Enclosure Ideas

[bdehlin]

My finace just got me a BCI for my birthday and I am wondering what size of enclosure he/she will need when they are an adult. I read an article in Reptiles Magazine that had plans for building an arboreal snake cage out of an old dresser. I have one lying around and thought the idea would be perfect. I would love to hear any thoughts or ideas for housing BCIs. I was also wondering if anyone had pics of their enclosures so that I could get ideas because I plan on building my own enclosure. Thank you.

[monkeywrench133]

If your boa is a male, then a 4x2 would be sufficient. However, for a female you'll need at least a 6x2. The general rule of thumb is one square foot of floor space for every linear foot of snake. If your boa is a baby, you could set it up in a 40 gallon breeder tank for about the first year, then move up to the bigger enclosure when he/she gets to be about 3ft long. I'm familiar with that plan for the arboreal cage, its nice, but not suitable for a boa.

[cassandra]

We have our baby Surinam BCC in a 20L Critter Cage.



We haven't decided what to move her into when she needs a bigger cage, but have considered Boaphile, AP, and a bunch of others. I plan on doing some research at the LA NARBC show in September as many of the big name cage manufacturers will be there.

My dream would be to create some really cool custom jungley environment, quite verticle with thick tree branches/logs for climbing and basking and natural looking "stream/pond/water hazard" thing for drinking/soaking...we'll see. That's a ways down the road.

[Ginevive]

For an adult, I would go with something w/ as much floor space as possible. For a female, an enc. 3' by 8' in floor space would not be too bad. I really think that any snake should have enough length in its cage to stretch out fully, or at least almost so.
And I have another tip; get a heavy water container that can't be tipped! My 5-foot male BCI managed to spill a heavy ceramic dog bowl of water all over his cage. Even if it isn't tippable, they will make it overflow if they decide to take a soak (you know, water displacement..) for this reason I would recommend a thicker and more absorbent substrate such as cypress mulch for these guys.

[monkeywrench133]

The 20 long will be fine for a while. My BCI spent the first 8 months of her life in one. I wouldn't invest a lot of effort into a cage with vertical climbs though, boas are ground snakes and rarely, if ever climb once the get past the baby phase. Ginevive is right, the more floor space the better.

[cassandra]

...boas are ground snakes and rarely, if ever climb once the get past the baby phase...

Good to know...but for now, our boa is definitely about UP!

[Ginevive]

They do like to climb, but with mine I like to limit it to out-of-cage climbing (supervised, of course.) I would be too frightened of him either knocking anything down in his cage that could be climbed on, or falling and hurting himself. However, it is a blast to let them climb around in a (safe) object, such as a railing with wide rails that can't catch its head; I have even heard of people using artificial trees!