SPECIES: Emerald Tree Boa

SCIENTIFIC NAME: Corralus Caninus

NOTES:

Emerald Tree Boas are arguably one of the most beautiful snakes in the world. Hence why these snakes year in, year out remain in high demand. A high demand for a very demanding species! Emerald Tree Boas can be very challenging to maintain in captivity and at Snakes’N’Adders we only recommend these to the most experienced of our patrons. Most commonly only available as wild caught animals this causes numerous problems with the acclimatisation of this taxa. Invariably they arrive with serious amount of gut bound worms, occasionally ticks and mites. Quite a few arrive with black scales (possibly some sort of rot – probably from the squalor they are kept in before shipping), shedding problems often present themselves whether from the outset or soon after arrival. All in all most keepers of wild collected Emerald Tree Boas are in for a rocky time in the first few months. Here are a few notes on how we deal with animals that come in to us from the wild.

Prior to the animal’s arrival we setup arboreal tanks where the animals will be kept individually. The Tanks measure 15"x18"x30" (LxDxH) and are set at 28.5-29.5 Celcius.The tanks are made from 6mm glass and the only view is straight out. Even though they are in the shop they are higher up than usual nearly 7ft, so no-one can make eye contact with the animal. The heater we use in these tanks is thermostatically controlled spot bulb (which is also caged for safety). Other options would be an all plastic vivarium and the heater of choice for those would be an Ultratherm 40W Power Plate.

You will probably notice on other care information that the temperatures required to maintain Emeralds are higher than this. In our experience we find a slightly cooler temperatures makes are animals fair much better (an explanation will be made later). The humidity is kept as close to 100% as possible, this may involve spraying the tank up to twice a day. A night time cooling of 3 Celsius makes the humidity re-increases through out the night. Two boughs across the tank are provided at different levels so that the snakes can thermo-regulate them. A large water container is provided, if only to help keep humidity up, Emeralds will rarely drink from their water container (Invariably they drink the water droplets off their own bodies.). The substrate we tend to use is a large grade orchid bark. Orchid bark tends not to rot particularly fast and as a result acts as a sufficient medium for Emerald Tree Boas. Newspaper can also be used in the long run but to be honest this requires changing more often and we are trying to get these newly kept snakes settled. You going in every 4 days to change now discoloured and rotting newspaper will not aid this. Bear in mind that even though you will be changing the animals water daily this is a much shorter process than stripping out a tank. These animals must be allowed to settle in; they are more highly strung than any other snake you have kept. Believe me!

Upon arrival the snakes are frontlined (A prescription spray available in the U.K to deal with mites & ticks) to help combat any endo-parasites they may have. Next depending on the animal’s size they are re-hydrated via a catheter down into their stomach with 5-10ml of pro-biotic solution. The pro-biotics served to rebalance the snakes’ immune system, provide energy and replace any salts, enzymes and vitamins lost through the stress of travel.

The snakes are then placed in the tank and left (apart for fresh water daily) for a fortnight with out offering food. The snakes are then purged of any internal parasites by using a medicine called Panacur or in its scientific name Fenbendazole. This is available in most good equestrian centres over the counter. I intend to provide a chart of dosages at a later date to help any readers going through this process.

The Panacur will remove all gut floras – good and bad so remember once the course has finished re-hydrating again with pro-biotic solution. Two weeks from the first dosage of Panacur this must be repeated. Again leave a fortnight and then re-hydrate. You may have to do this weekly for 3 weeks.

(Please consult a vet before taking this any further. Through consultation with my vet I quite capably care for wild caught stock. This would not be a recommended course of action for anyone who is in-experienced at providing medical care for animals. Vets may be expensive but you know they are going to do a better job than most hobbyists. Vets will usually require a faecal sample for correct diagnosis. Please consider all comments made by myself as observations and NOT necessarily the course of action you should follow. If in doubt consult a vet.)

Once the worming agent has had time to work we will now assume that we have managed to purge the body of any unwanted little aliens we will attempt to begin feeding. Now some considerable amount of time has passed since the animal arrived without offering food. Don’t panic, the lower temperatures ensure that they don’t burn off weight (like they would do at 32-33Celcius, dehydrating and being eaten alive by worms in their gut!) or dehydrate too quickly. Amazing t think that only 5 Celsius can make a difference, but in our experience it does. We are going to offer the snake a small meal to begin with, as anything large could result in regurgitation – a subject I will cover later. Any snake up to 42 inches only requires a standard adult mouse as its first meal. For a better feeding response try feeding at night. ALWAYS use tongs when feeding Emeralds these babies have got some serious size teeth. I once saw some stupid Gung-ho keeper showing off free handling this species and the resultant bite was quite a sight. The teeth went straight into the muscle and the poor sod that got bit could use his arm properly for a good week or so. You have been warned!

Assuming that the snake strike feeds move on to next paragraph. Some Emerald Tree Boas that have passed through our collection fed off branches where the defrosted mouse lay. Others could only be enticed into taking the mouse by using a section of day old chick skin pasted over the mouse’s head.

Now we wait, Emerald Tree Boas have famously slow metabolisms. Continue with standard daily care. Hopefully as we have purged the snake of any gut bound pests the snake will digest the prey item happily. Another note to consider on higher temperatures, we have noted that snakes kept at the upper limits of their temperature range re-gurgitate more often than the ones kept in the manner described above. We also noted that constipation also becomes a problem for animals kept to warm.

Generally, touch wood we don’t have any problems with re-gurgitation in our animals maintained this way. I think we have had 4 animals in the last 4 years (one a year) out of a total from the past 4 years of about 50.

If the animal keeps its dinner down for over a fortnight then usually we are in the clear, only feed your wild caught Emeralds once a month, and increase size to a meal which is substantial but not too big as too large a meal will inevitably cause vomiting.

Being honest we have had fatalities, 3 out of the 50. These all occurred within the first week of arrival due to the sorry state that they we shipped in.

We have a vested interest in people trying to captive breed these animals as we would much rather stock those than wild caught. Unfortunately breeders of this species in the U.K are few and far between usually selling out before the babies are even born.

ADULT AVERAGE LENGTH: The average adult size of the Emerald Tree Boas we encounter are between 4.5ft and 5.5ft, large animals are known to exist but these tend to be from the Amazon Basin, these animals are quoted at approaching 9ft in length.

DISTRIBUTION: The specimens acquired at Snakes’N’Adders are always either from Guyana or Suriname

HABITAT: Tropical Rainforest, canopy dwellers.

BREEDING: I have no experience in breeding this species and really would be re-writing some one else’s notes on the subject. Plenty of information available on line.

KEEPER LEVEL (& REASONING): Highly Experienced Keepers ONLY! – This snake is not for the inexperienced or feint of heart.