New Boa Pics.
- Thread starter MrT
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Looks like a typical BCI non the less and awsome boa real light.
Sincerely,
Brandon
Sincerely,
Brandon
I just fed the girl a FlT rat.
I'm sure it was the biggest item she has ever had. She got it down to its hips and I thought she was stuck cause its thighs were splayed out and her mouth couldn't get passed them. Well she made a coil around her neck, slid it past her head onto the rat and as it passed the hips it forced the thighs together. Then it just down slicker then you know what.
You may say, whats the big deal? Well I've never seen this before, and its way cool a snake can use its coils like a hand.
BTW, I looked at the boa 3 different times, in three different days.
I brought it home yesterday and noticed a few mites on her. So I soaked her in oil all night to kill them. After I took her out this morning, she was making a squeeking sound.
I put her into her enclosure with a under tank heat pad, and a ceramic heating element over the tank. I'll be watching the temp. to make sure it doesn't get too hot. I used newspaper as substrate for now.
Is there anything else you can think of as far as the breathing problem goes? Is there any over the counter drugs I can give her? Or should I give her a week to see if it clears up on its own?
Ern
I'm sure it was the biggest item she has ever had. She got it down to its hips and I thought she was stuck cause its thighs were splayed out and her mouth couldn't get passed them. Well she made a coil around her neck, slid it past her head onto the rat and as it passed the hips it forced the thighs together. Then it just down slicker then you know what.
You may say, whats the big deal? Well I've never seen this before, and its way cool a snake can use its coils like a hand.
BTW, I looked at the boa 3 different times, in three different days.
I brought it home yesterday and noticed a few mites on her. So I soaked her in oil all night to kill them. After I took her out this morning, she was making a squeeking sound.
I put her into her enclosure with a under tank heat pad, and a ceramic heating element over the tank. I'll be watching the temp. to make sure it doesn't get too hot. I used newspaper as substrate for now.
Is there anything else you can think of as far as the breathing problem goes? Is there any over the counter drugs I can give her? Or should I give her a week to see if it clears up on its own?
Ern
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Hold on a sec......you used oil to treat mites? Thats the herp equivalent of an Old Wive's Tale.....oil may kill SOME mites, but it does not kill them all or THEIR EGGS. It may also be harmful to your snake....I would guess the wheezing is from some oil it injested.....NOT good for the snake. In my experience the best mite treatment is Black Knight, a commercial roach spray. I got mine from www.proexotics.com. I HIGHLY suggest you invest in a can and do not listen to anecdotal treatments from those w/ little knowledge of the problem.
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While you may not prefer to use olive oil yourself many folks have and do with great results and no harm to the snakes. Among the folks who have used this treatment besides myself who do have quite a good clue what they are doing are several top breeders as well as Australia zoo.
Antecdotal wives tale my keister.
Phil
Antecdotal wives tale my keister.
Phil
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I hate to break it to you Phlip, but oil does NOT kill their eggs......and if you don't kill their eggs, you'll have a whole nother infestion soon. This is an arachnid forum....go to any herp forum and ask what the best treatment for mites is and you'll get 2 answers.....Black Knight and Provent-A-Mite.
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While I agree that the two treatments you mention are good they are far from the only ones out there. The use of olive oil has been around for a long long time and despite what you may have heard does not damage the snakes. As for the eggs that's a substrate problem.
Phil
Phil
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Also thanks for informing me about what kind of board this was as I was confused about that.
In all seriousness though feel free to use whatever treatment you feel comfy with but don't be so quick to believe a lot of the BS that you will find on herp forums. Any nimrod with a keyboard can spew out advice on the net and it doesn't mean for one second that they have a clue what they are talking about.
I myself have kept snakes for a tad over 20 years and quite successfully at that. I've seen most of the ailments as well as the mites and parasitic problems that come around and am quite capable of treating them myself therefore I don't tend to ask advice of that sort on herp forums. The only use I have for them is amusement and info on new species and such.
Phil
In all seriousness though feel free to use whatever treatment you feel comfy with but don't be so quick to believe a lot of the BS that you will find on herp forums. Any nimrod with a keyboard can spew out advice on the net and it doesn't mean for one second that they have a clue what they are talking about.
I myself have kept snakes for a tad over 20 years and quite successfully at that. I've seen most of the ailments as well as the mites and parasitic problems that come around and am quite capable of treating them myself therefore I don't tend to ask advice of that sort on herp forums. The only use I have for them is amusement and info on new species and such.
