pictures of my new dumerils boa rocky

nick654377 · 11-12-12, 09:14 AM

so my nephew named "her" rocky. here she is. i cant wait till she gets on rats!!! today is day one of feeding for her at my place. she ate a mouse no problem at the store before i picked her up.

nick654377 · 11-12-12, 09:17 AM

now everyone says these are slow growers...... she is about 18 inches now i would guess her at maybe 20. how long do you guys think till she is on small/med rats? after i bought her and found out they are slow growers kinda made me wish i got a red tail but my nephews birthday is in march and he wants a lisard... maybe i can talk him into a red tail and ill keep it at my place

EmbraceCalamity · 11-12-12, 10:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nick654377

now everyone says these are slow growers...... she is about 18 inches now i would guess her at maybe 20. how long do you guys think till she is on small/med rats? after i bought her and found out they are slow growers kinda made me wish i got a red tail but my nephews birthday is in march and he wants a lisard... maybe i can talk him into a red tail and ill keep it at my place

I can't answer that question for you, but why are you so eager to get her on rats?

Also, if your nephew wants a lizard, make sure it's something he's really gonna stick with. Like snakes, they live for much longer than most people think when cared for properly. (Leopard geckos are a common child's reptile gift, and they live 10 to 15 years.)

~Maggot

MoreliAddict · 11-12-12, 10:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EmbraceCalamity

I can't answer that question for you, but why are you so eager to get her on rats?

Not trying to speak for OP, but...

It's always best to put snakes that will need rats as adults, on rats as soon as possible. There are a number of reasons.

One being that snakes can form a preference for mice, and will refuse to eat rats. (not sure if this is an issue for Boas, but this is a major issue with Carpets)

Another is that mouse poop, well not mouse poop, but when a snake poops out a mouse it smells bad. lol

When a snake poops out a rat, it smells like bad breath.

I've also heard there's more nutrition to rats than mice...

Nice Dum!

EmbraceCalamity · 11-12-12, 10:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MoreliAddict

Not trying to speak for OP, but...

It's always best to put snakes that will need rats as adults, on rats as soon as possible. There are a number of reasons.

One being that snakes can form a preference for mice, and will refuse to eat rats. (not sure if this is an issue for Boas, but this is a major issue with Carpets)

Another is that mouse poop, well not mouse poop, but when a snake poops out a mouse it smells bad. lol

When a snake poops out a rat, it smells like bad breath.

I've also heard there's more nutrition to rats than mice...

Nice Dum!

Ah, okay. Thanks.

~Maggot

**lady_bug87** · 11-12-12, 10:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MoreliAddict

Not trying to speak for OP, but...

It's always best to put snakes that will need rats as adults, on rats as soon as possible. There are a number of reasons.

One being that snakes can form a preference for mice, and will refuse to eat rats. (not sure if this is an issue for Boas, but this is a major issue with Carpets)

Another is that mouse poop, well not mouse poop, but when a snake poops out a mouse it smells bad. lol

When a snake poops out a rat, it smells like bad breath.

I've also heard there's more nutrition to rats than mice...

Nice Dum!

Not just carpets believe me it was hell getting jade to switch to rats. It took me almost 6 months

**lady_bug87** · 11-12-12, 10:46 AM

She's probably already big enough to take a rat. It's hard to tell for sure but she looks like she may be ok with a pup (the rat equivillant of a fuzzy) what size mouse is she on?

My gtp takes a hairless rat and they are significantly more slender than drums

nick654377 · 11-12-12, 11:47 AM

the guy gave me two frozen mice. smalls with her when i picked her up. i can prob get away with bringing her up to a med mouce. after these two are gone i am going to grab a medium and see she does on that.

**lady_bug87** · 11-12-12, 11:52 AM

There you go, she could easily take a rat pup. Yo'll know he food size is big enough by how long you can see a lump made by the item. If it is less then 36h I would go up a size.

jaleely · 11-12-12, 09:48 PM

hey nick! Nice dumeril's!!!
Good to see her : )

If you have someone around who is experienced, she may be able to be probed or popped, to see what sex she is for sure. Only let someone experienced do it.

