Emerald Tree Boa Care Sheet

(Care Sheets are a rough guide to keeping snakes. For detailed information consult the relevant book from our book store)

General: Emerald Tree Boas closely resemble Green Tree Pythons. Adults grow to about 5ft and they live from 15 – 20 years. Juveniles are red or orange but, change colour to green within the first year. Emerald Tree Boas are arboreal and are rarely on the ground. They are usually quite aggressive and are not snakes for the beginner.

Enclosure: A Tall enclosure with lots of room is required, they are arboreal and need a lot of branches of various thickness as well as lots of fake leaves and plants to hide behind. They need ventilation. They require a hide box and a water bowl for soaking. Some keepers put a water bowl off the ground in the branches.

Substrate: Green Moss as well as cypress mulch, vermiculite, spaghnum or peat moss or even sterile potting soil can be used as a substrate for your Emerald Tree Boa. Some keepers use water as a substrate which they clean every two days.

Temperature: Your Emerald tree Boa needs daytime temps between 75 and 80 degrees F and a night time temperature drop to between 70 and 72 degrees. Emerald Tree Boas can be killed very easily if kept too warm. Lighting can be provided with a 15-25 watt bulb and no UV light is required.

Humidity: Humidity must be between 70 and 80% and the cage must be misted daily to keep the humidity high and to provide drinking water.

Feeding: Feed your Emerald Tree Boas a Rat or a mouse no thicker than the snakes girth once every 2 – 3 weeks. They have a slow metabolism. Make sure they defecate at least once every second feeding.

Cleaning: Clean and disinfect the enclosure thoroughly at least once a month and remove faeces as it appears.

Emerald Tree Boa By Deror Avi