Phil
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Yes I know using oil has been around a while....but knowledge of herp husbandry is still in its infancy....lots of people still use hot rocks....they are not the best choice, but people still use them Same way with the oil treatment....I also don't think that the 2 most PROVEN ways of treating mites are just "garbage spewed on a forum".......they are much more effective and less detrimental to the health of the animal. I had a friend who soaked his snake in oil overnight and came back to a dead snake....he had injested too much oil into his lungs and smothered. You are correct that there are many ways to go about things, but that does not mean they are all equally effective or beneficial.
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Case in point....if there are 2 more credible sources for reptile info, then please enlighten me as to them......
http://www.proexotics.com/FAQ_answers_get_rid_of_mites.html
http://www.vpi.com/9VPITipsAndTechs/TheWarAgainstSnakeMites/TheWarAgainstSnakeMites.htm
http://www.proexotics.com/FAQ_answers_get_rid_of_mites.html
http://www.vpi.com/9VPITipsAndTechs/TheWarAgainstSnakeMites/TheWarAgainstSnakeMites.htm
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Now see here's where we get more to the point. The friend that soaked one overnight for lack of a better term made a very stupid move. When you use oil you wipe it on not soak the snake. Any method used in a way that far beyond how it is intended is a risk. For example try spraying roach spray into the snakes pits and nostrils and watch how well it responds.
Also you seem to have taken what I said out of context. I didn't say the sprays didn't work but rather said that the oil does as well and to write it off as a wives tale simply due to your beliefs rather than hands on experience is incorrect.
While I have not only seen both pages you linked but chatted with the people responsible for them as well and certainly believe they know what they are doing they are not the only reliable sources. As I stated before Australia zoo uses oil and you would be hard pressed to find a more knowledgeable source of herp husbandry info. There are a lot of old school breeders who use oil, sevin dust, and a few other tricks as well but the majority of them aren't into the commercial end like the Barkers and PE are so they tend to not have web pages other than price list style.
As you pointed out before this is an arachnid forum and theirin lies part of why I don't use the sprays. While they are effective they are also very effective at killing most all inverts. While some may have their snakes far away from the inverts I'm sure that some don't and rather than risk ones collection over an airborne poison sometimes an alternative method does work best. Treating the snake itself is easily enough done without risking ones other animals but when it comes to treating a cage then the risk from sprays goes up quite a bit when the cage is too large to move out of the invert room.
As I said before use whatever makes you feel comfy and I am certainly not trying to convert anyone to the ol olive oil side but I myself prefer not to take the risk with the inverts when safer methods are available.
Phil
Also you seem to have taken what I said out of context. I didn't say the sprays didn't work but rather said that the oil does as well and to write it off as a wives tale simply due to your beliefs rather than hands on experience is incorrect.
While I have not only seen both pages you linked but chatted with the people responsible for them as well and certainly believe they know what they are doing they are not the only reliable sources. As I stated before Australia zoo uses oil and you would be hard pressed to find a more knowledgeable source of herp husbandry info. There are a lot of old school breeders who use oil, sevin dust, and a few other tricks as well but the majority of them aren't into the commercial end like the Barkers and PE are so they tend to not have web pages other than price list style.
As you pointed out before this is an arachnid forum and theirin lies part of why I don't use the sprays. While they are effective they are also very effective at killing most all inverts. While some may have their snakes far away from the inverts I'm sure that some don't and rather than risk ones collection over an airborne poison sometimes an alternative method does work best. Treating the snake itself is easily enough done without risking ones other animals but when it comes to treating a cage then the risk from sprays goes up quite a bit when the cage is too large to move out of the invert room.
As I said before use whatever makes you feel comfy and I am certainly not trying to convert anyone to the ol olive oil side but I myself prefer not to take the risk with the inverts when safer methods are available.
Phil
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This is the part of his post that worried me.......a friend of mine did the same and his snake DIED. How is that not hands on experience? I was there when he did it. I have hands on experience with mites and I did'nt use oil, I used Black Knight....my snakes did not wheeze or die.
Here is a quote from the ProExotics article on mites:
"Some keepers go through the elaborate steps of coating an animal in cooking oil. That one sounds too stupid to even try, so I don’t know if it works, but I am a snake keeper, not a snake cooker."
