Caresheet is completed

[unluckyseventeen]

Let me know what you think. This took me about a week and I scraped my brain for everything I could think of.

link removed while site is under construction

Thanks to everyone that helped!

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[Weepngprpht]

Nice very informative and just about touches on everything very well written. Great Work

[Rex322]

sigh* Adrians a star

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[MTB Mamba]

I didn't have time to read it all right now, but what I did read looked great. I'm impressed with how long it is. That's definitely a great place for an interested new owner to do some research. You did a great job with the pictures. They really help to clarify the individual sections they are in.

One thing I did notice. The picture of the "Vision Cage" is actually a Boaphile.

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[unluckyseventeen]

Ah. Have I just been retarded all along?

What is the general "type" of tank that has the sliding plexi-glass or plastic doors, and is in the same style as the boaphiles? Is there any TYPE of tank that is, or am I just retarded?

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[MTB Mamba]

Originally Posted by unluckyseventeen

Ah. Have I just been retarded all along?
What is the general "type" of tank that has the sliding plexi-glass or plastic doors, and is in the same style as the boaphiles? Is there any TYPE of tank that is, or am I just retarded?

I'm honestly not too familiar with the other types. The boaphile doesn't have sliding doors though. They have bottom hinges and swing down from the top.

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[unluckyseventeen]

OK, I am crazy then.

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[Red-Tailed_mustang]

Well it looks good to me.

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[JuliusSqueezer]

Well...all feedback can't be good. I have to correct you on a few things. Please take this as constrictive (pun-typo intended lol) criticism

What's the difference between a Python and a Boa?
Pythons are from Africa. Boas are from South America.

This is extremely inaccurate. Boa CONSTRICTORS come from South America, Mexico, and Central America and surrounding islands. But there are also species of "boas" in the US, Madagascar, Africa, Soloman Islands...and many other little islands scattered around the world. Can't forget Candoia, Sand boas, Rosy boas, Rubber boas and non corallus-tree boas.

African rock and ball pythons come from Africa. There are many other python species found all over and around Asia and Australia and their respective neighboring islands.

For the most part, boas give live birth and pythons lay eggs. However, there is always one whacked out oddball screwing up every rule. What was once called a calibar python (Calabaria Reinhardtii) has since been reclassified thanks to DNA, as a close relative of sand boas....Which means we have an egg laying boa.

Ventricle isn't what snakes poop through. ventricle is a chamber of the heart or could be used to describe any cavity within an internal organ. Vent works. Cloaca works...I'd even accept poop shoot but not ventricle

Can Boas recognize a person, like a dog or cat does?
Actually, yes they can. If they know a certain scent and have associated that scent with safety or care, they will recognize a person very quickly and become very friendly toward that person. If you have a Boa that is aggressive, an effective trick to use is to put a shirt in their tank to associate that scent with a safe feeling. If you have a boa for more than a few months and regularly handle it, it will remember who you are and grow to love you, if you take good care of it.

This is all based on opinion and not backed by ANY scientific study or data. It's obvious that a snake has the ability to "settle down" and adapt to captivity enough to become less likely to bite out of anxiety and/or in most cases die from stress. But trying to tack human emotion onto a reptile is just wrong. If reptiles could possibly be domesticated, you wouldn't have to cage them. They don't "love" you. They aren't capible of any such emotion. Their primative brains control ONE function. That function is survival. Every action any reptile makes including in many cases "inaction" is 100% based on survival. They seek shelter, water and food, basking or cooling spots to thermoregulate..and of course a mate certain times of the year. If they aren't looking for one of those 5 things, they are asleep so as not to waste energy....all survival....exception: attempting to escape..which in their little minds is also a survival tactic. They don't go out and play. They don't care about any other thing unless it can eat or kill them or they can eat it. IF you want to accuratly test your shirt in the cage theory, don't try it with a freaking boa that's bound to calm down in under a week anyway if it ever even was aggressive. Try it with a amazon, red tail green ratsnake or some other snappy species and see if your shirt makes them love you

That whole "what's the difference in BCI and BCC" stuff always makes me cringe. It always sounds like it is assumed that all boa constrictors are either one or the other. What about BCA, BCO, BCO and BCO again (yes there are 3 BCOs..., BCL, BCS etc etc etc. There are many more besides those two. Also, if you want a caresheet to be taken serious, spell Colombia right and do a little more research on the range. You left out Central America completely...

Just please mention that aside from BCI and BCC, there are many other subspecies of boa constrictors and that NONE of the others are accidently being shipped to petstores. If someone didn't tell them, they were buying something different, it's a BCI from either Colombia or Centeral America...fat chance it's anything else.

	Boa Constrictor Constrictor Red Tail Boa Constrictor (Boa constictor constrictor). Refers to "true" red tail boas such as the Guyana and Suriname locales.

	Boa Constrictor Imperator Boa Constrictor (Boa constrictor imperator). Most common is the Colombian Boa.

[JuliusSqueezer]

Oh...and rainbow boas and boa constrictors are nothing alike...and rainboa boas, especially at night are highly arboreal. But a very important physical difference besides rainbows being in a class of snakes called "slender boas"...rainbow boas have labial heat pits like a python. Rainbow boas are way more nocturnal too.

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	Arboreal Arboreal is a word meaning "related to or resembling trees". Its meaning comes from the Latin arbor, meaning tree.<br> In biology, an arboreal animal is one which inhabits or spends large amounts of time in trees or bushes.

