Emerald Tree Boas

Emerald Tree Boas
The purpose of this article is not to instruct you or tell you how to keep your emerald tree boas (Corallus caninus). It is simply a guide; a guide based on my experiences with these animals. Through my experiences, I have been through all of the ups and downs of emerald keeping. I have brought animals back from the dead and have accidentally killed perfectly healthy specimens. In no way do I consider myself an expert, just an enthusiast. There’s something about this particular species and all of its variants which is just mystifying. Although my animals will sit for hours, sometimes days, on end without so much as moving an inch, I often find myself staring blankly into their cages for large portions of time, watching and adoring these incredible emerald beauties


Caging:
Caging for emeralds has but three major requirements, proper temperature control, proper humidity control, and perching space. Beyond this, it is completely up to you how it is that you would like to house your emerald tree boa. My personal opinion, which I cannot stress enough is SIMPLICITY, SIMPLICITY, SIMPLICITY.
I have found that the simpler a cage is, the better it works. Although I favor a very sterile environment, I have to admit that there is no better display animal for an aesthetically pleasing setup than an emerald tree boa. In my case, when housing several animals, it is just not convenient to have naturalistic vivaria all over the place which warrant double the effort to keep clean when compared to a sterile type cage. As for my taste, I think that Neodesha Plastics makes the ideal emerald tree boa cage. Sure, there are quite a few plastic companies out there putting out cages that would also work well for emeralds but I think one important advantage that Neodesha has over these guys is price. A standard front-sloping 36" cage works wonderfully for a single animal and will run about $85. Aside from the cage all that is necessary for a basic emerald set up is a branch or limb (equal to the thickness of the snake), a water bowl, a spray bottle and a 2 foot piece of Flexwatt heat tape with some kind of thermostat system. The 36 inch model keeps the perfect temperature (relative to outside ambient temperature) with just a 2 foot piece of flexwatt. A horizontal branch running the length of the cage and a large water bowl complete the basic requirements. When acclimating fresher imports I often employ the use of plastic vines or plants in the cage, this adds additional cover and makes the acclimating process go a little easier. However, I must warn you that these can pose a hazard as emeralds have been known to accidentally ingest plant material which could inevitably lead to an impaction.

At my facility I also use Melamine cages for larger colonies as well as a few other custom made cages of varying size. One such cage is a custom made rain chamber enclosure made by Dragon’s Purse Enterprises. This is a stunning piece of work as the cage’s dimensions are 4’ x 6’ x 4’ (w x h x d) and is made into a furniture quality piece of art. As for younger snakes, I house my juvenile snakes in the 2 foot Neodesha cages in the same basic setup mentioned above. Baby snakes are kept in standard 2.5 gallon tanks with about 1/4" of water on the bottom. They have the typical horizontal perch and the top is covered with a screen and a piece of glass that is moved accordingly to control humidity in the cage. Heating is accomplished by a piece of 3" flexwatt tape which runs along the bottom of the tank. This works nicely because the temperature and humidity are both kept accordingly due to the tape. One thing I must mention about this type of setup is that it is absolutely vital to keep the water on the bottom sparkling clean at all times. As soon as the snake defecates the cage must be emptied and disinfected to prevent harmful bacteria from developing. This can quickly bring about the demise of a delicate neonate, cleanliness is important no matter what size your emerald is due to the high humidity environment in which emeralds and bacteria both thrive in.

As I said before, caging is completely relative to your taste however, make sure you meet the basic requirements as well as common sense safety requirements for you and your snake. When choosing a heat source, avoid a bulb or other heat source that is exposed to your snake. Emeralds are great at burning themselves on exposed light bulbs and ceramic heat-emitters. Another reason to avoid exposed bulbs is because emeralds are attracted to heat and will often zero in on the bulb as a threat or possible food item when provoked. I have seen emerald tree boas strike at and break light bulbs, sometime resulting in injuries such as cuts and burns. If you do opt to have a bulb in the cage, make sure it is shielded from the snake. This can simply be accomplished by making a small cage around the bulb which prevents any type of contact. Just be extra careful when disturbing your emerald tree boa as it could still probably injure itself even with the wire caging.

