Caring for Red Tail Boa Constrictors

When I first looked into purchasing a pet snake, I added up the cost. I was thinking primarily of the financial costs of owning a snake, which I will list below for you. But there are other things to consider as well. For example:

• Any reptile is prone to the spread of salmonella. If this is a concern for you, or if you have very young children (or are pregnant), you may wish to avoid getting a reptile pet. The same goes for those with compromised immune systems.
  
• Snakes are wild animals. You cannot tame a snake. It has no emotional attachment to you. If a giant snake gets hungry enough, it could try to make you a meal. No, I'm not kidding! (Boas are large, but not giant.)
  
• Snakes can live for a very long time. Are you prepared to care for your snake throughout its lifetime (including the financial considerations below)?
  
• Your snake will continue to grow throughout its lifetime. Are you prepared for a large snake? Boas can get to be over 12 feet long.
  
• You will need to feed your snake whole prey. You will need to do so in a way that is safe and consistent for your snake. If you get a kick out of seeing snakes eat live mice, don't get a snake (more below)!
  
• Snakes bite. Anyone who tells you otherwise is a fool. Some species hurt more than others (a bite from a Burmese python is a serious thing, whereas the last bite I got from a ball python didn't even hurt). If you haven't been bitten yet, you will be.
  
• There is an odor associated with snake husbandry. You won't have an odor all the time, but I have always found that during shed, my snakes smelled. This was often due to wet substrate.

Snakes are expensive pets. Not only do you have the typical considerations of making sure that you have a good (exotic) veterinarian who is able to treat your snake in the case that it develops an injury or parasites, as well as various illnesses that boids are prone to, but you have to feed and house your pet.

The following are just some of the expenses associated with owning a pet Boa Constrictor.

• The cost of the snake. I paid $200 for my boa constrictor.
  
• The cost of housing. Depending on what you want to do for your snake, housing can cost anything from a few dollars (see below) to a few thousand.
  
• The cost of substrate. Again, this has varying costs, depending on your setup. See my recommendations below.
  
• The cost of heat lamps. You will need to replace the lamps (bulbs) regularly. You may choose to use two lamps (UV and infrared).
  
• The cost of food. Your snake will start out on fuzzy rats and depending on size, may eventually require rabbits.
  
• The cost of electricity. This is the most likely to be forgotten!
  
• The cost of "hides."
  
• The cost of a good exotic vet.

The first thing that you have to consider is that snakes are very strong. Whatever you put your snake in has to be strong enough to contain it. This means that the lid of the container must be sufficiently tight against the main enclosure that there is no way that the snake can dislodge it. You do not want a large snake missing in your house. Ever. For this reason, if for no other reason, custom built enclosures are often the best.

One major point that you're going to want to take into consideration is the fact that it is possible to have an enclosure that is too big. I've known several new snake owners (myself included) who have lost animals to stress due to the enclosure being too large. Try to always use the smallest enclosure that will fully accommodate your animal. Your snake wants to feel safe, and small spaces make it feel safe. This is one of the reasons that I don't recommend starting out with aquariums or custom enclosures. Start out with rubbermaid or sterilite containers!

However, remember the importance of humidity control and oxygen and make sure that you punch holes in the container before you put your young snake in it!

These types of containers will work for a certain period of time. However, it is important to remember that red tail boa constrictors are semi aboreal. Eventually, they will need some height so that they can climb. These are not terrestrial snakes!

The picture is mice. Your snake will come home plenty big enough to eat "fuzzy" rats. This is the phase at which they have fur covering their body but aren't quite small rats yet.

I want to have an important chat with you about feeding rodents to your pet snake. Understand, first of all, that you have to do it. Snakes eat rodents (and birds, and some larger mammals, depending on the type of snake).

What I want to talk to you about is something similar to the "should you declaw your cat" debate (no worries, you can weigh in your opinion on this issue below as well!). The majority of people say that cats shouldn't be declawed. And the majority of responsible reptile owners argue that you should not live feed your snake!

When I first decided to get a snake, I thought I would have to live feed, and I just knew that it was going to break my heart to watch my snake kill and eat its food (I've live fed since then and I'm fine with it when it's necessary). However, as it happens, live feeding is very dangerous to your snake. Remember, rodents bite and they will defend themselves from being eaten!

