Boa Room Care Questions

[phassin]

So I recently visited a local animal rescue zoo where they keep all different kinds of stuff. They focus mainly on cats, but as it turns out they had a reptile room where in their care, they had three snakes and a baby croc. Now, the entire facility was a bit in need of a make over, but the reptile room was really in bad shape. I'm hoping to help them get it a bit more in order....

I saw something I hadn't seen before and I'm wondering what you guys think. There were two big snakes in their care. One was a large red tail and the other a yellow anaconda. Both of them were on a rock bedding. I'll attach pictures so you know what I mean. Does anybody keep snakes on a rock bedding? Are there any advantages/disadvantages? I would imagine they are hard as hell to clean and don't keep any semblance of humidity.

There's other issues you can spot in the pics but that was the first one that jumped out and I really don't know about it. Thanks

[macandchz]

i don't think that rock bedding would be a very good idea. if they are using any under the tank heating, i would think those rocks could get very hot. the cleaning would be difficult. it would be great if you could help them get a better set-up.

[bigsnakegirl785]

Looks like there's 3 snakes in there, not two. None of them are red tails, though. The two in the picture to the left are common boas (Boa imperator).

I've never used rock bedding, but I imagine it wouldn't hold humidity well and definitely is difficult to clean. If they had a moist bedding underneath the rocks, or a humidifier feeding into the enclosures, then maybe the humidity is ok. It's hard to tell if they're dry in these photos since they're so small, but they look mostly ok as far as hydration goes.

[phassin]

Thanks bigsnakegirl. I haven't ever really researched too much into boas (I am still trying to learn to identify red tails vs common boas as you can see). I didn't get a good chance to really investigate the enclosures too much, but i highly doubt there were humidifiers. They may have some extra bedding underneath. I am pretty sure they are all going on ambient humidity. I think summertime humidity hovers around 50% here so its not too bad for now.... I'm more worried about how the snakes do when winter comes and it drops to around 30%.

[Andy_G]

Rocks are very doable but unless you keep them penned outside where the husbandry is dialed in right, it can be problematic.

[bigsnakegirl785]

Thanks bigsnakegirl. I haven't ever really researched too much into boas (I am still trying to learn to identify red tails vs common boas as you can see). I didn't get a good chance to really investigate the enclosures too much, but i highly doubt there were humidifiers. They may have some extra bedding underneath. I am pretty sure they are all going on ambient humidity. I think summertime humidity hovers around 50% here so its not too bad for now.... I'm more worried about how the snakes do when winter comes and it drops to around 30%.

50% is way too low for most boa constrictors. Even when used as a minimum it can create low grade dehydration. I'm not sure if they can even shed properly with humidity that low, I've never let my boa's humidity fall that low anywhere close to a shed cycle. They probably can, but I don't like my humidity to drop that low. I like to keep mine at a constant 70-80%, 50-60% is more of a wintertime humidity level if you're wanting to do the whole cycling shebang (as per the advice of Vin Russo), but that should be paired with a seasonal temp drop as well. I wouldn't keep them at that level all the time. Plus, they would probable seek out a humid area if their humidity was 50-60%, like inside a hide or something.

Hopefully they have monitoring systems and some way to bump humidity, otherwise I don't see that set up being appropriate.