[unluckyseventeen]

Thanks for the feedback.

This was all straight off the top of my head. I guess I should better clarify that REDTAIL Boas are dominantly from South and Central America, since this is what the caresheet is about. I really don't know much about Rosy, Sand or Rainbow Boas. The one bit I did mention the difference between any other Boa is that I don't know much about them, and if you have anything besides a RTB and you're reading my caresheet, you're in the wrong spot!

Did I actually say "ventricle"? If I did, then I'm an idiot. I meant to call it "vent" as that's what most people are familiar with.

I will also get the classifications changed, and mention that there are many other subspecies of Boa. This was more directed toward answering beginners' or intermediate caretakers' questions, so I didn't think much about going too deep into complicated detail.

I figured that I was inaccurate on a few things, so I will have them changed. I think I know enough about RTB's, and this is what it's all about. I loosely use the word "Boa" and expect people to associate it to a RTB automatically. That's where most of my mistakes lie. Plus, I can't spell Colombia because I always think "Columbian... Columbia?..."

Heheh... thanks again. This is still a work in progress. We're actually building a site called www.redtailboafaq.com and this is what is going to be in it.

Thanks!

[VoodooChile]

I thought it was great for the average Joe beginner who wants more info on his redtail to get going...Covers all the top questions we see here 10 thousand times a day!
Thanks for including our pics in there too!

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[unluckyseventeen]

Thank you for providing them! They helped me out a lot.

Anybody that still would like to help out and put some pictures on there, I would glady accept and love to have them!

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[widemind]

unluckyseventeen and I teamed up to put this caresheet on a site and break it up into pages by subject so it's easier to follow. The original full printable version is also available to download. Check it out, suggestions are appreciated! http://redtailboaFAQ.com

Adam

[CruiserMaiden]

I know redtail boa is in the name of the website, but I think it should still be listed in the info on the home page. Its appears the site is refering to boas in general.

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[JuliusSqueezer]

The problem with publishing something "off the top of your head" is that there are many people who assume since something is published on a real domain (not a geocities or freeweb page) that it's gospel fact. It's obvious that you spent a great deal of time and you covered a lot of detail...that makes it all the more important to research and make sure you have every detail correct before you make it public. Misspelling Colombia and Colombian...no excuse for that :P That whole Teeshirt in the cage making your boa love you is poppycock. Don't discredit your whole caresheet with crap like that. Check out www.boa-constrictors.com for some good information on locales and subspecies. Be careful not to Plagiarize from that site though...the Stoeckls will have your head lol. One thing you might consider though is to put links to sites like that where people can click over and get detail information on various subspecies and locales. Also links to here and other good forums where they can go for help would be nice.

Sorry if I came across as harsh...but if you write a caresheet and publish it...you are responsible for the content being 100% accurate...no excuses. People writing caresheets off the top of their head with no real research is why bad information gets spread so far and wide. This is why ALL ball python caresheets say to keep them with a basking spot at 90 degrees or more. No real research was done. No consideration that wild ball pythons don't lay around in the scortching African sun...ever. No one thought to check the temps in tortoise and other burrows below ground...ok...now I'm just ranting.

[widemind]

Originally Posted by CruiserMaiden

I know redtail boa is in the name of the website, but I think it should still be listed in the info on the home page. Its appears the site is refering to boas in general.

Ah - good point. I'll make sure Brandon sees this - though I'm sure he will eventually anyway if he hasn't already. Within the next couple weeks we're going to also start publishing instructional videos on the site as well, so if you guys can think of anything you'd like to see explained on video, just let me know. For sure we're going to cover the feeding process and tank setup/supplies.

Thanks again everyone for all the constructive feedback! The site is brand spankin new, so there's bound to be some errors to start out with, and it means a lot when people take the time to point errors out or offer suggestions for site improvement.

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[unluckyseventeen]

Indeed.

I apprecaite the input, JS. I will do what I can to make it apply. However, you really have to understand the tone of the caresheet. It's directed more toward beginner or intermediates, and the purpose of it was to answer basic questions and make sure people aren't housing their RTB's in a dog house in the backyard.

Also, I realize that I did make many mistakes of saying Boas, rather than RTB's. It needs a few tune-ups, but overall, I feel that it's accurate enough to get solid understanding about RTB's, enough to care for one well enough through adulthood.

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[CruiserMaiden]

Perhaps you could put a disclaimer on there advising that the caresheet is how you do it, off the top of your head, or explain that it is your opinion but that you have kept RTBs and found these to be good practices from your experience. Just to kind of let people know that hey, this isnt the ONLY way, its just what has been working for you. That way people cant come back all mad at you when their boa still bites them after sleeping with their t-shirt for a month or something. The overall site looks good once you get all the kinks worked out. Perhaps you could make the pictures full size rather than as links you have to click, they're more likely to get noticed if they are bigger I think.

I also think you should have more pictures of adult boas . Maybe see if you can get someone who had a boa from a baby and post pictures of him growing? A lot of first time boa owners may not realize when they are initially starting their research just how big 6-8 foot really is. Ok enough opinions out of me for now

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[JuliusSqueezer]

Being that it's for beginners or intermediate keepers makes it all the more important to get things right How many expert boa keepers do you know that are going to be referencing any boa caresheet? ALL caresheets are for beginner /intermediate keepers.

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