rosoe boas...unlike all other boas......are burrowing snakes.... they need to be able to get under ground.... give him about 3-4 inches of pine bedding....and she will love you for it ... she should still come out and climb arround on your sticks...(mine does)but they realy are burrowers and without someplace to hide from time to time they can get stressed..... some people use sand...wich is what they borrow in in the wild.....
make sure you use pine!!!!! ceder is bad...very bad for small animuls and snakes....becouse it produces a dust that will colect in there lungs....
Yeah, I was warned about cedar.... Borrowing snake? Very interesting! I have seen her try what looks like burrowing.. but of course she doesn't get anywhere with the matting I have in there for her. OH yeah..... I don't even know if she is a her... Her name was medusa when we got her and we've just been calling it a her since. Is there a way to tell? How fuckin' cool... Now I want to go get some pine bedding. Sand too.... That sounds interesting. Would I be able to just scoop out her shit or would I have to replace the sand every time I clean her tank? This tank is going to undergo some major redecorating... they probably won't recognize it if they ever come back to get her. It'll be cool if it mellows her out to be able to burrow. One question.... There is a heat pad duct taped to the under side of her tank under that ceramic hiding place you can see in the picture. It keeps the padding pretty warm and the ceramic thing pretty warm. If I were to put sand in the tank, would that pad heat the sand up too far in that area? If so... would the pine shavings hold the heat like sand would? (I don't think it would) There is a heat radiator over the plant that she basks in some times. It's on a timer so it's not on all the time.. but the under-tank heater is on all the time.
two things right off the top of my head..... one being under tank heat pads and in the tank heat pads ...altho made for reptiles...are very bad!they can burn your snake...or lizzard!...the best way to heat your cage is with a light ....you boa would like it arround 80 or so but not much under....heat lights are the way to go ....a heat pad can also cause there food to go bad in there bellys....they are equiped to regulate there heat from abuve!iguannas are realy bad about this...the fresh fruit and veggies they eat will spoil in there bellys in no time laying on a heat pad... number two ....to sex a snake it is nessasary to "probe"the sex glands.....dont even try this with anything other than a "snake probing kit" you can rupture your snakes organs...if you fuck up.....and it is nice to have someone with expeeriance show you one time before you try it your self...some pet shops will do it for you...but not all can be trusted...on a male the "properly "inserted probe will go an inch or more into the inverted hemipenis...on a femail snake it will only just barly enter....a 1/4 inch or so ...the hemipenis is located inside the anus...at the far sides...there are two....one on the left and one on the right.... and as for her (or him )likeing to borrow...it is a definit...most boas are all about living in the trees...but the roasie is deffinitly a digger...chech out the shape of its head and you can see it was shaped that way to dig ...in nature they live in sand....but the pine works great becouse of the ease of cleaning....like you mentioned it would suck to try and get all the poo...and urin out of sand.... i have a roaie right now...and she is about the same size as yours...and loves to dig in her pine bedding she spends about half her time digging arround down there...and the other half climbing the tree branck she has... of all the snakes i have kept...other than the corn snakes ...the rosie boa is the best small snake to keep as a pet i preferr the corns becouse of the varriety you can find in there color and the relitive ease with wich they can be bread but they get twice the size of a rosie with ease...
Wow! Good info about the under tank heat. One thing, though. I have about 1/4" thick matting on the bottom of the tank. It is pretty warm if you press on the green matt. (My guess is probably around 100 F. ) That ceramic hiding place that's in there used to plug in (I found a spot where a power cord plugged in) The person who gave "her" to me said he was using that, but was advised against it and was advised to use an under-tank heater. So... that's no good either? I have a heat "radiator" over the tank on a timer. It has a ceramic element that screws into a light socket. It's in a light fixture and radiates down towards the plant. I was told at another forum to not have that radiator on at all times or I could cause heat stress. I was told that the dessert cools of significantly at night, and her body needs that cool time to regulate it's self. So I put the heat radiator on a timer and have the heater under the tank on the left side so she can go over there if she wants at any time. I don't really like the idea of a light being her heat source... is the radiator sufficient? And if I remove the under tank heater won't the tank get dangerously cold at night? (How cold can it get safely?) And..... without a heat source to keep the ceramic hiding spot warmed should I remove it? And I should clear up that I really can't feel that it's warmed.. the heater isn't that strong. You can really only feel the heat right on the green mat (which is right where she rests, of course). Of course I don't want her to be uncomfortable (any more than a life in prison can be). Rotting food in the belly does not sound very nice. And I will certainly not try to sex my snake. Poor thing... I think I'd bite if somebody tried that to me. (Well...... at least without permission....unless they wanted me to... ok I'll stop) Thanks so much (from Medusa and myself) for the help. You are going to make her life better.
