Yearling boas arriving today

[toddnbecka]

After looking and researching a wide variety of snakes I finally settled on Dominican red mountain boa's. They're semi-arboreal but have a much better general disposition than emerald or amazon tree boas. Males max out around 6-7' and are similar to a rat snake in body mass, well-fed females may go 9' and are a bit heavier bodied. I like the relatively small size, and since they're climbers I figure some branches and a couple elevated platforms would be used. I pulled an old 55 with cabinet stand out of storage to set up for the pair, put an under tank heater on one side, and a 100w ceramic bulb-type heater on the other end. Then I was informed that since they're still relatively babies a 10 gallon tank would be more suitable. Any input on that? I don't understand why a smaller enclosure would be better. I can see having small hides so they feel secure when they're snoozing, but in the wild they certainly would have plenty of space to roam in search of food.

Pics from the seller, daddy is on the pink end of the color scale:


Momma is really red:


Young ones will look like this, color develops as they grow:

 

[Vicious_Fish]

Beautiful snakes and not too commonly seen in the pet trade these days. I think the calicos look amazing.

I'm no snake expert but many people will keep younger snakes in smaller enclosures because it's easier to keep any eye on them and make sure they're feeding well. Plus some snakes like Ball Pythons feel more secure in smaller, tighter enclosures until they grow and get some size to them.

 

[toddnbecka]

They arrived earlier than I expected, sat on the front porch for several hours, but they were fine when I opened the box. The male sulked under the paper bedding when I open the lid of his shipping container, so I opened the female's too. She was more willing to come out and move around, so I picked her up after she stretched out across the kitchen table. She quickly settled down and wrapped around my wrist, hung out there while I placed the male's tub in the cage then took a few pics of her. After she slipped off the wrist and into the cage she found the hide on the cool end and tucked herself away. The male was more interested in exploring the new environment after he came out of his container, but headed into the hide on the warm side after a while. He was roaming the tank when I got home from work, so I picked him up, and couple minutes after he pooped on me he settled down and hung out on my arm for an hour. Then I let him back into the tank, the female was still tucked away but there's a fresh poop in the corner behind that hide.
Here's my new (female) Dominican red mountain bracelet:












Female looks a wee bit smaller than the male, narrower head and a few inches shorter, he's just about 30".

Calico? Do you mean piebald?

 

[Vicious_Fish]

I've always referred to this morph as a "Calico". I guess you could call it a piebald too.