New to the snake world.

[nitram]

Hello my name is Martin. I'm new to the site and also a new owner of a snake.

Born in Colombia the parentals never allowed me to own any reptiles; They say they're all poisonous (which in colombia a large portion of them are).

Finally out of their reigns and into my own right, I recently decided to buy myself this pretty little Colombian red-tail boa i had my sights on @ this reptile shop in Miami (I live in Miami).

I wanted to thank everyone for allllll the information provided on this website as there's a lot of things I would not have taken in consideration otherwise. I plan to keep coming to this site and posting any problems I may be facing with my new friend and hope that it will be solved with all of your experiences.

As per the shop owner, Josie (the newest member of my party), is about 3 weeks old and I had the privelege to feed her her first meal just yesterday!
For now she lays in the little enclosure I provided for her I can't wait to hold her again (from what I read it is about 48 hrs).

Anyway, thanks again to the creators, keepers and members of this website it has been most informative!

[Sakara]

welcome!! It's great that u did some research on her Do u have any pics?? U will find that we are suckers for as many pics as u can manage to post hahaha. How are u housing her right now? And 48hrs is good She may be a little feisty when u first try to hold her, but that's normal for a baby I'm sure u will love her

	Geek Auto Linker or Gallon Geek Auto Linker Gallon - United States liquid unit equal to 4 quarts or 3.785 liters

[Icicle]

Welcome to the site.

Yes some of us will break out the pitch forks for pictures.

	Geek Auto Linker or Gallon Geek Auto Linker Gallon - United States liquid unit equal to 4 quarts or 3.785 liters

[nitram]

I got a glass tank for now. I'll get something more suiting when she gets bigger. I'm using Cage Carpet, got a small water bowl on the cool side, a larger water bowl more in the center, 2 hides (1 in the heated n 1 in the cool side) thermos on both sides, one of those humidity checker thingermajiggers..

I used to breed sugargliders, so i've mastered the arts of carpentry to create habbitats haha. Got tired of the gliders, they like to pee on ya. I'm still doing a little more research on materials I can use and materials I shouldn't use for the little sucker.

I'm in love with her, she's sooooo cute and really docile. I've been reading baby snakes are a little more ill tempered than the more aged ones but I've had no problems as of yet, we'll see tomorrow after she's digested if things change, but i doubt it!

One thing that i've been encountering is I cannot find where they sell frozen mice? I fed her a live hopper yesterday and she killed & consumed it no problem.

I want to feed her frozen/thawed mostly because I dont want any injury inflicted on her. That whole jabber about it being bacteria free is kind of nonsense. Where I work we cryogenically blast freeze fish (I work @ a seafood inport wholesale) and remnants of bacteria will remain even while frozen. In some cases will continue to grow. but thats neither here or there, I'll do the frozen, having any harm done to Josie is enough reason to do so. I read that post with all the pictures of mauled snakes, that sucks!

I'll have a few pics posted when I can figure out how to post them.

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[Sakara]

sounds great you sound like u have done some great research and are doing things in the right way for your baby I'd put some aspen bedding or something in there though so she can bury herself if she wants to

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[Rachel SS]

a lot of the reason why people do f/t is because rats can harbor parasites, worms, possibly even ticks or fleas, and with freezing the rats, the parasites die off

Glad to hear you want to do f/t instead of live.

I saw you were born in Columbia but if you do live in the States now, you can order online at rodentpro.com or bigcheesefactory.com (i think)... you can also see if there are any reptile expos coming up near you... they always have lots of frozen feeders for sale and you don't have to pay for shipping

	Geek Auto Linker or Gallon Geek Auto Linker Gallon - United States liquid unit equal to 4 quarts or 3.785 liters

	Frozen/Thawed A rodent or other prey item that is frozen and then thawed to be fed to a reptile or other animal.

[nitram]

i'll look into getting some additional bedding for sure. i found out petsmart has some frozen, i'll get some for next time.

thanks!

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[Rachel SS]

Originally Posted by nitram

i'll look into getting some additional bedding for sure. i found out petsmart has some frozen, i'll get some for next time.
thanks!

their sizes are kind of small and they are expensive but it's better than nothing

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[nitram]

question:

she hasnt really moved all day today, she's kinda chillin in her hot spot, is that normal? only thing thats changed since i got home from work was the position of her head... she's not even in one of her hides, just kinda next to it, chillin....

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	Female Female

[Oroborous]

Welcome to the site!
I would suggset more enclosed hides. half logs tend to have wide openings and aren't as secure. it's pretty normal for them not to move around a whole lot. when i first got mine he just sat in the corner instead of in a hide, but it's good to give them a lot of cover so they feel safe, fake foliage works well.
Good luck with your new boa, they are amazing snakes to keep!

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[kyriri]

What a cutie, welcome to the site! Glad you've found the magic in reptiles as well.

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[nitram]

I was just being a nervous turd. Seems she likes to do most of her moving around real early in the AM. everyday i wake up she's out n about doin her stuff but when i get home from work she's usually curled up in the corner.

when i got her i had gotten some hay lookin stuff for the enclosure but then read some stuff about mites n other parasites animals can have when fresh from the petstore so i got rid of it and got the carpet to be able to see better whats goin on in there.

so how do i know when she's all done with digesting? i fed her tuesday 6/30 around 4:30pm and it's now thursday. is there a way to tell or is it just like a "wing it" type of situation?

	Mites Mites, close relatives of fleas and ticks

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[John]

Congratulations on the new snake!

Two days is a good time frame to wait after feeding your snake before handling it again.

It will take some time for you to recognize regular patterns with your snake. They are normally content to remain still while digesting, except for moving from warm side to cool side to adjust their temperature.

Best wishes to you as you do your best to care for your pet.

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