Adult Female BCI Enclosure

[lonewolf1253]

I have a 21 month old female Columbian Red Tail who is already 5 feet long. Currently, I have her in a 70 Gallon Terrarium. Four feet long, 18 inches wide and two feet tall. It's fine now but she's obviously going to outgrow this in a year or so. I was wondering what a good size cage would be for a large adult female BCI. I can tell she's going to be a big girl.
Does anyone have experience with Vision cages. Or Boaphile? I could buy another huge Terrarium but those thing weigh a ton. I don't intend to breed her. I just want a large enough enclosure for the rest of her life and not have to buy another one later. Any advise would be appreciated. Thanks.

[Andy_G]

A 6'x2' boaphile with a radiant heat panel for heat would be one of your best options.

For a boa to be so large at such a young age, I wonder what kind of feeding regimen you have her on?

[lonewolf1253]

Thanks, yes that would be better than a huge Terrarium. Her feeding schedule has varied but I probably have been overfeeding. She's a machine and always hungry. I'm going to cut back on her feeding along the lines of what Big Snake Girl recommends. She seems to know a lot about the dangers of overfeeding. The snake doesn't really look fat though. I recently switched her to large rats every 10 to 14 days and her growth just took off but I should probably go back to mediums.
I'm used to misting the tank with RO water about 3 times daily so I'm wondering how you keep up the humidity in a cage like that? Or do you have to humidify the whole room? I'll post some pics of her when I get a chance. Thanks a lot.

[Andy_G]

Humidity is easy to keep up in PVC cages with radiant heat. Definitely overfeeding there, but it's great that you're willing to change that.

[lonewolf1253]

Originally Posted by Andy_G

Humidity is easy to keep up in PVC cages with radiant heat. Definitely overfeeding there, but it's great that you're willing to change that.

I will be buying one of those next year.

I tried to upload some photos of her but I was unable to re-size the photos so I put them in the gallery. She's about 5 ft. long and weighs just a bit over 5 lbs. at 22 months of age.
She was the biggest of the litter though. The medium rats are quite a bit smaller than her widest girth but I guess I'll switch her back to those. Perhaps one every two weeks? Not really quite sure how to put her on a diet. The person who sexed her says she doesn't need to lose weight. But she is quite large for her age I guess. If anyone has any advise, I'm all ears.

[lonewolf1253]

I did manage to resize a few photos. Not something I'm used to doing.

[Andy_G]

I think a medium every 3 weeks would work for a while. Power fed/heavily fed boas don't always look obese. Sometimes they will get big quite fast while accumulating visceral fat around their organs that we can't see.With snakes, visceral fat within the rib cage always accumulates before the subcutaneous fat starts to build up, which is yhe fat deposits that make snakes look overweight. Properly fed boas should take years to get to that size no matter how large of a neonate they are. I would be using mediums if they leave any bulge at all and space feedings out to at least every 3 weeks. You have a very nice boa, by the way.

[lonewolf1253]

Thanks, sounds like good advice. That should help and slow down her growth. Plus, she'll be getting exercise cruising her cage all day looking for food. I've never had a snake with such a strong feeding response. That's how she got overfed. I'd see her hunting all day and cave in. That, and bad advice from people where I bought her. They probably just wanted to sell more rats. But she's a sweetheart once I get her out which is usually every other day if not in shed or had just eaten. She's a real mellow snake.
I'll post some more pics in 6 months or so. I appreciate the advice.

[EL Ziggy]

Nice boa. I agree with Andy on cutting back on her food just a bit.