For substrates, I like to use either paper towels or newspaper (simplicity, get it). This proves to be the easiest to maintain both humidity and a clean environment, the only drawback being that it is not all that aesthetically pleasing. Besides easy maintenance, I feel that it is much healthier. Although many people successfully use mulch or commercial bedding for their cages with no problems, I have seen severe cases of mouthrot resulting from small pieces of substrate lodging itself in the snake’s mouth. Often, undetected by the keeper until it is too late. Another reason that keeps me from using a substrate is that it is a potential breeding ground for harmful bacteria and ectoparasite. Mites often become impossible to eradicate when using a substrate such as mulch. Like I said, it’s all very relative.

Another important aspect of caging, probably the most important piece in a cage is the horizontal resting place for our arboreal friends. In the wild, emeralds live on limbs in trees of varying size and shape. I prefer to use branches taken from my local patches of woods (or backyard trees) which are changed several times throughout the year. It is important that you provide your emerald tree boa with the right diameter or it will feel uncomfortable. Ideally, I try to use a branch that is at least as thick as the thickest portion of the snake, hopefully with some variation. A branch with sections that branch out is ideal since it will provide several different diameters for the emerald to rest on. I have noticed that they will often take advantage of forks or crotches in branches, or sometimes little thin areas will be utilized. No matter what variation there is always make sure that there is some portion about as thick as the snake itself. This is very important when you snake eats. It is vital for your emerald tree boa to be able to evenly distribute its weight along the branch. If it is unable to do this it will sit uncomfortably and sooner or later regurgitate any significant meal. The purpose of changing the branches is primarily to provide the snake with some variation but I also like to keep the wood fresh. Since I usually like to use pieces that have fallen naturally, they are often dry. When kept in a high humid environment they are very likely to develop some sort of fungal growth. This may or may not be harmful to your snake. Some forms of fungus can develop into a form of scale rot which is obviously not good for your pet. You can usually scrape it off and disinfect the branch again, I prefer to get a new piece. No matter what, it is very important to properly disinfect the branches you use. This is vital in order to remove any insects living in the wood as well as any pesticides or other impurities that may be found on the surface. I like to thoroughly clean branches under very hot water with a wire brush or scouring pad and use the tiniest bit of bleach to help disinfect it. Some people like to cook the wood in an oven before using it. I suppose that this is also another method that can be used to disinfect pieces before you use them, I’m good at starting accidental fires so I opt to avoid that one.

Next comes the water bowl, I have seen countless pieces of literature that say emeralds won’t drink out of water bowls... this is not the case. Almost all emeralds will drink from a bowl whenever they come in contact with it, this is the key. Contact with the water bowl can be achieved by either providing a very large bowl on the floor of the cage or an elevated bird-type bowl adjacent to the emerald tree boa’s branch. I like to use a Rubbermaid shoe box on the floor of the cage directly underneath the perch. The snake can easily reach this from its perch and will often drink from this bowl with no problems. A large water dish can also be very helpful when trying to provide humidity in the cage. A higher humidity level can be reached by simply placing the water dish over (or under) the heat source or by placing an air stone in it. The latter keeps the water a bit fresher, longer, which will aid in getting you snake to drink from a dish. I’ve noticed that emeralds will sometimes not drink from water that has been sitting too long. Sometimes, as soon as I change their water dish they will immediately come down for a long drink. No matter what type of water dish you put in the cage, never keep from spraying you snakes, this is very important. Spraying snakes is vital because not only do they drink from their coils but you can see a considerable difference in skin tone and scale iridescence when they are sprayed often. Spraying is also very important in order to stimulate breeding activity in my opinion. They best type sprayers are the small hand-held pump-type sprays that are usually readily available at Home Depot. These sprays work best because they emit a nice steady mist versus the disturbing pump action of the typical spray bottle which will only disturb and agitate your emerald. The pump mister spray bottle has a nice even spray that is more naturalistic, I often see my snakes drinking as I gently spray them down with this type of bottle. I also use the larger versions that consist of a larger (about 5 gal.) container, a hose and long nosed sprayer with an adjustable nozzle, similar to what exterminators use. When spraying an emerald, it is best to try to come from above in order to prevent spraying into the thermo-sensitive pits located on the snake’s labials. When you spray into these pits, you will often annoy the snake and disturb it from its typical resting position. This must be a horrible sensory overload, avoid doing it.

Obviously, your ultimate goal with all of this is to achieve the proper hydration and humidity levels, but there is such a thing as too much humidity. Always try to have some sort of drying out period for your snakes. At least a few hours in every 24 hour cycle. This is important in order to prevent any fungal infections that usually occur on the ventral surface of the animal. Scale rot is quite common in emeralds. Although not life threatening, they can severely scar or impair your snake. If scale rot does occur, it is important to see your vet or apply some sort of topical antibiotic followed with some slightly drier periods. By the time your snake finishes its next shedding cycle, the problem should be gone.


