Boa Constrictor

Overview

Boa constrictor is one species spread from northern Mexico to northern Argentina, across rainforest edges, woodland, grassland, dry forest, thorn scrub and semi desert, and it is not one snake so much as a set of populations that differ a great deal in size. ADW gives 1 to 4 m overall, with most animals between 2 and 3 m and island populations often under 2 m.

It gives birth to live young rather than laying eggs, 25 in an average litter and anywhere from 10 to 64, after a gestation of five to eight months.

A red-tail boa is not a separate species. It is Boa constrictor constrictor, the nominate subspecies, and what sets it apart in the trade is the tail: deep red saddles on the last third of the body, more vivid than in the other subspecies. Everything else on this page applies to it.

Temperament

Calm and heavy handed rather than quick. An established boa is one of the steadier large snakes, and much of its reputation comes from size rather than temper.

Size is the honest issue. A snake that is two to three metres and thickly built is a two person animal for anything other than routine handling, and most keepers who give one up do so because the snake grew rather than because it behaved badly. Buying one means buying the adult, not the animal in the tub.

Care and grooming

Frozen thawed rodents every two weeks for an adult, scaled to the snake rather than to a schedule. In the wild the bulk of the diet is small mammals, including bats, and birds.

Warm side at 82 to 90 F, humidity 60 to 70 percent. Overfeeding is the common husbandry fault: a boa fed like a growing animal after it has finished growing becomes an obese one, and obesity in snakes is not obvious until it is advanced.

Living and exercise

Six to eight feet of enclosure for an adult, with heavy branches, a hide it fits inside, and a water container it can sit in. Most boa constrictors are on CITES Appendix II, and Boa constrictor occidentalis is on Appendix I, so paperwork can matter depending on where an animal came from.

Security is proportional to strength. A boa pushing at a door is applying real force, and enclosure latches are chosen accordingly rather than adapted from something smaller.