When I start using pine bedding for medusa, should I just put it on the glass bottom of the tank? Should I leave the green matting there? I'll send pix of her happily burrowing. Can't wait to see her do that.
you can leave the mat if you like it wont hurt....as for the heat radiator....anything that is used from abuve is going to be best....they pick up heat from above....but have no senser for it from below ..realisitcly she could drop tp 70 overnight ...but 75 is better....look up your local HERP club... there should be one arround you ...this is where you can find real experts....the one i belonged to in tampa was full of expeereanced people wiling to share real info....people who have worked in zoos and resurch centers.... anyone who knows what they are talking about will tell you ..under tank heat pads and the like are not good for your reptiles.....they are the big no no.... in my tank ...besides my roseie there is a climbing stick ...a water bowl ...and about 4 inches of pine bedding....and she is happyer than shit... once she has somewhere to dig...she wont need the hide out house ...but if you like it leave it in there.....you can also put a few rocks...(i forgot to list them abuve)in the bedding ...for her to rub against wile digging ...(helps with sheding) i love snakes...! hope all this realy is helping! good luck
I'm glad to hear that I can use pine...I'm switching over today. I've been wanting a different substrate for my babies. Heat rocks and the undertank pads are bad...I agree. I do like to have the extra heat on the bottom in the winter, though, so I use a regular heating pad with a towel between it and the tank so Caesar and Cleo can stay warmer. I always double check and make sure that it doesn't get too hot, though. I've seen burns on a friends snake from the undertanks pads that you attach to the glass...not a good thing to see, at all. DirtyD is right about not trusting all pet shops. Any moron can open up a shop. I was at this one place in Knoxville not too long ago and this guy was buying a Kingsnake and the person who worked there gave him nothing but BAD advice. Everything he said about temperature and care was way off so I caught the dude before he left and gave him the correct info. I also wouldn't let anyone but a herp or a herp vet probe your snake. Regular vets who don't specialize in reptiles even do it wrong. You know, it pisses me off when I go to these stores or look through catalogs and see that they sell those heating rocks. They are so dangerous for all reptiles and because pet places sell them, people think that there isn't anything wrong with them. You have to be careful about what you buy from these places. I bought some little logs covered with moss several years ago when I was breeding Mantella's and they contaminated my tank. My vet tested the moss and it was something that shouldn't have even been sold. I wrote letters to the company and emailed them the results of the tests and did this for several months and they never replied. They knew that they were selling bad stuff to people but didn't care.
yep the guys in the pet shop ...quit offten are salesmen not animil husbandry experts....and will tell you what ever to make a sale ...sometimes you find a helpfull honest inteligent person in one ...but not offten... and as for them selling heat rocks and such....as long as the people dont know anybetter they will keep doing it ... you may know ...heat rocks and pads are even worse for lizzerds than it is for snakes.....espesaly iguannas...they will burn themselves almost every time...and lizzerds who eat only fresh vegies and fruit get it the worst ...there food is easyer to spoil in there bellys...
Okey dokey... the heat pad is a gonner. I'll just use the radiator above her tank. (Good point about not having sensors for heat picked up from underneith). And yes it is certainly helping out! My snake is going to love it now that her tank will be converted to a burrower's tank. Now I'm waiting for her to shed her skin before I mess with her and change her tank over to pine.
Well... spoke too soon. She absolutely HATES the pine bedding so far. I put her on the bedding and she has tried her best to move and stay off of it. She's climbed in her plant.... stayed with her body on the bedding, but her head and about 5 inches of her body on the rim of her water dish. Now she's trying to balance her whole body on the rim of her water dish. How long should I give her to get used to the pine bedding?
The pine may be irritating her. If she really wants to stay off of it, she may have good reason. I haven't switched my two over to pine yet because they both started shedding and one of them is having a hard time so I'm having to spray her to help her out. I didn't want to change the substrate until they were both done. I wonder if the oils in the pine are getting to her. Someone told me yesterday to use aspen instead of pine because of the wood oils that aspen doesn't contain. I don't know for certain though. I haven't researched it yet to make sure it's ok to use.
