New Boa, Needs Help

[Boas4ever]

My friend called me the other day and told me that he wanted me to have his 4' boa. He does not have any time anymore to give to the boa. And he knew that Boas were my fav. snake. He knew I would take it without question. But Oh MY ~~~!!! I thought him and I were on the same page when it came to careing for animels. What the ~~~~!!!! When I got to his house I could not bolive what I saw.

He had this snake in a 4' x 2' x 2' glass cage with red wood chips for bedding and a rubbermaid container for it's water dish. Sounds fine... Right? NO!!! The snake had hard as rock balls of terds scatterd, the water dish has just enough water to cover the surface of the bowl, the water that was in it was a redish color from the die in the wood chips, the light fixture had no bulb in it and he has never had a heat pad under it. And, to top it off. there was dry sheading in the cage. And when I asked him and his wife when it last ate. The only answer I got from them was... "It has been a while."

When I got him home... Weight... One more thing. The snake had red patches on it's belly... I think it looks like it may be from the redish wood chips. I dont have time today to get him all restored right now. I just cleaned the watter bowl out and put fresh water in it, which he found his way to real fast... And as of right now he is soaking in it. I bought a 150 watt night time bulb for some heat and tomarow when I get off work I am going to remove all the wood chips and put just newspaper and spray down some moss and put it in another large rubbermaid container for him to rest on and to give this Red Taild Boa some humidety.


Now that I am through venting... My question is about cleaning and restoreing his new home.

How should I clean the wood branches that I took out of the cage? How should I clean the red lava rock that I took out of his cage? And what is good to use to clean out the glass cage? When I was into Cichlid fish, I used to use Viniger to clean the glass. WHat is good to use for snakes? And is it ok to have the 150 watt lamp over ware I am going to plave the Flexwatt? And one more question.... What size Flexwatt should I get for him and his 4' x 2' x 2' glass cage?

I am going to buy some 2x4's and make a basic stand to lift the cage off the floor 1'. And then get a pice of plywood and cut a circle in it to cover 1 of the 2 screen covers and place the lamp in the circle. Hopeing it will trap some of the heat and moisture in on one side.


ANY HELP WOULD BE A GREAT HELP FOR HIM AND I.

Over all though the snake seams in good health. I did not hear any hissing in his breathing, he has a nice rainbow glow to his scales, and he is so tame I can pet him betwean the eyes and he just sits there. His tung is moveing enough from what I can tell from breeding cornsnakes and owning a king snake. I just hope he does not have anything in the woodchips that can get my king snake sick. Like the ticks and mites. He scared me when I saw wood chip dust betwean his eyes. I thought it was bugs but when he let me wipe it off. I saw that it was just dust.

I will get some pictures taken tomarow with my cellphone and try to post them on my website at http://www.brincat.net/eric/ or try to learn to post them to this forum.

My long term goal is to breed him. But I think he has a short tail. I forgot what the male and femail has. But I think I am going to take him to a local petstore and see if they can probe him for me. THe only problem I think I may have is. My friend told me that the petstore he bought the snake from said that it was wild cought. I hope this does not effect me breeding him/her. My friend said that it has been liveing in a cage ever since it was a baby. I dont know... grrrr hmmm

[jadeboa]

First .........if the items in the cage are dirty.........either throw them away or you can soak them in the bathtub with a tiny bit of bleach for a day. Then let them air dry for another day or two. .............you may need to buy a scrub brush and brush them while they are soaking in the hot bleachy water...........
I would get rid of everything and start over.........but it is up to you.
Also, make sure after you wash the items that you rinse them very well with fresh water..............no bleach smell should remain.
I use papertowels as a substrate but news paper is fine.
For cleaning the interior of the cage I use Healthy Habitat........it works great.
For undertank heat for a 4x2x2 glass cage I would use an Ultra Therm Heat pad.........this way if you decide to move him to another cage you can use the heat pad..........it does not stick to the tank...........this is what I use in all of my big tanks..........you can buy whatever size you need.
If want to buy one that sticks to the cage go to..........http://lllreptile.com/
They have some really good prices...........;)

Here are a couple of links you can choose from..........if you go with the type that does not stick to the cage.
http://www.beanfarm.com/store/agora.cgi?cart_id=9999999.99999*rV5-W6&product=Heating&user4=Undertank%20Heaters

http://junglehabitatsplastics.com/webstore/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=7_20

The heat bulb will help until you get what you need as long as the temps are fine and he has water and humidity..........which sounds like you have provided him.
Good luck and post some pictures..............I am glad you now have this poor animal.

