Aggression in Dumerili boas..

Aggression in Dumerili boas. I have mentioned a little on this in the Breeding section. However I believe I should cover a little more.

 Dumerili Boas are (in my opinion) one of the most docile boa species I have ever kept, the only time I ever witnessed any form of aggression was from males during breeding and the first 24 hours of a baby hatching. Other than that if you was to have one as a pet/companion animal, they would (in my opinion) be one of a few perfect species to keep. 

 Trying to find information on the Dumerili Boa constrictors is very scarce, and the little info you do find is generally copied from the same sources I read in a few places that they can be Ophiophagus (Eat other snakes). I found this hard to believe until recently.

 This is what has happened, I recently took back four of my 2010 offspring (this is being written in 2012) without going in to too much detail as to why I have taken them back, they were, and still are, in perfect health, all eating very well, sloughing perfectly and excreting as they should.

 After a period of quarantine, I introduced them to a vivarium with another, but slightly older female, She is a little over half the size again of the four youngsters, so the size difference isn’t that much of an issue. Bearing in mind they are all fed well, and do not have the scent of their prey on them, after about four weeks being together (all fed one week previous) the older female attacked and coiled one of the 2010 young.

I prefer to use the term “Defensive” rather than “Aggressive” for an animal that has the tendency to be, let’s say, “a little nippy” However this was not the case in this situation, it was pure and simple aggression, she wanted to kill this other snake and was not going to let go. They were being kept in a large 6’x2’x2’ Vivarium, plenty of space for them with many hides and a few water bowls.

 Now obviously I separated them, and didn’t let her kill the youngster. After checking them both for injuries, none was apparent, I washed them both down with a weak mix of F10 (a superb detergent that has many safe uses with reptiles) to make sure it wasn’t a scent that provoked the attack.

 After a few hours, I put them both back in to the large vivarium (the others still in there) this older female made a bee line directly for this youngster and instantly went for the Kill again.

 This older female is now alone and possibly gravid (I will know in a few months or so), but what I cannot make out, is why this individual snake? And after being together for around four weeks with no problems. I sexed all four youngsters again I had one male and three females, the victim of the attack was a female, so what is different from her to the other 2 females? If it was the young male that was attacked then I would have put it down to her being none responsive to breeding.

 The other strange thing is that the older female has been kept with other Dumerili for many years with no problems at all, no aggression in the slightest. This is a bit of a mystery to me; however it has changed my view on my husbandry techniques a little.

 I have still never had any “defensive” or “Aggressive” behaviour towards myself or any other human that has come in contact with my Dumerili. So I still stand by my original post that they are super docile, but I’ll just alter it slightly to “Super docile to their keepers”.