🐍 EASY DIY Boa Enclosure from China cabinet 

Can you do some videos on your monitors. I’m huge fan of niles and wish I still had my Nile monitors I truly miss them back in 2006 NY changed there laws and had to give my monitors and rock pythons to friends out of state

@pumpkin&chow I definitely plan to get more out on the nile and the b&w tegu when she wakes up in a couple months. When summer gets here and I can start taking them all outdoors again I'll have a lot of that content as well. For now since his behavior is still a bit erratic I just get bits and pieces of video of him slipped into other videos, lol.

🙋‍♂️I see you watch him as well 🙌 I also enjoy watching his videos this guy definitely has tons of knowledge and seems down to earth 🤘🏻

@@pumpkinchow yeah he’s my style seems like we have similar taste!

Thank you!

Thank you!

Ya will have to drop some pics on the FB page!

Awesome, welcome aboard!

Thank you!

Thank you! That was a really easy build and so much better for the boa. Since the entire inside is finished would I didn't really have to do anything to it

This nile is just fanatical about food, that's our biggest challenge with him. I make a concerted effort of not overfeeding just to keep him calm because it's just not healthy but the trade off is that he ALWAYS wants to eat, lol...sometimes he still thinks I'm on the menu!

It's super easy to clean, except they never want to leave the poop soup! Lol

Thanks! It was a fun build...and I'm actually outdoors with the boa that lives in there now :-) UV is one of those things that can't hurt but it also isn't necessary for enclosures for snakes. That being said, I make a point of getting mine outdoors in actual sunlight and fresh air regularly as weather permits because it's just great for them all the way around. I suppose someone could make an argument for UV in enclosures but the proof is in the results and snakes will thrive their entire lives without UV in their enclosures.

Yes Niles is a trip, he has a monopoly on personality these days, lol. And best first snake is a tough question really. There are snakes so simple and harmless that they don't require any real handling so ya really don't learn any handling skills. If handling is the goal I think young burmese, dwarf retics and boas can all be good first snakes because you can learn and practice actual handling techniques. Even though butms get so big their disposition offsets the size really often. I may actually put out a video on this topic because I have a different take on first snakes that I haven't heard anyone go in to yet.

@@IntrepidExotics Yes, handling is absolutely the goal. I would love to hear more, as it sounds like your thoughts do differ, but are undeniably valuable. Thank you Sir! 🐍🤓💚

I know there's people that use heat pads but I prefer radiant heat panels for all my big snakes, that way if there's a failure of something they aren't laying directly on it, ya will see some snakes literally cook themselves

@@IntrepidExotics thank you I appreciate it

Think you're right, he wanted to mate with my shirt 🤣🤣🤣

Awesome, tegus are great to keep! My female is brumating now so it's a shame I can't interact with her for a couple more months, but I do need to put out a video of her soon!

Hello! I never move any of my animals to feed, particularly snakes because I don't like interrupting their food response to handle or handling them right after a meal. Always discourage moving to feed.

I tend to reduce the ventilation on them, typically the space between the sliding doors provide enough air, especially with frequently opening the enclosure to clean and interact. I use paper bedding for em and one thing I will do to keep humidity up is to just open an entire saturated newspaper and put it under the radiant heat panel, that help

@@IntrepidExotics when you have an enclosure such as this one, do you worry about humidity in just in the area under the heat lamp or the entire enclosure?

@@summerjustice61210 humidity disperses unless you're talking about humid hides, ect. Plus I hive them a water receptacle large enough for the to get into :-)

really depends on his size...the larger they are the less they tend to use the extra stuff in the enclosure

@IntrepidExotics he is 6 1/2 ish ft.. 2yr old..

