Hi there! Just a couple more ideas for you... Those stick on thermometers are basically useless... The best think I have found is a hand held infared thermometer from Radioshack. I think they are $49, but they are the best thing since sliced bread. That way you can get a truly acurate temp reading (+/- 0.5 degrees) and know not just what the air temp is, but also what your surface temps are. It is also really handy so you can test all your cages with the same thermometer.
About your substrate, there is much to be said for loose substrate like apsen or repti-bark, but I don't like any of it. If you have loose substrate in the enclosure, you MUST feed your snakes in a seperate container. I recomend this anyway, but if you feed on loose substrate the risk of your snake consuming substrate with dinner is just too great. Loose substrate also harbors bacteria and mites and it has a tendency to hide fecal matter and urates. Especially if the substrate smells nice.... I could mask that icky smell that signals time to clean the cage. For the above stated reasons, I use newspaper.
Boas are chambion non-movers. That is one of their most attractive characteristics as far as I am concerned. Colubrids are too energetic for my tastes, and my boas just cuddle up with me whenever I pick them up. It is a good thing. [img]modules/Forum/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]
I wrote a pretty neat caresheet that can be found in the caresheets section of this site or by clicking
here.
About the feeding... I have found that boas like rats better than mice. Rats are also better for their digestive systems.
Good luck!
-Morti
[addsig]
