New Red Tail Owner

[Kilrara]

Hi, not quite sure this is the right place to put this but it seemed the best of all, so here goes

I just came into posession of a four year old red tail boa (best friend is getting married and his fiance can't STAND her so I took it from him) and am eager to make his experience in my home as delightful as possible.

The problem is, honestly, I don't know the first thing about how to make a snake happy, and he really doesn't seem very happy with me at all. He hasn't struck at me at all or bit, but he does give me a lot of warning hisses and seems overall against me handling him which I fear may be due to my lack of setting him up with a proper environment to encourage happiness.

He's roughly six feet long and residing in a 3x4x2 foot mesh cage (received from friend who owned the snake). He seems fairly comfortable with that, and I'v given him a nice bedding with some mite repellent in it (he had a violent case of mites when he was first given to me, but I couldn't find a one on him this morning with a casual handling so I think that's taken care of).

The heat of his cage is 86 near the heat, 75 cool side. Alas, I did not receive a baromoter from my friend so do not have a way to tell humidity, but western Oregon tends to have pretty good humidity levels - still, I plan to pick one up today. His cage is heated via a heated coil, heat lamp prehaps? I'm not quite sure what it is called, it's a coil of metal that heats up when I turn it on and I hang it outside his cage.

He has no hides yet - those are on the list to be purchased today along with the baromoter. He is quite large and just fed on a large female rat yesterday - live. Friend has always fed him live rats in a seperate feeding cage (which I was provided with) so I am hesitant to break that habit.

I was told that he has been under-handled recently due to pressure from my friends fiance and time constraints and am worried that may have caused him to be against being handled much as well.

Honestly, what I am looking for though are ways to make him happy. Optimally, the 'best' setup I could get for him and feeding habits and such are what I would like to know, such as -

1) What, besides hides, can I offer his living environment to make him happier? He has a little blanket he seems to adore and love sleeping on so I let him keep that

2) Is there any particular product that I should use in the way of heating, bedding, and feeding to make him more comfortable?

3) Are there any particular ways I should handle him to make him feel more comfortable with me? He's likely used to being handled by his previous owner so I want to help him adapt gradually.

4) Any other information you believe would be helpful in making him a more happy snake~

I'v been told he shed fairly recently - he had a little shed on his eye, but have used drops to help that clear up since I got him. If there's any other information I can provide please let me know and I will happily do so~

	Mites Mites, close relatives of fleas and ticks

[mo1416]

Here's a good starting point in proper care: Answers to common questions about Boas

[mo1416]

Ooops almost forget welcome to the site and post pics as many and often as possible. We love pics

[Kilrara]

Thanks for the welcome and link.

To say the least that 'thinking about live feeding...?' thread sure got to me. I assumed there may be mild problems, but was not knowledgable at all towards the alternatives and had been told he was accustomed to live feeding so just went with it. Next chance I get to feed him will deffinitely either kill it or get f/t and hope he takes right to it - if not, well, he will eventually or he'll be an unhappily hungry snake untill he does, eh?

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

[mo1416]

F/T is the only way to go

[ChristopherD]

Not having a hide could be stressing him out and that could be one of your causes of hissing. What do you mean by "mesh" cage?

[Aaron_NSBM]

welcome aboard.. the main things is heat,hides,water,and food...

[Freakkboy]

Well, lets try this again, first one didnt post for some reason......

What do you mean by "mesh cage"?? Just curious because of the humidity keeping factor of mesh...
And, welcome to the site!!! Post lots of pics, we do like the pics!!!

[VoodooChile]

Yep, I have to say if the cage is what I think it is, you'll want to switch the snake to not only a larger cage, but one with less ventilation.
You can actually invest in a large Sterlite plastic tote, and drill a few holes in the top to ventilate. Obviously with plastic a heat lamp would be out, but I think many people use under tank heaters to heat the cages.

Housing is the most important thing to your boa's survival..Meaning, heat, humidity, hiding spots, water, and substrate. Once those are all corrected, the snake is given time to settle in, it should adjust to its new home and owner nicely.

[deadliestformula]

I am thinking that the mites may be aggrevation the boa. Our burm was very irratable when she had mites. Killed the mites. Snake stopped hissing. But I agree the enclosure should be solid with a little bit of ventilation. Otherwise humidity and temperature will be too hard to maintain.

	Mites Mites, close relatives of fleas and ticks

[Kilrara]

I went and got an under-heating pad, some nice wooden substrate (seemed the most popular suggestion amongst others), as well as a..dang it, thermometer for the humidity (sorry, still new to the terms).

Alas, I didn't have a chance to put my paycheck in from last week and am a bit low on funds so didn't get a 'good' solid cage for him. He's been in this thing for four years, so hearing so many saying "solid cage!!!" makes me very worried about how bad of shape he may really be in after such extended exposure to improper conditions.

He's pretty much living in his water right now, which I think is a pretty obvious sign the rest of his cage doesn't have enough humidity, as well as it can't possibly be healthy for him what with all the bacteria that must be breeding in there in spite of daily changes.

I'll put my paycheck in tomorrow and see about getting him a nice transparent plastic bin for the short term. Next paycheck I'll see about, I don't know...an aquarium maybe? I saw a 75 gallon one that looked pretty nice, or should I go for the bins that are actually made for reptiles?

The largest one looked a bit smaller than the aquarium, but it is made specifically for them...I'm just a bit worried about how he'll feel since even the largest one loses a foot or two of space on what he is in now.

[ChristopherD]

Well, frankly, the most cost effective, and one of the most effective cages is one that you build yourself. I don't know h