her (something like a CHE would melt the plastic tote) so I moved Odaria down into the basement where temps are overall warmer and more stable. Sooner than I had planned but I put her on the other end from the other snakes. Gave her a through lookover and not only was she looking like the picture of health but she was quite animated while being held, never seen her move so quickly. :giggle:
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Originally Posted by Snagrio

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With every pic, my envy grows.

Thankfully it seems my new method of uploading pics aren't disappearing anymore. Might go back and reupload the older ones that vanished at a later time.

But for now, found her out after a soak so she wasn't as browned out as normal. Still as sweet and calm as ever.
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What a beauty! Great temperament to go with it, who could ask for more?

It will be awesome to watch Odaria grow!