[sunglow]

http://www.beanfarm.com/store/agora.cgi?cart_id=9333833.24098*ry1Yb5&p_id=15055&xm=on

best stuff for cleaning tanks. nontoxic and will kill all bacteria. good to use to clean cuts also

[Boas4ever]

If this worked... This is a picture of the boa in his water dish. I took it with my camera cell phone. I have not cleaned out the cage all the way... Because since I first changed his water... He has been in it for the past 24 hours... He wont evin go over to the side of the cage with the 150 watt heat lamp. So... Untill I catch him out of the water. I am going to let him relax.

[Boas4ever]

picture:

Two: This is the cage, Like I said before... I am going to let him rest in his "clean" water for as long as it takes, untill I have to put him in a box, while I clean the ~~~~ out of the cage. The Sponges on top of the cage are labeld for each snakes cage. Our breeding corns have there own, the king has his and now the awsome boa. Tomarow I am going to check under the snake and see if I can see the 2 fang looking things by it's butt to see if I can tell if it is a girl or a boy.

Three: This is a close up picture of the boa on my truck. I never thought my truck was a dirty as I found after takeing a picture of the snake on it. I think my camera cellphone was more focused on the dirt then it was on the snake.

Four: And here he is fulley extended on my truck.

[jadeboa]

That cage definately needs to be cleaned.............poor boa!!!
Good luck..........he/she looks healthy.
By the way this stuff is great for cleaning just like sunglow said..........Chlorhexidine...........you can use it for cleaning everything!!!

[Boas4ever]

This is some pictures of the cage I just finished cleaning. The only thing missing in this picture is 1 pice of a grapevine branch, 1 lava rock, one rock and I am thinking about adding a large pice of tile I picked up from a construction site back when I was dooing HVAC installation.

The Reason for them not being in the cage is that I sprayed them off with a hose and as of right now... They are in the oven. ;)

He went from sitting in his water dish for 48 hours, and never comeing out. To ware he is now moveing all about the cage and stareing at the doors he knows leads to freedom. hehehe At least now he is not just sitting in the water. I guess evin he knew he was not going to like the wood chips when he moved out of the water. I am so happy he is happy. I did not use any fancey chems... to clean the cage. I did not want him to weight that long to come out of his water dish. So I got some Apple Viniger and a 2 spray bottles. One had the viniger in it and the other just had water. I sprayed the viniger all over the inside of the cage and used a razer blade to scrape off some shedding off the side of the glass. And then wiped it all out dry. Then I used the watter sprayer to cover the cage with water and then wiped it dry. I held him for about 30 min. and put him back in. I bet going from red wood chip bedding to newspaper is a whole lot different.

Now all I am going to do is get 2' flexwat and build a basic 1-2' stand out of 2x4's to raise it off the floor and then that will be it... untill I make or buy a branch that I can run from one corner of the cage to the other upper corner.

My brother once had a boa and used flexwat under the cage that was just sutting on the floor and sure enough, the heat cracked the glass under the cage... He said it was because the heat was traped under the cage and no ventelation to the flexwat.

What do you thin of his cage now? I am so happy.

I almost bought a ceramic heat omitter, untill I read a message posting about how the ceramic heat omitter dryed out the air.

[jadeboa]

WOW.........great job ..........that cage looks clean!!!...........and your boa looks happier............;)

[Boas4ever]

I bought him a Rat today and I guess he is stikll not hungery. He moved real slow so the rat would not notice him and made his way over to the watter bowl. And then just sat in it for a 1 hour before I took the rat out.

I guess I am going to be forced to take care of this rat untill another week goes by.

This sicks. My corns and king snake eat within 3 seconds of puteing a mouse in there cage. Maby he is still gettimng used to hs new home. :|

[dberes]

A couple things. I would suggest tight hide boxes for the boa to feel secure. To up the humidity in the tank, screen lids are a nono. Cover the screens. They let everything out and defeat the purpose of large water dishes and spraying the inside of the tank with water. Be careful with the 150watt bulb. In my experience boas don't care for anything over 100watts. However there seems to be a great distance from the light and the boa.

[dberes]

One more thing, the boa may not eat for awhile. It could be severely dehydrated internally and hydration is the best thing for it.