Boas, Arboreal or terrestrial?

So I have a Red Tail Boa baby and an adult Argentine boa, and have read a ton up on Boas in general.  Everything I have read say that as babies, boas enjoy being Arboreal but as adults stay terrestrial.  

My Baby Red tail is in a vivarium that has a perch and if he is not hiding in his hide, he is on the branch.  Now my adult Argentine Boa, he is roughly 7.5 feet long, has always been in a purely Terrestrial enclosure, never a branch or perch for him.  I recently acquired a 90 gallon tank and set it up for him.  When I set it up I built up a Branch that is roughly 14 inches off the bottom of the tank and runs the length of it.

He has been in this tank for a bit over a week and has never climbed on or rested on the branch until today.  Today he was exploring and "found" the branch.  Since finding it he has never had more then half his body off of it ad has spent the majority of the day completely on it.

Now, From the research I have done Adults shy away from being arboreal.  Now Obviously this is only day 1 of him finding and using the branch, but it started me thinking, How many Boas keepers keep Large adult boas, and those that do, do you keep them purely Terrestrial or do you offer them branches or a perch as well, and if you do, do your adults use the branches and perches?

Basically this all thrives from my thirst for knowledge as well as my fascination with arboreal snakes.

Please comment any thoughts and feel free to add pictures as well...

When he was first put in the new enclosure...


Today...

Well thr way I look at it, if you think of the wild, snakes climb on a variety of plants. It wouldn't ever be surprising to see a snake just a foot or less off the ground on a stick. I thibk that's still considrred terrestrial. Whereas a snake that was found 50ft or even higher up in a tree would be considered aboreal.

Anither example would be leopard geckos. They don't have sticky feet so obviously they can't scale up frees as well as say crested geckos. However, if you put preches and such in their tanks they'll find a way up there and enjoy it! I've put a lot of thought into this as well haha. This is just my opinion.

Not sure if it's a good example as my Brazilian Rainbow Boa is considered terrestrial, yet when I had her outside last summer for some natural light pictures she was quite adept at climbing a small pear tree in the front yard, and in fact would have quickly gotten out of reach had I not snagged her...

Have you tried giving her a branch to have in her enclosure or do you keep her in a tub? My BRB spends 95% of her day in her hide lol...

And sbouldin, I don't know... I think it would be odd to see most snakes even a foot or two off the ground, in my experience with wild snakes most are on the ground or under something, I personally have never cam accross one on a low branch or really on top of anything unless they are moving from one place to another and with that most of the time it was on top of brush or garbage or stuff like that. I think I would be surprised to see a snake just chilling on a branch, whether it was 1-2 ft off the ground or 20+ off the ground, you know what I mean. Granted my experience is only with native snakes of the state's I have lived in or visited so I don't have a huge experience with a lot of wild snakes...

I've seen countless boa enclosures that were set up for them to climb, and perch given the chance every single one did at some point.

Boas are semi-arboreal imo.

TheRealYoda34 wrote:

Have you tried giving her a branch to have in her enclosure or do you keep her in a tub? My BRB spends 95% of her day in her hide lol...

So do mine. I have a breeding pair currently rocking one of the 96"x30" monster enclosures I picked up from CP3_Pythons a few months back. Though I did put in a small PVC "jungle gym" on the male's side, and he does use it.

Quote :

And sbouldin, I don't know... I think it would be odd to see most snakes even a foot or two off the ground, in my experience with wild snakes most are on the ground or under something, I personally have never cam accross one on a low branch or really on top of anything unless they are moving from one place to another and with that most of the time it was on top of brush or garbage or stuff like that.  I think I would be surprised to see a snake just chilling on a branch, whether it was 1-2 ft off the ground or 20+ off the ground, you know what I mean.  Granted my experience is only with native snakes of the state's I have lived in or visited so I don't have a huge experience with a lot of wild snakes...

A few years back the hubby was on our tractor mowing the grass along one fence line, leaned to the left to avoid a tree limb about 6' off the ground, didn't quite make it, and a black rat snake fell in his lap when he hit the limb with his chest. I don't know who was more surprised, him or the snake, but he jumped off that tractor PDQ!

That's awesome, I have never experienced snakes in trees or on branches, I think I need to start keeping a better eye out then... As for the BRB, I may have to give mine some stuff to "play" on and see how she likes it... Hmmm ideas ideas...