Progression of Muriel the Albino Paradox

[Sauzo]

Well to each their own. What works for you works for you and what works for me works for me. Thank god there is more than one way to raise boas Also try Walmart, that's where I get my aspen. I prefer that to pet shops as 1) Pet shops tend to overprice everything they sell and 2) At a store that has no reptiles, you run no risk of bringing home snake mites even though its really rare to find it on substrate. The only downside I find is that the stuff you are talking about, Zoo Med I'm guessing because of the 8.8L size is nice and finely shredded, almost like double shredded. The Stuff from Allpet(Walmart) is a little more coarse but still works well and my baby sunglow and beeper love to burrow in it and make tunnels and hide under it with just their noses sticking out lol. My big BCI girl is lazy and doesn't even use hides, she just sits out in the open all stretched out or in a loose coil with her head on top.

Sorry Fincayra, didn't mean to hijack your progression thread

[CloudtheBoa]

The Wal Mart where I live only sells cedar and Carefresh. I don't mind paying the $30 once or twice a year it takes to replace all the snakes' bedding (it takes a butt ton of bedding to fill up the BCI's 6' enclosure).

Getting mites from bedding isn't very likely. You should be more worried about it if you handle one of the reptiles, mites don't really hide out in bedding. They can't survive long off a host.


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[Fincayra]

Don't worry! The discussion has been very informative. I'll try to address a few of the things brought up, though.

Her cage will never fall to a 'bone dry' level. I spray the glass and artificial plants daily to boost the humidity, and 3/4's of the screen top is wrapped in tin foil to trap most of the moisture. I also have a humidifier running throughout the night and with all that combined, the humidity hovers between 30%-50% depending on when I've sprayed the tank/when the humidifier is on/etc. I think adding the humid hide like Sauzo suggested will maintain a steady level of humidity, at least enough to make her feel comfortable. Right now I'm using aspen bedding, but only because I had a bag left over from a while back that I wanted to use up- otherwise, aspen isn't my first choice. I use cypress mulch in my ball python's cage and I plan to use it in hers once I'm out of aspen.

I expect the PVC cage won't arrive for a couple months, but now that I've had time to mull over it, I think you might be right about housing the two together even with a divider. The thought of a disease potentially spreading between them makes me nervous. After a six month quarantine, do you think they can be housed together, or should I forget the plan entirely? Is there too much risk involved even after quarantine?

The black pigment is actually hard to see with her being so young; there are only a few parts on her body where I can see anything at all. I'll try to get some good pictures in the next couple of days.

[Sauzo]

The thing about IBD and boas is boas can be carriers of IBD their whole lives and you would never know unless you put a BP or another boa with them, then you would find, pretty quick in the case of the BP as IBD is quick and deadly in pythons. But after 6 months, I think honestly you would be ok. I personally like aspen and many many many herpers and breeders have used aspen for years with no problems as well as newspaper so again I honestly wouldn't worry too much as long as you can get the humidity to 50% and if you are really worried, throw a humid hide in there and if the snake wants more humidity, he can get it. Cypress is nice too but I have heard stories of it carrying critters like wood mites which aren't harmful to snakes but can get annoying. You ever run into that? I have never used cypress personally. Also I have read that Eco Earth if allowed to dry out can cause irritation in snake lungs and a couple people actually claimed it caused RI because of how dusty it got when it dried out. Now I'm not sure I believe that but I will agree, it if dries out, it becomes really dusty.

[Fincayra]

I've decided that the PVC cage will house my ball python and Muriel will get her own when she gets to be a little older and most importantly bigger, haha. She appears to be comfortable in her 10 gallon tank; temps are stable and she's exhibiting normal boa behavior. Sauzo, I haven't had any problems with wood mites yet and I've been using cypress in my python's enclosure for well over a year now. I've been buying the bags from zoo med.

The other day I had some lovely sunlight coming in through the balcony doors in the living room. Tried to capture most of her little paradox spots, but they're very small since she's still an itsy bitsy noodle.











Fed her her first pinkie the other night too (believe it was on Sunday). She spent a whole fifteen minutes poking it with her nose. I tried teasing her with it and that almost did the trick but she still wouldn't strike. Tried warming it up a bit and that didn't get much of a reaction either. I ended up leaving it in the cage overnight for her and it was gone in the morning. I checked under the substrate and it wasn't there, so she must have gone back for it. Guess she's a shy eater?

[Sauzo]

Awww she's so tiny!! And that food is even smaller!!! Yeah Vicky is an inspector when it comes to food. She squeezes it and then will completely inspect it before eating. I was wondering what happened as I never saw a pic of the snake. Grats. Yeah I didn't think that wood mites would be in the pet quality stuff, just heard people mention it but I bet its more from the nursery grade stuff. That pic of her staring at the pinky is funny. It's good she is eating though, shy or not. Anyways this post is a ramble of different stuff all over the spectrum but grats again on the little guy.

[CloudtheBoa]

Beautiful boa! I can see the paradox fine. It's cool it's on her tail, most of the ones I've seen were on their necks or backs.

I'd feed her something much larger than that pink, a mouse fuzzy should be about right, that pink is barely the size of her head! It should be about her girth without leaving a bulge, so a small or large fuzzy should be good.
Some people also prefer to stay away from pinks with boas because of the milk bellies, which can be hard to digest.


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[Fincayra]

Huh. The breeder told me to keep her on pinkies for at least five feedings before starting on fuzzies. Can't help but doubt his judgement now. She is my first boa and I'm still learning. I'd like to feed her the remaining pinkies but if it's not recommended I guess I'll be taking another trip to the pet store.

[CloudtheBoa]

Yup mine was started on rat pinks and was able to take rat fuzzies only a month or two later, and they are actually born large enough to start on mouse fuzzies, so she could definitely take larger.


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[reptilian8u]

cool columbian red tail boa


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