A common cause of concern, especially with people new to keeping boas and other snakes, is when snakes refuse to eat. The first thing to be aware of is that not eating for a length of time, so long as the snake is otherwise healthy, is not a big problem. Since boas, like all reptiles, are cold blooded they are extremely efficient with the calories they digest. Since they don’t use most of their food as fuel to keep themselves warm, they can go for weeks, and even months between meals without any problems.

Having a snake that refuses to eat for long periods of time however can be very frustrating and concerning however, so here are some tops to help you get your snake eating…

1. If your snake is newly aquired don’t offer any food for a week.  In fact, leave your snake completely alone for a week without any handling at all.  This will give your snakea chance to settle in to its new surroundings and relieve the stress of moving.
2. Check your husbandy.  Are your temeratures and humidity levels correct?  Is the enclosure of adequate size?  Are you providing enough cover for your snake to hide?
3. Check your snake’s condition.  Is it about to shed? Is it showing any signs of illness?  It is breeding season, or winter time?

Any of the above could be reasons why your snake isn’t eating.  Once you have ruled the above out however, and allowed your snake time to settle in, it is time to try and tempt it to eat.  Here are a list of things to try.  Start at the beginning of the list and keep trying different things every couple of days until your snake starts to eat…

With frozen/defrosted prey:

1. Offer defrosted prey that has been warmed up
2. Try ‘braining’ the rey (slitting the head open)
3. Leave the prey item in the enclosure overnight
4. Place the snake in a plastic tub with the food and leave for an hour
5. Dangle the prey item by the tail with a long pair of forceps
6. Offer different prey types (mice, rats, chicks etc.)

If you have no success with any of the above, try from the start of the list again but with freshly killed prey items.  For most boas, being persistant and methodical should tempt your snake to eat.  If you still have no luck there are 2 more things you can try.

1. Live feeding.  Feeding your boa on live prey items is less than ideal.  It causes stress to both the prey and the snake, and rodents have sharp claws and teeth and are quite capable of seriously injuring even a large boa.  If you have to resort to offering live food keep a close watch and remove the prey item from the enclosure if it has not been eaten within 15 minutes.

2. Assist/force feeding.  This involves physically feeding the snake and should only be attepted with the help of an experienced keeper. Force feeding can be tremendously stressing to the snake, and to you.  Please get advice from a vet with reptile experience before resorting to this.

For more tips on boa feeding check out the articles on this site, or sign up for the free 10 day mini-course on boa keeping!

Very often when looking for information about boas on the Internet, or when looking at stocklists for snake breeders you’ll see these codes. They can be quite confusing for the beginner so here is a quick breakdown of what they mean:

• CB - Captive Bred.  This means that the animal as been bred in captivity, either by a prefessional breeder or privately.  These tend to be healthy snakes, free from disease and parasites, and are often quite docile and easy to handle.
• CF - Captive Farmed.  This means that a wild female snake is captured (while pregnant) and this is the offspring.
• WC - Wild Caught.  The name says is all, this is a snake which was once wild and has been captured and imported to be sold.
• LTC - Long Term Captive.  This is simply a WC snake which has been kept in captivity for some time and has adjusted to captive life.

You will often see a number after these code, such as 07 or 08.  This is simply the year of birth so CB08 means a captive bred snake from the 2008 season.

I read an interesting post on a forum today, and it was something I had never really thought of before. The very idea of keeping 2 different species of boa, let alone a boa and a completely different species in the same vivarium had never crossed my mind. It had never occurred to me that anyone would consider doing so…

…but apparently people do, and this subject is raised at meetings and shows from time to time. Beginners to reptile husbandry see 2 very similar looking animals and assume that they will live well together - not true!

Each species of snake has it’s own perticular requirements. Even snakes within the boa family have a vast range of requirments. For example, the Common Boa Caresheet on this site will tell you that the snake is largely terrestrial and so needs a large, flat enclosure with an ambient temperature of around 85 - 90 F. The Emerald Tree Boa however is an aboreal snake requiring less ground space, but height and climbing branches. It also requires a much higher humidity than the Boa Constrictor.

Another consideration is that many snakes are solitary animals and being kept in close proximity to others can lead to stress and agression. In extreme cases some species of snake are even canibalistic and will eat one another!

If you’re new to reptile keeping, and are thinking of getting one or more snakes please ensure no more than one species per vivarium. For most snakes a single animal, or a pair is all that should be housed in the same enclosure. That way your snakes will be happier and healthier, and you’ll find it much easier to provide the correct care.

The Boas (Boinae) are a subfamily of non-venomous snakes. They are found in the wild in South America, Central America, and parts of Africa and Southeast Asia. The boas and pythons are often confused by non herpetologists, and many species of both families are superficially very similar, and share many similar features. The Emerald Tree Boa for example is very similar in appearance to the Green Tree Python, but taxonomically there are several major differences.

Emerald Tree Boa, very similar in appearance to the Green Tree Python

Perhaps the biggest difference between the boas and pythons is that the pythons lay eggs, while boas give birth to live young. There are also distinguishing physical features since the pythons have postfrontal bones or premaxillary teeth which are absent in the boas. Geographically their distributions are almost exclusively distinct.

It’s worth noting that often, especially in older books, pythons are classified as a subfamily of Boidae, the Pythoninae. Almost all modern classifications however have Pythons as a quite separate family. Now the family Boidae consists of the True Boas (Boinae) and the Old World Sand Boas (Erycinae)

Boas are considered a relatvely primative snake and the remnants of hind legs can still be found, especially on males, in the form of anal spurs either side of the cloaca (vent). In general they are medium to large sized snakes, with the males usualy a little smaller than the females.

The name Boa comes from bos, the latin name for cow. It is thought that this is based on an old myth where the boas would kill cows by suckling their blood.

Just a quick post to say that I have uploaded a Boa Constrictor caresheet to the site. It covers boa constrictor in general, but specifically is for the common boa (boa constrictor imperator).

More boa caresheets to come soon!

I’m slowly putting content on the site… hope you like the banner image across the top!

I’ve added a page for boa constrictor pictures. If you have any photos of your own boa constrictors, or other boas (rainbow boas, rosy boas, whatever…) and would like to share them please send them in an email. I hope that as the site grows more and more people can post their boa photos here for everyone to enjoy!

Bill

Hi, and welcome to Boa Care. My name is Billy Deakin and this is my first post on what I hope will become a useful resource for other reptile and boa enthusiasts like myself.

I started keeping reptiles over 25 years ago and over that time have amassed a lot of experience and knowledge. I’ve kept many snakes, lizards and other exotics over the years, but my favorites have always been the boas! There is something about boas, and in particular the boa constrictor, which always draws me to them. They are not only a beautiful looking and fascinating snake, they are also often very docile which makes them great for handling.

I’ll be adding more and more content to this site as time goes on. If you have any questions please email and if you would like to send me any photos of your own boas I’ll be happy to post them here for the whole world to see!

I hope you enjoy the site, and find boas as fascinating as I do!

Billy Deakin