Columbian boa

So I helping out someone I know by taking in a young columbian boa they can no longer care for. I'm not sure yet if I will be keeping this girl or if I will be searching for a new home quite yet. Apparently she is a year old. 630 grams. About 3 feet and 8 inches. She is in blue right now. She is very tame. She ate a small rat about a week ago according to previous owner. She is quite personable!

Before the ride home






Previous owners setup. I am planning on changing this up very shortly. (she is in a 20 gallon tank). Any suggestions on good vivs for keeping in humidity?




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If you are not sure you are going to keep her, why don't you set her up in a large Sterlite, Rubbermaind, or similar transparent tub? That will definitely keep the humidity and you can make her a lovely home. It may not be as aesthetic for you but she'll like it fine.

If you need details there are many people here who use them. I've only ever made a small Sterlite sweater box for transport so I can't recommend size or give other details other than making the air holes with a soldering iron, outside. Poking the holes from outside in leaves the smoothest inner surface.

If you do keep her you can always get a nicer enclosure on down the line.

She's a beautiful girl and deserving of love and care. Good on you!

oh thats a fantastic idea!! I want to get her in a humid environment as soon as possible especially since she is in shed right now and her current setup doesnt even have any hides.

does anyone who keeps snakes in a tub setup know the best way to heat it? I will be doing some googling but I would be interested to see your personal experiences!

she is such a great snake, I am excited to care for her!

I love Boas. I've had 2 of them in the past. My first snake when I was 17 was a Boa. I had her for almost 23 years. I was heartbroken when she passed away.

They can get pretty big, mine was almost 11 feet and ate large rats and rabbits.

But most of the time they are very tame and sweet. I can't promise you they won't bite, but I can tell you mine never bit me or anybody else.

I had a cage built for mine. If you plan to keep the snake you will need a good sized cage. They grow pretty fast. Mine was about 24 inches long when I got her, and was about 4 feet her first year, about 6 feet the 2nd year, about 8 feet the 3rd year, and it was sometime around that time frame I realized I was going to need a really big cage.

I had a friend at the time with a small shop behind his house and he built me a very nice cage out of wood and plexi-glass. I used a Large heat mat on one end. I did not have a thermostat on it. This was around 1978 -79 and to be honest I'm not even sure if they made reptile thermostats back then. I piled up newspapers for the substrate and found that about 1 inch of newspaper would disperse the heat pad to about 90 degrees. That's what you want with a boa. 90 degrees is too high for our corn snakes but it's perfect for a Boa.

If you plan to keep the boa, you should consider going ahead and getting a bigger cage now. Otherwise you'll be doing it soon anyway. A 6 foot long by 4 foot wide by 3 foot tall is about what you want for a Red Tail Boa. Big snake, big cage.

I do WANT to keep her. Everything I have heard about boas sounds fantastic. right now I would like to at least upgrade the size for her and get her some hides, so the tub as a temp setup sounds good so I have time to either find a way to make the proper size cage myself or find someone to do it for me. she does have a bit to go before she hits the 8 foot mark. I am expecting I at least have a year and a half to 2 years to plan. from what Ive read, females do get larger than the males in general, so thats fun! this snake was kind of thrust upon me rather quick, so I am learning as fast as I can to do as best as I can by her.

I am assuming as long as the UTH is on a thermostat (which it would be) I should be ok to slap a zoo med mat under a plastic tub set at 90* and it wouldnt melt right?

You'd be fine. Realize, I carry one around in the trunk of my car for organization, and it hits over 100 in there and the bin and lid are just fine. I'd love to see an after-shed photo!

fantastic! so tub it is as my main concern right now is increasing humidity for her shed. any advice on number of holes to poke in it? or does that not matter? also she is very strong, so I am thinking that a lid that snaps shut in 4 places would be best. I read that something like cyprus mulch would be good for substrate? do you find that is true? or is my aspen I use for my corns ok?

I will for sure take some after shed photos in natural light! even in shed she is very shiny in the sun, so pretty.

she also has some scale issues I hope will show to clear up after her shed, or after several

You can supplement the closures that come on the tub using large, heavy duty binder clips.

Something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/ACCO-Binder-C...ty+paper+clips

that is ingenious, thank you!

I'd like to take credit but I'm passing on what I learned here, lol.

A tote like this with air holes and the binder clips would do the job.

http://www.target.com/p/sterilite-cl...t/-/A-13794501