Is 3ft an appropriate size for a RTB ?

[drugaria]

Going to purchase this boa , was told it is 8month old and its at 3ft lenght . the store wants $129 for it. The Snake seems to be quite docile and healthy except for maybe some mites. I was looking quite hard for mites but one juiced up one was left on my hand as I was handling the snake. And BTW the snakes eats only live mice and has not been sexed. Today I'm going to make them an offer and most likely will get the snake . So what do you think?

[frankykeno]

Personally I wouldn't buy a boa from any chain store that doesn't specifically specialize in reptiles (Zoo Creatures, that type store I would work with, PetCo...not so much).

You say it's "healthy except for maybe some mites". Sorry but that's not "healthy" to me. That's a nasty bug that can carry disease and it's an indicator that pet store doesn't treat for mites nor deal with an outbreak. Not some place I'd consider a good supplier.

They are feeding mice to a 3 foot boa? How many per week? That's a lot of hungry boa to exist in dinky little mice in my opinion. I'm not into powerfeeding any snake or having a boa run to fat but I cannot imagine how many little white mice our Severus would take down. I'm no boa expert by any means but aren't they usually on rats by 3 feet?

They haven't sexed this snake. Are you ready to deal with the size of a mature female boa. There can be quite a big size difference between male and female boas.

Have you set up a proper quarantine appropriate for bringing in a boa from what is basically an unknown source (if that store had bred it, it would be sexed).

[drugaria]

Well I can deal with a 12 foot snake if taht's what you mean and I'll build a closed for it as it becomes needed. As far as the mytes go I am really pissed about it, but honestly I only saw this one and was looking for mites every where oround the eyes everything. I once had to deal with a mite problem with my ball so I have everithing requierd . The sore believe it or not is a specialized store for Reptiles.(the only one in the area) I also agree with you about the mice I feed my 4mnth baby ball small rats . I thing I'm going to offer them my own price for the snake , not what they are asking for since the facts that I mensioned sex , mytes etc.

[frankykeno]

A 4 month old BP on small rats? Well it's your decision and your consequences to deal with if this boa isn't all your hoping it will be. I think your downplaying the seriousness of buying a mite invested snake though. You do realize that you'll be dealing with a rehatch of mites in about 30 days if you don't get on top of it. Since you have a mixed collection are you prepared for a long and complete quarantine of this incoming boa?

[drugaria]

I wouldn't say the snake was infested with mytes . My second BP was infested with mytes - it had hundreds everywhere .
And this snake had only one It had none around the eyes or in the cloaka. Now as far as behavior goes yes, I am concerned with it , I don't wanna deal with a pissi snake, but judgng on the handling session yesterday the snake personality is fine I'd say.
As for the quarantine I have separate tank for it on the other side of my room and will be strictly quarantined to the best I can provide .

[frankykeno]

If you see a mite, believe me there's more than one mite. Two mites = more mites. There's a lot of information out there about the lifecycle of the mite, you might want to google some of it.

Quarantine in the same room, even if in seperate tanks, is not quarantine at all, especially when it comes to mixing boas and pythons.

[littleindiangirl]

Mites are nocturnal. What you see during the day is in no way reflective of whats actually around. Check out the VPI article on snake mites.
VPI.com- the snake mite

[littleindiangirl]

I don't understand why you have to have THIS boa. What's wrong with supporting a good breeder, someone who can tell you what locality they deal with, who the parents are, the history of their breeding program. Why support a petstore that can't deal with mites? I wouldn't put money into any facility that is willing to spread disease via the mite. Mites are linked to IBD. Boas are known for carrying the disease with no signs.

Not only IBD, but many other diseases are transmitted through the mite. It just seems really odd that you MUST have this boa. Are you even set up for a boa yet?

And trust me, quarantine across a room is not a good quarantine. All of your animals will have mites in a few days....

[drugaria]

I am familiar with the life cycle of mytes as I said and have whatever tools and knowledge are necessery to successfuly eradicate them. I could even move the snake into another room with some extra effort on my side . Obviously even if I get a snake from a breeder I would still have to quarantine it . I can't just take somebody's word for it : "O, all My snakes are healthy" unless I know that person closely. That's crap.
So with that being said is there anything else that can be dicovered about the health of that snake trough simple test not requiring any special equipment.
I've done the basic IBD test, the snake breths ok no mucose leaking out of it's mouth. I'm gonna check today for mouth rot.
One thing I'm concerned is the fact that it eats live pray therefore a greater risk of internal parasites , please correct me if I'm wrong. I've also heard that few boas eat frozen.

[littleindiangirl]

I could even move the snake into another room with some extra effort on my side.

All snakes, regardless of the breeder should be quarantined for observation for at least a month

Obviously even if I get a snake from a breeder I would still have to quarantine it . I can't just take somebody's word for it : "O, all My snakes are healthy" unless I know that person closely. That's crap.

We're not asking you to just throw any snake in your collection, quarantine is a must. Plain and simple.

So with that being said is there anything else that can be dicovered about the health of that snake trough simple test not requiring any special equipment.
I've done the basic IBD test, the snake breths ok no mucose leaking out of it's mouth. I'm gonna check today for mouth rot.
One thing I'm concerned is the fact that it eats live pray therefore a greater risk of internal parasites , please correct me if I'm wrong. I've also heard that few boas eat frozen.

This is just wrong. IBD, (inclusion body disease) can be carried in boas FOR YEARS without showing any clinical signs in any Boa. The best and only sure fire way to confirm in a boa is through a liver biopsy and blood testing.
[edit] Clinical signs including but not limited to: Stomatitis, pneumonia, Star gazing, regurging, weight loss etc...
And I'm still skeptical if a snake can get a mammalian internal parasite if it is host specific. I am not all up on internal parasites, but it is nothing I have ever worried about.