Good boa caresheets

[Gerardo]

Just need to be pointed in the right direction for good caresheet for boas

[Physician&Snakes]

Not an official care sheet, but this how I have kept my pair for the last seven years and how I maintained all 20 of the adult red tail boas I cared for at the exotic pet store I worked at for around that same length of time...I will also include neonate care as I worked with the adults' offspring occasionally.

Overrall
Boa constrictor and most of its complex are very good intermediate/beginner pets in herpetoculture. You can raise these guys a hundred different ways and come out with pristine specimens, the two main methodologies involve relatively rapid growth and the other takes it nice and slow. These are inquisitive and often relatively heavy bodied snakes, but are more than manageable...one my main coworkers was a petite 4'8'' 100lb female .

Housing and Environment
I prefer not to use minimums, but if you must then a shoe box is fine for neonates. I always started with a nice 10 gallon tank with a bit of decor. Adults require a 3.7'X18''X10'', we used 75-gallon tanks at the store and I use 4'X2'X18'' as a minimum for mine.
Both heat pads and heat lamps are fine for them so long as you have good hot side of 88-91F and a cool side around 75-82. My cages are a bit Bi-polar for my adults as the hot side stays a steady 90F, an ambient temp of 84, and a cool side usually the high 70s/lower 80s. Humidity varies by who's keeping what, I saturate my substrate very well on a weekly basis...I have not had a bad shed the whole time I have had my specimens. I know some keepers who will count only on water bowls for humidity and also experience clean sheds.
Substrate? Your choice of anything that is not sand or pine/cedar. I use cypress for mine and coconut bark was used at the store, I prefer the former due it's natural acidity and tendency to look a bit "nicer". Newspaper works, but I prefer to keep that for quarantine only. I keep the substrate somewhat deep for all ages as most seem to enjoy burrowing in my exerience, many will also climb if given the chance (my adult male loves his horizontal branches).
Freshwater is a must (you don't say? lol), since many specimens are avid soakers. They will also make use of well placed hide boxes.

Feeding & Growth
As already stated, most keepers will either feed aggressively or take it easy. I allowed my specimens to decide on their own, my male is a good feeder but he is far from aggressive about it and he preferred an appropriately sized prey item every seven days...he has grown to a nice well rounded 6-7ft animal that eats well in the summer and fasts in the winter months, like most males. I got my female as a well started yearling and she has a stomach as big as her heart, ate anything and everything (caught her stalking the family dog once when I set her at my feet to clean her cage one day ). She ate a rat that put a decent a lump in her every six days...like a retic almost. She is now a gorgeous 8ft animal with lots of muscle tone in good ratio to fat and eats an xxl rat every two weeks. 9/10 times, I gave pinkies as a first meal then straight to pups and onward as needed on a 6-7 day basis...you'll need to increase prey size based on length for awhile as most specimens will not really start get any real bulk until around 3-4ft, feedings became biweekly at the 5-6ft mark for those under my care.

Behavior
Very similar to python regius except a bit more inquisitive, but not really going toe-to-toe with retics either. Many specimens will have strong feeding responses and establishing behavioral cues is very important. My cues involve the the use of a long pair of tongs (smell+tongs=food) when feeding and if I am just cleaning or about to handle the boa, then I open the cage and immediately give the specimen a good solid pat on the body (no smell+contact=no food). Some people will also use hook training, but I personally reserve this for my retics and scrubs, but to each is own.

Hope that helps, I will happily answer any questions you have to the best of my ability so do not hesitate.

[scooter11]

Try www.redtailboas.com it's clay English's site. Back ten fifteen years ago this site was great when I first got into boas. He has a great care sheet on the site and the website is top notch

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk

[Evenstar]

We have our own here on this forum: http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...tor-imperator)

It is simple, accurate, and straight forward. The only thing I would change is that it states that babies can be started on rat crawlers. I personally prefer to start babies on mouse hoppers instead of rats. Young rats have a higher fat content than mice and the mice seem to be better for babies overall.


The VERY best resource you can get your hands on is the book "The Complete Boa Constrictor" by Vin Russo. It is still available through his site. http://www.cuttingedgeherp.com/books.html

[Gio]

I agree with Evenstar,

THE COMPLETE BOA CONSTRICTOR is a book every boa owner should have. Then, you could buy several other less expensive basic care books to compliment it. You will see some minor differences in what people feel "ideal" temps, humidity and seasonal changes/temp drops should be. For the most part they are all similar.

There are various boards including this one with a lot of info.

Take in all the info you can, get opinions from experienced keepers and go from there.

Good luck.