Having a little snack

Captive care and husbandry.

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Sam Bacchini
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Location: NorCal

Having a little snack

Post by Sam Bacchini »

Couldn't resist the photo op

Image

Despite appearances, the rat was already (freshly) dead when offered.
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justinm
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Re: Having a little snack

Post by justinm »

How many Boelen's do you have? Are you trying to breed them? I've heard that's not so easy.
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Sam Bacchini
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Re: Having a little snack

Post by Sam Bacchini »

I just have one female, but a friend of mine has a pair so I will probably send her over for breeding if I don't manage to score a male at some point soon.
VICtort
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Re: Having a little snack

Post by VICtort »

Boelen's are spectacular animals. Some skilled keepers have been humbled by them... Will you briefly update us on their husbandry? Yours looks like a go-getter. Are these now consistently captive bred? At what temps do you keep them? Impressive animals, I would love to learn more about them. PM if you prefer.

Thank you for posting this gorgeous python.

Vic
Kfen
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Re: Having a little snack

Post by Kfen »

Wow. Feel free to post more pics of her! Certainly not something you see every day. I too am curious about your husbandry.
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Kelly Mc
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Re: Having a little snack

Post by Kelly Mc »

Damn Gila you always have breathtaking surprises.

Clean, neat, HD too.

Class.
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Sam Bacchini
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Re: Having a little snack

Post by Sam Bacchini »

Thanks everyone.

Husbandry is really pretty straightforward. Since they are only available as CH these days (which is a good thing) you don't have a lot of the problems that wild caught animals had back when they were being imported. They should be kept cooler than typical pythons (colubrid temps), but they still need a hot spot (mid 80's F). They need some humidity, but not to be wet all the time. A humid hide is sufficient.

They have a pretty high metabolism for a python, so smallish frequent meals are suggested. I raised this one from a hatchling, along with the the pair that my friend has (he took them home when they were about 8 feet long). She is now in the neighborhood of 8 feet, while the pair that is now at my friend's house are in the 10 to 12 foot range (he got them about a year before I got mine). They can be tricky to get eating as hatchlings, but Kamuran at Bushmaster (where all of ours came from) gave me the secret which is to take a prekilled mouse of appropriate size and put it in a container or baggie of hot tap water (as hot as you can get it out of the tap) with a prekilled chick (I've used chicken or quail) and leave it there for 3 minutes or so. Then take it with forceps and keep it in front of their face until they grab it. If it cools off, put it back in the water to get it hot again. They are very timid at that stage so it takes some patience. Don't tease feed them, but you can gently brush it across their back or tail to get a response. After a few successful meals you can stop scenting with chicks, and eventually they will just take prekilled rodents without the hot soak. Once they start eating regularly they rarely have problems after that, and become as voracious as most other pythons.

I have since successfully used the hot soak method (without the chicks) to get newborn rattlesnakes to eat. The high temp seems to really get the attention of those species with heat pits.
btskanks
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Re: Having a little snack

Post by btskanks »

Hi- so beautiful thanks, a friend of mine in MD bred them in the 90's-I got to see them I had no idea they got >10ft, and were very docile, $10k a piece, heck I just wanted a woma!
Jimi
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Re: Having a little snack

Post by Jimi »

The high temp seems to really get the attention of those species with heat pits.
I have found the same with many crotalines - WC's of all ages, as well as non-started or "training-phase" cb neonates. A cold or room-temp f/t rodent that is being ignored, will often elicit some enthusiasm if it's heated up to around 105F.

Congrats on the gorgeous specimen, and good luck pairing her up. One or two questions - you mentioned high metabolism. Are they very active as adults? How much of their time budget as adults is spent on the ground or in cover, versus elevated (also perhaps in cover, as in a bird nest-box)?

Cheers,
Jimi
Kfen
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Re: Having a little snack

Post by Kfen »

gila-91 wrote:Thanks everyone.

They should be kept cooler than typical pythons (colubrid temps), but they still need a hot spot (mid 80's F).
What about night time temps? Do you shut off all heat? I heard they can handle (maybe need) big nighttime drops, like in the 50's.
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Sam Bacchini
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Re: Having a little snack

Post by Sam Bacchini »

Kfen wrote:What about night time temps? Do you shut off all heat? I heard they can handle (maybe need) big nighttime drops, like in the 50's.
I haven't really been doing that actively, though the room cools at night on its own. It is true that they can handle temps even into the low 40's at night as long as they can warm up during the day.

There is supposedly a picture floating around where a Boelen's is basking on a rock cliff with snow or frost on the ground around it. I have yet to actually see this picture though.
Jimi wrote:One or two questions - you mentioned high metabolism. Are they very active as adults? How much of their time budget as adults is spent on the ground or in cover, versus elevated (also perhaps in cover, as in a bird nest-box)?
They do get very active, but it's not constant. In the wild, while they do climb trees, their habitat consists of massive, heavily forested karst formations with lots of cracks and tunnels, so they are really more of a rock dweller than a tree dweller.
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Berkeley Boone
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Re: Having a little snack

Post by Berkeley Boone »

Sam! You've been holding out on me! What a cool critter. Thanks for posting this. I have been wanting a boeleni since I first learned they existed years ago. I never thought that dream would even have a chance of coming true. I'm glad to hear that they can actually be kept successfully in captivity. I will now begin saving my money....
--Berkeley
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Sam Bacchini
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Re: Having a little snack

Post by Sam Bacchini »

I've got all kinds of stuff I haven't talked about... ;)

As I mentioned before, with the availability of CH animals a lot of the difficulties associated with keeping this species are no longer issues. Still not a species for the beginner, but success maintaining them is easily achieved for experienced herpetoculturists.

Captive breeding on the other hand still has a lot of room for improvement. However, there have been an increasing number of successes in recent years. Marc Spataro wrote an article about the first successful US breeding in some years in Issue 11 of Herp Nation Magazine (which coincedentially was the first issue since I became the editor). Since that time, Marc was successful again with a different female, and a keeper in Europe has produced them twice in the last two years (not sure if both breedings were with the same female). Things are definitely changing for the better with this species in captivity.
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