[snake] I'm planning to buy a boa.

[darxus]

Anybody know any good breeders in the area?

I had grand plans to build it an 8'x2'x3' cage (between my front speakers, under my projector screen, designed to be disassembled for moving), but everybody is telling me that that much space would terrify a baby to the point it wouldn't eat. And in fact it is likely to grow out of anything appropriately small by 6 months. So as much as I'm resistant to the idea, I'll be starting it off in a big rubbermaid tub (as everyone recommends), which I plan to buy tonight. Then when it outgrows that I'm planning on a 4'x2'x1', and finally doing the 8' I originally planned.

The only other equipment I'm planning to buy is a Zoo Med Under Tank Heater (6"x8"), and a thermometer / hygrometer (humidity) set.

I'm still very interested in suggestions. I was planning to get an anerythristic red tail boa, but I may have been convinced to get a nice normal to avoid the health problems associated with the inbreeding required to create morphs. I'd love a snow, but I'm not willing to pay thousands of dollars for it.

I've been strangely enjoying going through long lists of baby names.

This is reasonably likely to be a 30 year commitment. I've been doing a lot of research.

Photo of a baby hypo-melanistic Boa Constrictor Imperator normal.

Comments

[motomuffin.livejournal.com]

They get huge.

Looked at Ball Pythons? They don't get as huge, are lovely pets, very good temperament, don't get as huge, easily "jewelry-train"able, don't get as huge.

I miss my Ball Python. She was a sweetie.

[darxus.livejournal.com]

Yes, I really have done a lot of reading. :)
The size of the boa is a major reason I picked them.

I had been seriously considering corns. I damn near put a deposit down on a snow, but decided that I was doing too much compromising in fear of my next move.

An adult boa is likely to be 8', and entirely physically capable of killing me.

Yes, I thoroughly looked at balls pythons.

[motomuffin.livejournal.com]

An adult boa is likely to be 8', and entirely physically capable of killing me.

Heh, yeah. Not just that, but when they get that big you have to start feeding them rabbits, or live chickens, and I just couldn't handle that. I had a hard enough time with rats.

But, cool! Snakes are awesome pets. It's interesting to learn to read a reptile.

[darxus.livejournal.com]

Snakes do not need to be fed live, in fact pretty much everybody recommends against it because of the chance of the food injuring the snake and the increased possibility of disease (mites, etc.).

[motomuffin.livejournal.com]

That's true but mine was a picky eater (as is common in Ball Pythons) and she would not touch anything that was not kicking.

And, yeah, she was bitten by a few rats in her time. Wound care on reptiles is a pain. :P

If you can train them from small to eat already-dead things, all the better! Chickens from your grocer's meat dept!! :D

[darxus.livejournal.com]

That doesn't sound weird at all. I'd be happy about it. I want to socialize it well, and from what you've said I'd trust you more with my baby than somebody who might not internalize how bad it would be to jump and drop it.

Somebody on a web forum who lives in the area offered to let me visit their 6' boa, without me asking. I'm excited, and hoping that cathijosephine and I manage to get there this weekend.

[darxus.livejournal.com]

Yeah. You haven't met Monster have you?

[darxus.livejournal.com]

http://images.google.com/images?q=site:chaosreigns.com+monster

I got him feral. nchanter has him now because I couldn't deal with him occasionally damaging my things.

[cathijosephine.livejournal.com]

Only if I can watch!

[cathijosephine.livejournal.com]

You're doing better than I am...my sense of humor stuck at twelve.

[superfinemind.livejournal.com]

that much space would terrify a baby to the point it wouldn't eat

I suspect you've encountered this in your readings, but you know you should never feed and house a snake in the same enclosure? Doing so greatly enhances the likelihood of being bitten. (If you haven't encountered it, somewhere on the internet is a listing of Stupid Feeding Errors that was very helpful to my family when we boarded two ball pythons.)

Also, I would love to help you socialize your snake. I've been quite herp-deprived for some time now.

[darxus.livejournal.com]

Yes, I'll be feeding in a separate container, thanks.

And I'd also love to have you help socialize my snake.

[superfinemind.livejournal.com]

Very good, on both counts.

[darxus.livejournal.com]

Is this the SFE page you mentioned?
http://www.geocities.com/Petsburgh/2206/sfe.html

[superfinemind.livejournal.com]

Yes. The spelling and grammar leave something to be desired, but is decent information.

The pythons we had were under four feet long, and we got by without a snakehook, but his suggestion of hemostats is a good one. (We used 24-inch-long tweezers, left over from handling bees.) We only once ran into a problem of picking them up after feeding (Item 4); didn't let one sit quite long enough and I got nailed on the thumb-web.

[beowabbit]

*Squee!* I loves me some snakes. If I were going to get a pet, it would probably be another Ball python.

(I wonder if abutting the habitat to the speakers would create disturbing vibrations for the snake. Do you know how they react to vibration and/or noise? I don't.)

[darxus.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I'd been meaning to ask about the noise. People are telling me it's not a problem. Their lower jaw is connected to their remaining ear bone, that's how they very accurately perceive vibrations. Just need to lift their jaw.

[temalyen.livejournal.com]

I don't think I could do that, even though I wanted a snake when I was younger.

Recently, I've been tending to get nervous if I think about getting an animal that isn't born mostly domesticated. (ie, cats, dogs, fish... I'd be okay with birds as well.)

In fact, about 4-5 days ago, I had a dream that I had a giant pet tarantula and ended up having to stomp it to death because it was trying to eat my cat. (Which makes absolutely no sense... but my dreams rarely do.)