Lighting:
As with all Neotropical snakes, it is best to provide a 12/12 photoperiod for your emerald tree boa. In the Neotropics, there really isn’t a significant change in photoperiod that coincides with the seasons, so you can pretty much keep this schedule all year round. Now comes the real question: Fluorescent? Incandescent? Or None?
As far as flourescents go, they make the animals look absolutely great. They bring out an incredible iridescence and will not drastically affect cage temperature as it doesn’t emit any heat (ballast aside). A full spectrum light will also aid plant maintenance for those naturalistic buffs out there. Now, the downside. Any type of bright lighting causes noticeable stress in my experience. Emeralds do not tolerate bright lights very well, often opting to stay as far away from the light as possible or spending the daylight hours with their heads tucked tightly in their coils. In a well established emerald, lighting may be tolerated but it is my belief that this can be detrimental when trying to establish a fairly recent import or an animal that just isn’t well established yet. The best thing to do is to reach a comfortable balance between the two. It is often best to avoid a florescent light in order to ensure you animals health, remember, the emerald should always come first.


Temperatures:
Now, there will probably be people who will argue with my temperature regimen, but no one will ever be happy and that’s just something we’ll all have to live with. For the most part, I like to keep my temperature steady for my babies, juvies, and non-breeding adults. For these animals I like to keep a nice stable 80F all day long, sometimes with a slight drop at night and a slight raise during the day that happens naturally without any intentional manipulation, it usually never swings more than two or three degrees in any given direction. At these temps the animals remain nice and stable and have no problems whether digesting or shedding. Adults, especially breeders go through a much more complicated scheduling which I don’t want to get into in much detail because of the fact that it is very variable. As a rule, I try to keep adults at 80F during the off season when they are just putting on weight. Towards the end of September, I begin nightly drops into the lower 70's. Never below 70 though. The day time highs reach about 82-83F in order to offset the NTL’s (night time lows). This continues throughout the majority of the breeding season, when actual breeding is observed I often employ the use of rain chambers to increase humidity drastically which seems to put the icing on the cake. Later on, about mid to late March the males and non-gravid females are returned to the regular 80F temperatures. Possibly gravid females are also maintained at an even 80F but are offered a basking site of about 93F which they will often put to good use. After parturition they are returned to normal steady temps until the next season. Now many people will recommend the use of lower temperatures, even going so far as to say that lower temps will correct regurgitation problems. This is true to an extent but care must be taken that an animal with chronic regurgitation is not exposed to sub-optimal temperatures that will further debilitate it. It is my personal belief that an emerald tree boa should not be dropped below 70F, ever.

