Red Tail Boa very inactive

[MaximusBoa]

Hey yall, I just bought a boa about 2 months ago, and for the past 3 weeks or so he has become extremely inactive. He shed about 2 weeks ago so he isn't in pre-shed mode or anything. If i put him down on my bed he will stay in the same exact position i left him in for hours. He used to explore every inch of any room I put him in but now he doesn't show any interest in moving unless its to eat. Even when i put him on a branch he will climb a few inches then stop on a cumphy spot. He just acts like a lazy slob. Is he sick?

[stu]

What are the temperatures link in his cage? How about temps in your house? Colder weather can cause inactivity.

[MED04]

I was going to ask about temps too.

[MaximusBoa]

I live in a crappy house with a few guys off of a college campus.. but luckily we have a small storage closet with a heater in it. My buddy has a ball python so we keep both the boa and python in seperate cages in that room which is always 80-90 degrees. And we try to keep the humitity around 60 although it is kind of hard to keep up. I also have a heat rock in Max's cage which he likes to hang around.. so i cant see how he could possibly be too cold. (i heard bad things about heat rocks.. but this one doesnt get very hot anyway).

The python is very active though and he doesnt have any extra heat source besides the constant room temp. My boa is in a 24 gallon container.. more long than it is high and it is also see through which i heard was good. Also, he has 3 places to hide.. a little cave made out of hardened clay, a paper towel role (which he likes the most for some reason) and a tissue box.. so i figure the temp is good, hes got room to hide, and i have him out at least once a day, unless hes shedding or had been fed recently.


thanks for the responses... any other ideas though?

[stu]

Please don't take this as a personal attack, but I think the snake's activity level is due to improper care. You need to get a thermometer that can read at least 2 different locations as well as one that reads humidity levels. Many people use a $15 one that can be purchased from the Hunting/Fishing section of Walmart. I use this one as well and you can see what it looks like in the picture I attached. You can also see that my humidity is about 10% too low, nobody is perfect

The guage reads tempuratures in 2 different locations, it reads it on the actual device and also has a 10ft cord attached to it to get the temp in another location, you should put this end on the heat rock so that you can tell exactly what the tempurature is.

Better yet, throw away the heat rock and while you are at Walmart, buy a human heating pad (about $10) and put that under one side of the tank and put one of the hides over it.

Your snake may be stressed because it can't both hide and be warm at the same time. "Loving the heat rock" could also be an indication that the rest of the cage is too cold that the only place the snake can be comfortable at is on the heat source.

While you're at Walmart, buy the exact same 2 items for your roommate and his python. Have NO source of heat and NO way to read the tempurature is very poor care for an animal that you want to live and be healthy.

Again, please don't take this as me talking down to you. I have had animals die on me because of my improper care and if I can help somebody else prevent that from happening, then I feel a little less guilty about my shortcommings.

[SoberGuy]

I definitely agree with Stu. Heat rocks also pose other problems. Although they can heat the tank, the temperature of the rock itself can literally cook an animal if it stays on it too long. I'd say you're also going to be better off pulling it out of the closet, and trying to provide both stable temperatures, like with a thermostat, and stable humidity levels. Another issue could be that's it's not getting regular light/dark intervals if just in a closet. Best of luck!

[MaximusBoa]

thanks man.. yea we have one of those 10 dollar thermometers and humitity gauges in the boas container, but not the pythons. we figured the temp wouldnt differ much in that small closet.

Do you think the heat pad would be ok if hes in a plastic container? i wouldnt want to melt it.

i actually did have a basking spot for him with a heat lamp over the top of his cage and a little box for him to sit on when i first bought him... but we used the red light for a party one night and we ended up breaking it somehow. Come to think of it, back when he had that light he was very active. Maybe I should do that again?

thanks again

[MaximusBoa]

soberguy... we actually have him on a good light schedule.. we turn the lights off every night at 11 and on every morning around 8-11 ish.. but thanks guys ill get rid of that heat rock

[SoberGuy]

Well, since you have one in there....What are your exact readings and we can go from there?

[MaximusBoa]

like i said above.. the temp is always between 80 or 90 ansd the humidity is normally 50-60... i figure that it seems good enough

[Heidi]

Is there a temperature gradiant. 88-90 on one side and 80 on the other? He needs a variety of temperatures in order to move around and regulate his body temperatures. It is important to measure temps in both sides. There is really not much variation where "good enough" covers it. Think of a human and their body temperature at 98.6. How do you feel at 100.6. You start to feel pretty cruddy at just a 2 degree difference right? Same with the snake. It depends solely on its environment to regulate its temperature and in order for it to thrive or even survive sometimes, it can really be that important.

[MaximusBoa]

hes fine... he made a big poop and now hes going everywhere