Snakes can eat up to twice their width (at the widest point) in prey size. At 18 inches or more, she probably easily sucks down mice and could probably go for a rat pup.
Like others said, it's always best to move up the prey item in size, for numerous reasons.
It's good for their organs to have the bigger size (some say), but mainly it's more food, more calcium, and since they will only get bigger it's easier to get them interested in rats as soon as you can since they'll be on them for a long time.

She's looking good so far!

If you want a cool big snake, that's active, you could always try a carpet python. Red tail boas, dumerils, and for instance ball pythons all tend to be very docile.
Female corn snakes actually get pretty big.

Don't worry too much about them growing fast...depends on the snake itself. Besides, if you do have a female she'll get about 9 feet, so you don't want her to get that big too fast LOL

nick654377 · 11-13-12, 06:56 AM

I liked the carpet python we used to have at the pet store aronun here. she was mostly black with grey i believe? this is going back 6+ years. she was very easy to handle and bout 5 foot at the time. once i get her down i may want to look into a BRB.... but like i said one i get her down and back into it.

as far as sexing her. the petstore/breeder i got her from had probed her and she is a female. so honestly i dont know how big she will get. guess ill find out in a few years....

as far as last nights feeding. yeah she wanted nothing to do with it. im going to wait and try again friday. she seemed interested but wouldnt strike. i tryed laying it in there with her and walked away and she cuddled up next to it for a minute then burrowed. she had her head laying next to its head and then she went underground.

as far as heating her tank i think i have it pretty much dialed in. I know some of you will not like this but i went to over tank heat bulbs. i have a 50w day bulb that keeps her hot spot at 82-84 and cool side around 72. I just got a night bulb last night and i went with a 75w red bulb. it held her temp right around 88-90 in her hot spot and cool side went to 74. she is on apspen and i do plan on changing it over to reptibark. should i switch the day bulb to a 75 or the night bulb to a 50?

**lady_bug87** · 11-13-12, 08:16 AM

Hmm the temps at night shouldn't (In my opinion) be higher than day time temperatures. And if they are it *could* be messing with her

I would make both bulbs the same whichever way you choose to go either 50 or 75 as I don't keep durms I wouldn't know which one is better

I also wouldn't personally offer food more than once every 7 days. When snakes are first brought home they could be stressed. Which is why in my home I initiate no handling until the first 2 consecutive feelings and one poop

nick654377 · 11-13-12, 09:46 AM

i just put that night bulb in not knowing what the temps would go to. I am thinking about switching the substrate to repti bark. people say it helps with the humidity. would the repti bark bring the temp up with the humidity or down? hot side is 80-82 right now on the ground. thinking about going to the 75w day bulb but i dont want temps too high. oppinions please.

Kavyrie · 11-13-12, 09:48 AM

My dumerils is about the same size and she takes down rat pups no problem. I would toss the mice and just get rat pups, the sooner she takes rats the better.

nick654377 · 11-13-12, 02:54 PM

well i had some fun today. i got a bug up my *** and changed her substrate out to a mix of repti bark and coconut husk shavings. i think it looks 100% better. im glad i decided to because i had a heat pad on the bottom of my tank and when i pulled the substrate up, the zoo med pad cracked the bottom of my tank. so swapped out the tanks at the store. the lady was awsome. gave me my money back on the heating pad and dont have to worry about that now and that made me happy.

so i set up her new tank and i had never seen her crawl around and explore like this before. with the aspen she would just burrow and hide. she has been out crusing around for about an hour. i think she likes it better. and it looks 1000000000000x better than the aspen shavings if you ask me.

here are a few pictures. the tank is a 20 long. so 29lx12dx12h to give you an idea of her lengh in one of the pictures.

and one thing i found out when you use aspen a 50w bulb will hold it around 82-84 on hot side. this repti bark/coconut when moist a 75w bulb holds it at 75 so i dropped a 100w in the dome to see what happens. i have a 75 for night time. thats ground temp with an infared gun not ambient temp.