The solution? Frozen rodents! The animals are killed by freezing (which is considered humane, as is clubbing) and they are then packaged. You can take out as many as you need to feed your snakes and thaw them in a bowl of warm water. This process takes about five hours (the thawing) and you will generally save money on frozen rodents over live.

Photo courtesy furryscalyman on Flicr

Don't ever use a heat rock. Period. Your animal most likely will get burned, and you don't want that.

I prefer to use heat lamps rather than the mats, because I feel like I have more control over the lamps. Different people have different preferences. I definitely prefer the lamp because it gives me greater control over the humidity in the enclosure. The choice is yours. I've given you some options in the section below, where you can make your purchase of either the lamp or the mat. I have found that the mats tend to cost less in electricity, but I have a much harder time controlling the humidity.

You may want to put a heat mat on a rheostat if you choose to go that route!

Before I tell you what questions I feel you should be asking your breeder, I want to establish one thing as clearly as possible.

Don't buy from pet stores. I know you've heard this over and over again, when talking about the cute fuzzy animals like kittens and puppies. After all, puppies and kittens cram up the shelters and of course they need homes. Moreover, who hasn't heard about puppy or kitten mills? There are established reasons for not purchasing your kitten or puppy from a pet store, but why not a reptile?

The answer is twofold. First of all, the husbandry is lousy. I cannot tell you the number of times I've seen snakes and lizards in the big pet stores (Pet Smart or Petco) wasting away due to lack of feeding and general neglect (such as humidity being too high or too low). The second, and less obvious, answer is that the clerks at these stores are unlikely to be trained to help you with your new pet. I've had clerks recommend calcium-enriched sand for leopard geckos (they can impact on it and die), I've had them tell me that an animal was eating when it's clear that it is not, and I've had them give me a flat out wrong temperature setting for animals that need to be kept at high temperatures and low humidity.

Buy from a breeder. And ask that breeder these questions:

1. Is the animal wild caught or captive bred? Your Red Tail Boa should be captive bred. I have yet to find a vendor who is selling wild caught boas, probably because importing them isn't convenient. This is especially important to consider if the price on the animal you are purchasing seems particularly low. A normal Boa Constrictor probably won't cost you anything less than $100.
   
2. Has the animal been started/is the animal eating? Purchasing an animal that has not been "started" (that is, isn't feeding) can be dangerous. If your snake hasn't had its first meal, you don't know whether or not it will eat at all. This is especially important with certain species (ball pythons come to mind). Always ask!
   
3. What is the animal eating? You want to know two things. The first is whether your new pet is eating frozen/thawed (F/T) rodents, live rodents or freshly killed (FK) rodents. The second is the type of rodents your animal is eating. Most hatchling Red Tail Boas I've encountered can manage fuzzy rats, but they might also be on pinky rats, "hopper" mice or adult mice as well. You'll want your snake's first meal to be whatever its been eating so far.
   
4. What are the animal's genetics? Particularly if you're paying a lot for your snake, you may want to know the genetics, especially if you plan on breeding. My first two boa constrictors were littermates who were both het for the albino trait, for example. Breeding them would have produced some albino babies.

Boa Constrictors are beautiful. They are fascinating. They can make wonderful additions to a collection.

But your snake is never going to really be a companion animal. It is a wild animal that just happens to live with you. You may get bitten. If you own more than one snake for an extended period of time, it is very likely that you will get bitten at some point or another if you handle your snake enough. Your snake may try to constrict you, and if you own a larger snake, you run the risk of serious injury. With especially large snakes (including large female red-tail boas), it is advisable to not handle your snake alone, but to always have a "spotter" who can step in with a bucket of cold water if the snake bites or begins to constrict.

Your snake isn't tame. It never will be. It will never learn to love you and it is not intelligent in the way that we typically think of intelligence. Your pet has instinctive, wild drives which include the drive for shelter and security and the drive for feeding. It is believed that reptiles do not have the capacity for emotions (they lack the part of the brain that processes emotions the way that mammals do).

If you choose a boa, you are choosing a large snake and you are committing to the lifetime of your pet. Bear that in mind when making your selection. You may be better off choosing a smaller species of boid, such as a ball (royal) python or even a colubrid, such as a corn snake or a King snake. There is a major commitment in taking on a red tail boa. These can make wonderful first snakes (in my opinion), but you have to be willing to take the time to understand your snake before you buy.