Basic Requirement for Boa Constrictors........
Housing
The first key to housing a boa successfully is buying or building an enclosure that is escape proof. Boas can squeeze through the smallest of gaps. To prevent this, it's wise to install a locking device on all enclosure. Many different types of materials can be used to house boas. Rubbermaids, glass aquariums, wood enclosure and professionally designed PVC enclosure can be used. Its up to the individual to decide for himself/herself. Always keep in mind which enclosure provides the most suitable housing for a boa as well as, which enclosure is easiest to maintain for the owner. At Legend boas we use PVC cages for larger animals and rubber maid bins in a "rack" style system. We find these cages provide the most suitable living environment for the animal and are very easy to maintain.
Substrate
Regarding substrate, there again is much variety. The most widely used in the pet hobby is newspaper. Newspaper is readily available. cost effective and easy to replace when soiled. However it is also unsightly looking against a beautiful and bright coloured boa! There are other options like unprinted newstock, shredded aspen, paper towel, etc... We find that paper towel works best for our baby boas. Once they reach a certain age, we switch over to aspen. This cuts down on the cleaning of a large collection of boas. Spot cleaning becomes routine instead of having to clean out the cage completely when using newspaper. Aspen does mold easily however, so one must take precaution in this regard.
Heating
The most important thing to remember when it comes to heating is THERMO REGULATION! In order to provide this, you need to create a comfortable background temperature and to provide a "hot spot" in the snakes enclosure. This will ensure that the animal can maintain it's desired body temperature. Boas require an ambient (back ground) temperature of 80-85 degrees. Their hot spot should be between 90-95 degrees
Feeding
When it comes to feeding, their is much debate on the time periods between meals. You should adjust your boas feeding schedule according to its growth rate, size and overall condition of the animal. We feed our babies a small pinky or fuzzy rat every 7 days. Our adult males get an appropriate size meal every 14-21 days. We like to keep our males smaller, as we find they make more aggressive breeders at a smaller size. Our adult females get an appropriate size rat or rabbit every 14 days. As breeding season approaches we feed every 7 days to allow the females to "plump" up for breeding.
Included in feeding is water availability. Boas should always have fresh water available throughout the entire year. A large sturdy water bowl also allows the boa to soak during a shed cycle. As well it increases the relative humidity in the enclosure.