Mark
04-03-2002, 11:09 AM
The first time I produced baby columbian boas I set them up in a shoe box unit and set the thermostat to around 88 degrees. The room temp was about 73 degrees. I fed the babies either pinkies or fuzzy mice. For the second meal I offered most of them weaned mice. A few of the babies regurgitated. I knew the babies got too hot from the heat tape under the shoe boxes. I set up a portable heater a few feet away from the unit on the floor and put the thermostat on the unit down to 82 degrees. Now the heat tape was not coming on at all and the temp in the shoe boxes was 85-87 degrees. I have not had a baby boa regurg since using this method to heat them. I think they digest at a slightly slower rate, possibly in a more natural manner. I feed newborn boas pinkies or fuzzies and within a month they are eating hopper or weaned mice and show considerable growth and have good body fat established. Now here is the kicker! I have one of my retics set up in a sweater box unit with the temp in the box at 87 degrees. After he has a meal his body temp rises to 92 degrees! With the increase in metabolism from feeding comes an increase in his temperature. Now if you apply this to boas, here's what you have- your babies are set up in a heated unit with the thermostat set to reach 90 in the back. The baby gets a meal, their body temp rises, and now instead of being 90 degrees they may be as high as 95 degrees! And probably cooking the meal in their stomachs. Now this method of maintaining snakes not only helps with babies but with adults too. The first winter I had a bunch of burms and retics in my basement several got respiratory infections. I had heat tape under all the cages and the room was around 74 degrees. I put portable heaters in, dropped the heat under the cages and my problems are gone! The entire room is in the mid 80's and although the heat tape under the cages comes on some, its not on all the time. It makes me wonder if heat tape should be used at all? Keeping snakes warm in an indirect way seems to benifit them in many ways in my experience.