I don't know how they do things at the Australia Zoo, but I DO know that oil does NOT effectively get rid of mites OR their eggs.
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Did ya happen to read the line that says I don't know if it works but I haven't tried it? You see this is an opinion someone has made without actually having tried what they are condeming.
Once again you claim that you know something doesn't kill mites when in fact it does. The mites become coated in the oil and can't breathe. By the next day dead mites. End of story. To say you have hands on experience in the matter when the fact is you watched it done all wrong is simply incorrect. Leaving a snake in a water filled trashcan all night will tire it out and drown it doesn't make water bad for them only the missuse of it.
The egg issue as I said before is a substrate problem and if folks would actually clean out the tank before putting the snake back in this problem could be solved. Unfortunately most humans want the easy way out so they prefer to spray the hell out of everything with a highly toxic poison as cleaning the tank takes some effort.
As to you not knowing how Australia zoo does it that is apparent. Try reading up on them and perhaps you will gain some insight into just how much they do know on the subject of reptile husbandry. After all they have been pioneers in breeding some of the rarest monitor species in the world and have had to deal with more WC animals than a lot of so called experts have.
Phil
Once again you claim that you know something doesn't kill mites when in fact it does. The mites become coated in the oil and can't breathe. By the next day dead mites. End of story. To say you have hands on experience in the matter when the fact is you watched it done all wrong is simply incorrect. Leaving a snake in a water filled trashcan all night will tire it out and drown it doesn't make water bad for them only the missuse of it.
The egg issue as I said before is a substrate problem and if folks would actually clean out the tank before putting the snake back in this problem could be solved. Unfortunately most humans want the easy way out so they prefer to spray the hell out of everything with a highly toxic poison as cleaning the tank takes some effort.
As to you not knowing how Australia zoo does it that is apparent. Try reading up on them and perhaps you will gain some insight into just how much they do know on the subject of reptile husbandry. After all they have been pioneers in breeding some of the rarest monitor species in the world and have had to deal with more WC animals than a lot of so called experts have.
Phil
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I also guess you missed the part where he said it was too stupid to even try! LOL! I'm sorry, but if I have mites, I want to get rid of them not baste my snake. I'm pretty sure if you coated the snake in enough spaghetti sauce the mites would die too, but should we advocate that as an effective mite treatment? I'm sorry, but just because a Zoo does something doesn't mean I'm going to do it....I've seen Zoos that made me wanna vomit. I will go with what works and is proven to work. If you can find one *reputable* source that says coating the snake in oil is an effective treatment for mites, then I'll rest my case.
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Well once again it seems you have ignored the parts you didn't want to hear. I believe it went something like it sounds stupid yet I haven't tried it and don't know. You see this is not only an opinion but one based on absolutely nothing.
As to reputable sources who have used oil and know that it works let's see Hollister Applegate I believe I have read of Porras using it oh yeah let's not forget Steve Irwin Oshea Rob Bredl I could go on but it is pretty obvious that you seem to think you know something that these folks as well as myself don't so it seems a tad pointless to try and educate you on the subject.
Out of curiosity however how much herp experience do you actually have? I am wondering exactly where you are drawing your percieved wealth of knowledge from.
Phil
As to reputable sources who have used oil and know that it works let's see Hollister Applegate I believe I have read of Porras using it oh yeah let's not forget Steve Irwin Oshea Rob Bredl I could go on but it is pretty obvious that you seem to think you know something that these folks as well as myself don't so it seems a tad pointless to try and educate you on the subject.
Out of curiosity however how much herp experience do you actually have? I am wondering exactly where you are drawing your percieved wealth of knowledge from.
Phil
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I have over 10 years of reptile experience. Its not that I am the only one who thinks oil is a stupid way to treat mites....its a CONSENSUS in the herp community.
I'm sorry, but Steve Irwin is not someone I'd take husbandry advice from...his mentality is that reptiles should not be kept PERIOD so I doubt he has a warm place in his heart for hobbyists. He is to herpetology what the Harlem Globetrotters are to basketball.....all show, no substance. Oil up your snakes all you want, I'll stick to what works.
I'm sorry, but Steve Irwin is not someone I'd take husbandry advice from...his mentality is that reptiles should not be kept PERIOD so I doubt he has a warm place in his heart for hobbyists. He is to herpetology what the Harlem Globetrotters are to basketball.....all show, no substance. Oil up your snakes all you want, I'll stick to what works.