Halmahera Ground Boas

[toddnbecka]

Anyone have any experience with these or other Candoia species? Looking to get a pair soon, weather for shipping permitting. The care sheets I've seen indicate very warm and high hunmidity, so I'm thinking plastic tubs with cypress mulch would be suitable housing.

[bigsnakegirl785]

Despite what I've been told, I've found cypress doesn't really hold much humidity, and dries out rather quickly. I'd suggest EcoEarth, maybe a mix of some sort, sphagnum moss is also good. I don't have experience with the species, though.

[Snakesitter]

Sphagnum moss is excellent. I use it with my Brazilians, which require high humidity. It both holds moisture and resist molding. Eco earth, coco husk, and orchid bark are also good options.

[toddnbecka]

General care seems to be ambient temp in the 80's with up to 90 for basking, 70% or more humidity. Shouldn't be too difficult to maintain that in plastic tubs.

[toddnbecka]

I received the pair back in July, just finally got a couple pics of the wee beasties. The seller didn't know whether they were WC or CB, had picked them up at a Repticon show, and was downsizing her collection. After finding them to be very mellow, sort of like ball pythons in the regard that they barely react or move when picked up and handled, and eat mice rather than lizards or scented mice I suspect they were CB. From what I've seen since then a single WC import is typically priced at just a little less than I paid for the pair shipped, so I can't complain about any part of the deal, lol. They settled in quickly enough, and despite their generally inactive nature do strike quickly when presented with a suitable sized mouse.
When I took the camera down for pics earlier I found the male on his shelf. He seems to prefer the high side over the warmer end, though he does favor the ceramic cave on the bottom after he eats:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/toddnbecka/Snakes/P1070080_zpsvuqfkjy6.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/toddnbecka/media/Snakes/P1070080_zpsvuqfkjy6.jpg.html)

Lighting is odd, the camera flash shows his brown as almost pink, where the fluorescent lights don't. To the eye he looks a bit darker overall, like the female. The white spots are actually correct, they both have white scales peppered among the darker ones:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/toddnbecka/Snakes/P1070083_zps73eypuqx.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/toddnbecka/media/Snakes/P1070083_zps73eypuqx.jpg.html)

While the male was hanging out on his shelf the female was curled up in her cave. Several hours later I found her (and a fresh load of poop) in her water bowl. She spends quite a bit more time soaking than the male in general, never saw her out of the water bowl for the first few weeks after arrival.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/toddnbecka/Snakes/P1070084_zpskxxivm5b.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/toddnbecka/media/Snakes/P1070084_zpskxxivm5b.jpg.html)

I placed her on the shelf while I cleaned and refilled the water bowl, took another pic, then placed her back into her bath. She prefers the cooler side of the tub in general.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/toddnbecka/Snakes/P1070087_zpswmg0ktcs.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/toddnbecka/media/Snakes/P1070087_zpswmg0ktcs.jpg.html)

[dannybgoode]

Wow neat snakes. Love some of the more unusual boa species...

[Tsubaki]

Those are very cool! Never see any Candoia species here, how large are they?

[toddnbecka]

No real idea of length, haven't seen either one stretched out along the side of a tub to get a good estimate. I'd say the rock the male is curled up beside is likely about the same size as your fist, assuming it's smaller than mine, lol. The black water bowl is 6"/15cm diameter. They're not fully grown adults yet, female will reach about 3', male a little over half that length. The female will take an adult mouse, male smaller size, and as you can see a fair bit of that adult mouse becomes waste. Just about to start a thread on that subject anyway.