She still really doesn't like it. How long should I give her to get used to it? Now she piles herself on herself with as little of her body touching the pine as possible. So... pine might be irritating? Aspen? That should be fun to find. lol There was lots of cedar with pine, and pine. Does Wal-Mart carry aspen? WHere would they? There was also this cellulose type filler that is dust free. Should I try that? Honestly, she seemed happier with her plain ol' green mat. Or sand? I have a good vacuum cleaner to help clean up... What a funny snake. She still doesn't quite know what to think about her new bedding.
i have half my tank filled with large pollished gravel, and the other has dust-free bark-chips... jakie seems to like both. i put my lamp over the rocks so he can come out and bask, and i got the chips on the other end and under the rocks (to absorb moisture) for when he wants to dig or get out of the heat. i got some chunks of branches and some larger rocks for him to climb on and to help him shed. btw, dirtyd... thanks for the info about rosie's being burrowing snakes... i didn't know that. lol... i've been thinking about getting a companion for jakie (not for breeding), but i'm not too sure what to get. maybe another ball... or a rat snake maybe? i don't want something that get's too big (maybe 6-7' max). also... you can sex certain snakes (i forget which kinds) by those little claws by their tails. i forget what they're called, and how to tell, but it's how my dad determined that my snake was male... maybe you know what i'm talking about dirtyd.
the thing about the claws on there tails ....unfortunitly does not work .....sorry .....some times with rat snakes you can tell by the length of the tail from the ass to the tip...males will be long and skinny and femails will be short and fat ...but this is not 100%...the only thing that is 100% is probing...... bouth males and femails have those claws...btwi belive it is all pythons....and a few other snakes wich have them .... and i would recomend a rat snake to anyone...! espesaly the corn snake! but yellow and grey rats make good pets too....the red is the best! and as for bud burnner....if she realy doesnt like it ....give her her mat back....maybe she is just been abuve ground so long she forgot she is suposed to dig?sorry it dident work out for her......but my roseie loves it!!! i too wonder why she wont dig?it is in her nature.... good luck and tell me what happens....
they have a red ratsnake at the petstore where i get my rats. it's like $60. i was thinking about buying it in a couple weeks if it's not gone... he's aggressive though so i'll have to get him used to being handled. i'm just worried about the two not getting along - as i'm planning on keeping them both in the same tank. the thing about the claws i've read in a few books. it was something about the length or position of 'em (something like that)... but then again, the books were written over a decade ago, so they could be wrong.
I can't figure her out yet either. She absolutely won't dig herself. I even buried her in it once. She stayed in it for a few seconds, then posed her head out. She stayed there for about a minute and I thought she liked it. But out she crawled and onto the clear spot I created on her mat. (Well as clear as I can get it without the vacuum). Weird ass snake! She's more irritable than ever. I think I'll try a different bedding material too. Aspen? Any others? But I guess if she likes her mat... she can have her mat. (I can always use the pine bedding for some good ol' oil dry in the garage) She does now crawl on the bedding ok. She doesn't seem to repulsed by it anymore, but she still won't dig. I an just hear what her friends would be calling her now.... lol
get the rat snake......they will live fine together as nither of them are kings....and do not eat other snakes....just dont put any king snakes with any other snake they will eat other snakes.... and they tend to be aggresive when they are hungry ...just like most large pythons....when they are hungry they are mean...and if he is young and at a pet store they are only feeding him enuff to keep him alive....wich means hungry! i have cought many red ratt snakes in the wild in fla....they mite bite once on defence but will quickly dismiss you as a threat and submit to handleing quit nicely from then on... another thing to concider is males will sometimes become very aggressive and kill food without eating durring breading season..... but over all the red ratt is a fucking awsome pet...and they get between 4 and 6 ft and can get very impressive and i am still holding out budburrner that she will remember to dig"!!!!!!!! and hope she forgives me for dirupting her home......
groovy... the red ratsnake at the petshop isn't very young... he looks to be about 3.5+ feet long... i'm gonna drop by the store today for a rat for jakie, and i'll see if they'll hold the other snake for me until next week. i knew the thing about king snakes eating other snakes... i was just a little worried about the snake being aggressive and fighting with jake on occasion.
She's really getting used to it. I had to laugh yesterday.. She did dig a very little (like about 1 inch of her body was covered). She sat there and acted like she was so well hiden. (I dunno.. I can just tell when she thinks she's being invisible) Dumb ass.... she'll figure it out. (I'm just glad she's not allergic to pine!) It's kind of nice to be able to pick up a clump of pine beding with poo and pee in it instead of letting it build up before cleaning the whole tank. Now I just gotta get me some gloves. I really want to handle her non-wuss style.