The Snake Guru
10-18-2007, 04:06 AM
Indonesian Tree Boas/Pacific Tree Boa (Candioa carinata carinata)
I haven’t had a whole lot of experience with this species; however in the time I have been keeping them I have to say they are a rather interesting little snake. This is an extremely small species 12” for a big female is actually really large, Males tend to be smaller yet around 8”. These are not very brightly colored snakes usually clad in browns, blacks, grays, and crème tones, my one female even has some dark green mottling that looks like moss. The head is small, flat and comes to fairly severe point, what they lack in color, they more than make up for in an overall interesting look.
Caging:
I keep mine in a 5 ½ gallon tank (separated of course) Temperatures range from 86 degrees during the day, to 78-79 at night. No basking spot is provided and they are doing very well. This seems to be one of the cooler running snakes which if kept to warm may actually stress out. I use a, Eco-earth substrate to keep humidity levels in the 70% range most of the time, with the hide hut humidity actually staying around 80%. They have access to climbing branches and plants but rarely use them. Most of the time when I do see them climbing it is when feeding day is approaching and the lights go out. They seem to be a very reclusive species hiding out most of the time. In my opinion this would be a very good species for a planted small terrarium type setup of which I will most likely move them towards that setup eventually.
Temperament:
On the plus side they are extremely docile the 2 that I have are imports and even right off the boat these snakes seem to be one of those naturally docile snakes.
Feeding:
Feeding as I have found out can be a little tricky. The male was great took off on F/T pinky mice right off the bat and has never skipped a meal yet. The female however was a completely different story. After about a month of not taking mice I decided to try a live green tree frog; which mysteriously disappeared by morning (well ok perhaps not so mysteriously). I thought great! She’s eating now and can get switched over to mice later….months of trying I finally gave up. She’s happy to eat frogs, lizards, and geckos, and will even take them F/T now, but won’t touch a mouse with a 10 foot pole, scented, unscented, even with frog skin draped over the body. Just something to be aware of if you are going to try this species….they may not switch over to mice. On the plus side I did find out she has a taste for our local small leopard frogs which I now catch in mass and store in the freezer.
Overall though these are real neat little snake, they look very different from any other snake, and they are small and easily housed. If you can get one that is already on mice it would be in your best interest, though if you have access to frogs and/or lizards I probably wouldn’t even try to switch them over since that is their preferred food in the wild, getting them on F/T frogs and lizards though would be a good idea to cut down on the possibility of transmitting any diseases from the prey item to the snake.
On a side note this species is not commonly captive bred, most of what is available are imports or captive born neonates from imported gravid females. Still whenever possible captive specimens are always preferable and will most likely switch over to a mouse based diet easier.
Brad
~2007
I haven’t had a whole lot of experience with this species; however in the time I have been keeping them I have to say they are a rather interesting little snake. This is an extremely small species 12” for a big female is actually really large, Males tend to be smaller yet around 8”. These are not very brightly colored snakes usually clad in browns, blacks, grays, and crème tones, my one female even has some dark green mottling that looks like moss. The head is small, flat and comes to fairly severe point, what they lack in color, they more than make up for in an overall interesting look.
Caging:
I keep mine in a 5 ½ gallon tank (separated of course) Temperatures range from 86 degrees during the day, to 78-79 at night. No basking spot is provided and they are doing very well. This seems to be one of the cooler running snakes which if kept to warm may actually stress out. I use a, Eco-earth substrate to keep humidity levels in the 70% range most of the time, with the hide hut humidity actually staying around 80%. They have access to climbing branches and plants but rarely use them. Most of the time when I do see them climbing it is when feeding day is approaching and the lights go out. They seem to be a very reclusive species hiding out most of the time. In my opinion this would be a very good species for a planted small terrarium type setup of which I will most likely move them towards that setup eventually.
Temperament:
On the plus side they are extremely docile the 2 that I have are imports and even right off the boat these snakes seem to be one of those naturally docile snakes.
Feeding:
Feeding as I have found out can be a little tricky. The male was great took off on F/T pinky mice right off the bat and has never skipped a meal yet. The female however was a completely different story. After about a month of not taking mice I decided to try a live green tree frog; which mysteriously disappeared by morning (well ok perhaps not so mysteriously). I thought great! She’s eating now and can get switched over to mice later….months of trying I finally gave up. She’s happy to eat frogs, lizards, and geckos, and will even take them F/T now, but won’t touch a mouse with a 10 foot pole, scented, unscented, even with frog skin draped over the body. Just something to be aware of if you are going to try this species….they may not switch over to mice. On the plus side I did find out she has a taste for our local small leopard frogs which I now catch in mass and store in the freezer.
Overall though these are real neat little snake, they look very different from any other snake, and they are small and easily housed. If you can get one that is already on mice it would be in your best interest, though if you have access to frogs and/or lizards I probably wouldn’t even try to switch them over since that is their preferred food in the wild, getting them on F/T frogs and lizards though would be a good idea to cut down on the possibility of transmitting any diseases from the prey item to the snake.
On a side note this species is not commonly captive bred, most of what is available are imports or captive born neonates from imported gravid females. Still whenever possible captive specimens are always preferable and will most likely switch over to a mouse based diet easier.
Brad
~2007