Feeding:
The emerald requires the most specialized feeding regimen of all the snakes I have ever kept. It’s kinda like having a pet gremlin, there are certain rules you MUST follow or you will end up with a big mess on your hands, often compromising the health of your emerald tree boa. First and foremost is size of prey. Whether your feeding a neonate or an eight foot Basin, always feed slightly smaller than the girth of your snake. It is much better to feed smaller prey items a bit more often versus a larger one once in a while. Smaller food items get digested and assimilated much quicker adding weight and size a bit faster, and most importantly will reduce the risk of regurgitation. As a rule, even my largest adults get nothing larger than a 3-week-old small rat, something within the weight range of 40 grams is ideal, even for an adult. A small rat every 14 or so days will keep your emerald tree boa in perfect conditions. Babies should be fed a small fuzzy or crawler (according to the size of the baby snake) every 5-7 days. A juvie will do well with a crawler to weanling mouse every 10 days or so. Although your emerald tree boa, especially the youngsters will often tempt you to feed them by sitting in their characteristically hunting pose, DON’T! You’ll regret it later on, trust me. Try not to feed more than one rodent at a sitting either, if you have to feed two mice then maybe you should be moving up to rats. Try to feed prekilled whenever possible in order to prevent injury to your emerald tree boa, live rodents usually react violently when snatched by those huge canine-like teeth. Your snake can easily lose an eye or earn a permanent scar, something you definitely don’t want. I feed thawed frozen rodents by warming them up with a space heater for a few seconds before offering them to the snake. Emerald tree boa’s are so thermo-sensitive that once accustomed, they will often snatch their meal before you can get it in the cage, it really makes you think sometimes. If an emerald won’t take a warmed rodent at first, you can usually entice a really weird feeding response by putting the warm rodent up to the snake’s face (being sure not to touch its face or it will hide) and then gently, but firmly pinching or tickling the snake underneath. I say that it’s a weird feeding response because often the snake will respond by simply opening it’s mouth and almost gently taking the rodent. Sometimes, you’ll get a violent grab but for the most part they just grasp the rodent and begin swallowing. Some people like to feed chicks to their emerald tree boa’s, I don’t recommend it because I’ve seen cases in other snakes where beaks can perforate certain sections of the G.I. tract and also because defecation from a chick meal smells absolutely horrible. In addition, there are salmonella possibilities if you really wanna get that anal, but let’s move on. Recent imports may often prove a bit harder to get to feed. It is often the case that an animal that will feed well and regularly will usually do it with 24 hours of arrival, this is the case with imports only. I’ve seen many cases where C.B. animals will not eat for a while when transplanted to a new cage or shipped out, this also happens often in acclimated wild-caught animals. If a recent import will not feed then you must begin the waiting game. The first thing you should do is have the animal properly dewormed. This way, little weight will be lost during its hunger strike. After that, it’s just a simple matter of offering a weaned rodent (live) every two weeks until one day you hear a shrill from the rodent as it is grabbed. Unless the animal is severely thin (which often denotes other underlying problems) you should never resort to force feeding. It is often very detrimental and can greatly lessen the chance of the snake ever feeding on its own. When a snake is starting to look a little on the thin side and is not eating I like to employ the use of a product called Nutri-Cal and a steel feeding needle on a medium-sized syringe. This does a good job of giving the snake a high calorie meal with minimal effort as orally giving this product in a watered down form takes but a few seconds. But before trying the Nutri-Cal you should also try a thawed or pre-killed (warmed) rodent with the previously mentioned technique. The secret here is to make sure the rodent is VERY warm, almost hot. Some wild caught emeralds that I keep have never eaten a live rodent while in my possession, weird huh. With the above techniques, I have gotten 98% of all emeralds in my possession to feed, very rarely have I ever resorted to force-feeding a rodent to an emerald. This is a good thing too because 80% of the time when I did have to force-feed the rodent was just re-gurged anyway. I have heard cases of neonates often refusing food too but I’ve never had this happen. I’ve had many picky feeders but never a baby that didn’t eventually accept a live fuzzy mouse. Some people will suggest using an anole but be very careful with this, it’s such an easy way to introduce parasites to your snakes. If you think you will have to feed an anole it may be a good idea to set up a few and de-worm them before feeding, the only problem I’ve encountered with this is keeping my girlfriend from becoming attached to the feeder animals (it happens with baby rats too, sigh!). Gravid females will often cease feeding a few months into pregnancy. If you suspect a female of being gravid and she continues to feed be sure to feed slightly smaller than usual as you don’t want any significantly sized meals impairing the development of the young in her body. Although there’s nothing to prove this, it’s been my experience that stillborn numbers are greatly increased when a female is fed late into pregnancy.

Overview:
In general, emerald tree boa’s are amazing animals, although difficult to keep they are well worth the extra effort. It’s amazingly gratifying to look into a cage and see this massive head staring out at you trailed by huge emerald coils and topped with bright white triangles that play on the light. They are truly magnificent animals that deserve nothing but the best as our guests. If you are not ready to spend a significant amount of time and money on the proper husbandry techniques and necessary equipment then an emerald is not for you. Why would you buy a brand new Lamborghini and park it out on the street? The same goes for this snake. Don’t buy an emerald if you expect to place an adult in a 10 or 15 gallon tank with a screen lid and a spotlight. If you’re looking for something cool to hang around your arm and show of to your friends, get a corn snake, or a Burmese python, not an emerald. In other words, this snake is a display animal, it is not in the nature of this snake to be handled and prodded. In the wild, an emerald is only seized seconds before its skull is pierced by a hawk, falcon, cat, or even monkey. They as a rule are not handle able animals. I know that tons of you out there are getting ready to write me and tell me that I’m wrong, you’re right. The point I’m trying to make is that although there are tons of exceptions, this is an animal that best benefits from being left alone. Treat them like the gems that they are and I guarantee that you won’t be disappointed.