hide box

[fish21]

does an adult red tailed boa need a hide box. i have seen a lot of pics on here and a lot of people dont use them. if they do not i will tanke mine out.

thaks fish

[jglass38]

If he/she uses it, then you might as well leave it there. Some people have them and some don't. RTBs aren't skiddish/timid/shy like BPs.

[daniel1983]

Most of the time.....people take the hides out when they take pictures....that is one reason that it may seem like not alot of people have hides in with their snakes

[JimiSnakes]

I don't use them for boas, but that is just me. My boas seem fine without them. I only use them for newby snakes, once they are secure with me taking them out and outgrow the hides they are in...I just don't replace them.

[Karma]

my boa rarely uses it but he still has 2

[fish21]

thanks for the help. mine spends a lot of time in his tub of water like most of the day today. but from what i have read that is normal right?

thanks

fish

[JimiSnakes]

thanks for the help. mine spends a lot of time in his tub of water like most of the day today. but from what i have read that is normal right?

thanks

fish

This is not normal. Boas only soak when they have husbandry problems. Do you have a digital or analogue thermometer? Does he have mites? Any stuck shed? I am betting it's mites. Look really closely around his neck and upper body for tiny black bugs moving around. If they smear red they are mites.

[fish21]

i looked close. no mites. he got out around 1200 last night and went to his hide box. i tryed takeing his hide box out then he went to the water tub. so i guess he likes the hide box. i put it back in and he went in to it so i guess for my snake a hide box is a good idea. you had me worried about mites. how do you treat mites if i ever have a problim.

fish

[JimiSnakes]

Provent-a-Mite seems to be the best out there. It doesn't hurt to use it anyways. I dose the cage of every new snake I get for precautionary reasons any ways. I used to use Kitten flea powder under the newspaper for awhile, but it just made a powdery mess out of everything. Thus, I took some good advice from this site's great members and bought some ProventAMite. It works great and is a one treatment way of getting rid of mites and the eggs; the eggs are the pain of the whole ordeal. Mites are easy to kill, but the eggs are not. They can keep reappearing for months! PITA!!!

Did you say you have a digital thermometer/hygrometer or an analogue? If the temps and humidity levels aren't right it will stress the snake out and make it soak a lot too.

[fish21]

digital the temp on the hot side is 90 and 81 on the cool side. the humidity is 60 % in there. he is a happy snake i think i got him out today and he was verry energitic and strong. not week and limp.

thanks fish

where do you get that stuff to treat for mites i will do it just to be on the safe side. can you get it at pet smart?