Pacific Boa Constrictor Snakes (Candoia bibroni bibroni)

I contributed a pile of photos to this paper, for the Fiji boas. 😀 Download pdf here... by Christopher Carille Garden of Eden Exotics & Chris Carille Photography, New York, USA REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS  • VOL15, NO 4 • June 2012 No other boas can be found within thousands of miles. They most likely had to raft across the Pacific to get to where they now reside.  Triangular-shaped viper-like heads, up-turned snouts, no heat-sensitive pits, and thick-keeled scales with flattened bodies separate them in structure. Some are semi-fossorial and some have prehensile tails. Adult sizes range from a diminutive pencil-thin 40 cm to over 2 m.  Like many other boas, they live in rainforests with dense under- growth, high humidity, and lots of rain and prey.  However, these boas thrive equally well in dry grasslands, woodlands, plantations, and around human dwellings.  The genus Candoia is like no other boid genus. They are unique in dis- tribution and appearance, but ...

 Snake Familiarization at Vet Essentials Lami Fiji - 11 January 2021 https://www.facebook.com/vetessentials.fiji/

 X-Rays of Sammael with impacted stools 2 weeks later. Seems there are still some there, although they have moved down.

 X-Rays of Sammael with impacted stools

In Fiji there's not a lot of demand for veterinary services for reptiles, but our local vets at  Vet Essentials Animal Doctors Climic in Lami have been really helpful when we have needed assistance. If you're in Fiji with an animal problem, give them a call. (tel 360 2153,  https://www.facebook.com/vetessentials.fiji/)  They don't have a specialist reptile vet, and many of them had no experience handling or treating snakes, so we took our scaly set in for a visit. Unfortunately Rifraf disgraced himself by biting the first vet to hold him, but thankfully vets are not phased by little bites, and no harm was done (except to Rifraf's reputation). Here are photos of our serene matriarch, Mazikeen, who thankfully has much better manners,  introducing the vets and vet assistants to the joys of snake handling. Introducing Mazikeen Getting confident enough for photos Sometimes it's a bit of a wrestling match Portraits with the lady of ...

  Helen Sykes in Lami on January 6, 2018 with her pet snakes. Photo: Vilimoni Vaganalau Snakes, a reptile feared by many Fijians, are being kept as pets in the homes of a small expatriate community, it has been revealed. The Fiji Sun found two of the pet snake lovers in the wake of the discovery of a large Pacific Boa Constrictor in the Lovoni forests on Ovalau a few days ago. The domesticated snakes are all Pacific Boa, a non-poisonous species that is native to Fiji. Helen Sykes, a marine ecologist originally from England who has lived in Fiji for 21 years, keeps five healthy Pacific Boa in her house in Lami, ranging from 1.5-2.5 metres long. She vouches that they are tame and safe and pose no danger to humans. Ms Sykes has lived with snakes for 30 years and says she finds them “cute and cuddly – even though they have bitten her a few times by mistake. Often, her snakes coil around her neck as she watches television or reads a book. “I don’t know what it is,” ...

So a friend had a bit a mouse issue at home so he caught them using simple mouse traps. Eight mice later over a week, stuffed into zip lock bags and frozen immediately, we have some good whole food for our snakes. Our snakes have all been eating only frozen chicken wings for about a year now, so we were ready to doa Chicken Run (get about 50 x 1 day old roosters and feed them up for 7-10 days, and mass kill and freeze..) Any way here's a good set of pics of the girls munching them down happily, no hesitation. If anything they may have been a  bit too small to 'handle' for them ;)