do boa's mark their territory?

[chrispaine]

some one who owns an adult red tail told me that when he takes him into a new room or area that he/she defecates (takes a 'dump'ha) to leave his sent, and mark its territory. is this tru, and if it is, is it tru for all boa's. personaly i own a redtail thats about one and ahalf years old, and i havent seen this yet. will i? thanks.

[stckinlodi]

ive heard of snakes defecating on someone as a defense thing (i pooped on u now leave me alone) but never heard of it for territorial reasons but just because i havnt heard of it doesnt mean it doesnt happen

[pandora1985]

it could be that your friend's snake poops because your friend has picked it up and got it active. sometimes my snakes will poo when i take them out to get some exercise. i guess all the activity can get their bowels going.

[Ti]

I have a female Hog Island that seems to mark, usually through musk rather then fecal/urine. When she's placed in/on something with another snake, or where one has been, she will musk. I dont think she's marking her territory, rather just a scent signal to everyone else that shes here, and to leave her alone. She is very docile, but derived her name from a sanskrit word for 'hiss'. lol! Now shes a puppy! (Those crazy hogs!)

	Hog Island Boa hogg

[JuliusSqueezer]

I think pandora nailed it.

Snakes laying around not moving much may need to poop but won't while they are inactive. Getting them out stimulates them and if they were sitting there all ready to poop for awhile...out it will come.

When an animal "marks" territory with musk, urine or fecies, it is usually a signal to other males (in the case of males) to back off. Females do it to signal males that they are ready to breed. In the case of snakes however, any scent left behind by a rival male will only serve to attract other males to that territory. Snakes are snakes! They do not by any stretch ever respect another male's territory. In fact, many snakes will battle for mating rights. Many species of rattlesnakes are a prime example. They "wrestle dance" by standing up face to face and twirl around each other trying to push the other one over. These may seem at first glance as a noble way to battle since either could easily bite and envenomate the other but little do they know, very often while they are preoccupied doing this, another male will sneak past them and breed with the waiting female. Many breeders will put another male's shed skin in an enclosure with paired up snakes they are trying to get to breed to entice the male to hurry and breed before this other male comes back.

So scent does have it's purposes and uses but I wouldn't go so far as to call it "marking a territory" because it deters nothing and in fact will more likely attract competition. A female leaving behind an alluring scent will not deter other females. It will just attract males to the area. Other females are welcome too. One male can breed with several sexually active females.

[chrispaine]

i see i see... i kind of thought what he was saying was a bunch of crap... ha... i have never seen mine do anything like this, and i take him to new places all the time... anyways ..thanks.