Did * sorry

Here's the link where I order mine from, they can suggest which size for your enclosure. www.reptilebasics.com/rbi-radiant-heat-panels

A lot of truth to that, definitely a goal of mine to upgrade my retics to semi-arboreal enclosures, my young female specifically is always all over the place and I need to take her out often...such a high energy level

@@IntrepidExotics and then there’s just the individual’s personality! My ball python likes to climb and explore at night while other bp’s really do just like to hang out in their hides. It’s nice to hear someone discuss the various ways to approach enclosure size- not so rigid and absolute! Thanks! Well done video! 🤓

@Stacey Weatherby thank you, I really appreciate the feedback. I work to stay as humble and openminded as I can on topics while emphasizing key-common facts, just really important to me that any interaction I start are all positive and constructive without any of the angst we see so much on social media.

All depends on the enclosure setup, some will work better than others

I've never gotten mites from taking them outdoors, actually the only time I've had to deal with them was several years ago when I brought a new snake home that had them but he was quarantined and treated, never saw them again or on any of my other snakes. A couple reasons I don't deal with mites is that I rarely add more animals, rarely hit reptile expos and rarely in pet stores, pretty much any of the activities that are high risk for picking up mites. I've heard they can be contracted from outdoors but I would bet they come from a different source.

@@IntrepidExotics I've never done any of that either. Maybe it's my location. Where I live in KY, ticks, chiggers, fleas, mosquitoes are extremely bad. So I'm sure mites are too.

I adopted min about a year ago and he was in pretty rough shape, that was the age they said he was but that's kinda like the telephone game...goes through a few owners and the chance that it's right goes way down.

@@IntrepidExotics got ya. Well he looked good and healthy in this video but dang he’s a big dude!

@Treasure State Tarantulas he is one of the biggest babies I have, I honestly think he knows he would be dead now had I not taken him in and nursed him back to health because he's the closest I've seen to an "affectionate" snake :-)

@@IntrepidExotics cool man. I have a miniature replica of your guy and hopefully mine shares those same qualities… I also hope he gets as big too!

Thanks! Anytime we talk about feeding issues there's always the same questions to be asked; checking the habitat, parameters, ect. How often are ya offering food? Is it a relatively large or small meal for him? I have one ball python that will snub her nose at anything she doesn't deem large enough. Of course too large of a meal can get ignored too. Sometimes just leaving the prey item in there works, sometimes they ignore it entirely. Just so many variables to feeding that sometimes all we can do is spread out feeding schedules and monitor their weight. Every species of snake I have has had weird feeding situations before and they all have naturally come around. I would say just stick with offering once a week but be ready for a refusal and if he hasn't taken it down in an hour or so just give that prey item to another snake so as to not waste feeders and try again the following week just keeping an eye on weight and watching for any signs of illness that could impact his appetite.

@@IntrepidExotics I feed once a week. The mouse is smaller than the girth of the snake, so should be on the smaller side. Temp should be ok (27c ambient and 32c hot spot). You mentioned having to force feed your female burmese, was it a similar issue?

@@Sam-kb1lt It sounds like I would probably just keep trying weekly and see how it goes, could be any number of things and I probably wouldn't really worry on a younger snake until you start getting over 4 wks without eating...that's a bit much for a young snake as they typically eat more than older ones. When I was feeding my hatchling she was simply refusing to eat in any way, I got her before her first meal and first shed...took her 2 months before she would even open her own mouth, she never willingly opened for food or to strike, ever. Eventually she figured it out and has been a chowhound ever since.

@@IntrepidExotics Thank you for your advice. A follow up question: when you touch the side of your burm, are you supposed to feel its ribs? Cuz this is my first burm, I am not quite sure how it should look or feel normally, and when I handled my retic and boa, I felt their solid body mass, no bones. But when I handled my burm, pretty much all I felt was bones (like I can feel its individual rib bones). Is this normal? Or was he severely underfed?

Burms are pretty heavy bodied when at a healthy weight and ya don't really notice ribs unless you're really feeling for them typically. May want to send a pic to the intrepid facebook page in a dm and I can tell ya what I think, of course it's tough to say sight unseen.

Just a BCI

I'm not 100% sure since he was taken in from someone who took him in from someone that took him in, but he's believed to be about 5yrs old.

don't think so, lol