Madagascar Tree Boa's here at Arboreals Etc...

This caresheet is for the Madagascar Tree Boa or Sanzinia. I'll cover the general husbandry that I've used and the breeding strategy employed for successful reproduction. This is not intended as the final word on care and breeding of Sanzinia.

I got my original breeding pair of Mandarin Phase Sanzinia in late 1998, a second male in late 1999 and a small female in early 2001. They were all adults or young adults so I don't have any experience raising the babies to adulthood. My 2 pair have produced 4 clutches of babies in the past 4 years. I also have a pair of Green Phase Sanzinia adults that I hope to have success with soon.

Madagascar Tree Boa is something of an odd name in that they aren't nearly as arboreal as the other arboreal boids. Emerald Tree Boas and Amazon Tree Boas are certainly more arboreal; spending most of their lives perched on branches. My MTB's seem to spend much of the time on the ground, taking advantage of climbing opportunities when they are out looking for food.

The babies climb and hang out on branches more than the adults. My adult males, who are smaller than the female, spend more time perched on shelves in the cages or climbing around. They do this much more than the females, who larger. Females can be found perched on high spots, just not as often. This leads me to conclude that the tendency to climb has a lot to do with overall size. All of my animals can span impressive distances and I'm sure they would be marvelous climbers.

The Green Phase that I have are smaller and definately spend more time climbing than the Mandarin Phase do. Especially when they are hungry. After a meal, they tend to spend time hiding to digest.

Mandarin Phase Madagascar Tree Boas are medium sized boas. They are from a small island off Madagascar called Nosy Be and the Northeastern Mainland of Madagascar. They are larger and more robust than the mainland greens. Mine range from 6 feet and about 7 lbs for the males to over 7 feet and 13-16 lbs for the females. There are reports of individual females reaching up to 30 lbs. I would guess that mine are about average size for the mandarin phase of the species.

Green Phase MTB's are found in the wetter parts of Madagascar.Greens don't get nearly as large, maybe only ½ to 1/3 the size. I must say that I have spoken to breeders who think the opposite: that Green Phase Sanzinia are larger and Mandarins are smaller. So I suppose it's possible that both are capable of achieving large size.

Green Phase Pair doing what Sanzinia do, Climb and Hide.

Large Gravid Female Mandarin Phase (Really Dark)

MTB's have an undeserved reputation for being quick to bite. Mine are all very pleasant animals. As babies they may be quick to strike while in their cages, but once hooked out and in hand, they are quite calm. All of the breeders of MTB's that I have talked to say the same thing, that MTB's are generally calm and mellow captives.

They hold on very tightly when held. This makes them easy to hold, but sometimes hard to get back into the cage. This also can lead to you thinking the animal is holding tightly on your arm and when you look away, he's stretched out and has his head and neck around your computer monitor and he's trying to pull it off the desk.

The caging requirements for MTB's can be as elaborate or spartan as you wish to make them. Give them the chance to climb and they will take advantage of the opportunity. They do not need fancy cages to do well. I have cages without any climbing available and some cages with shelves and such. All of the snakes do well.

A hide box is important and will be used daily. I usually use an 8 qt or larger opaque plastic container with either damp peat moss or just plain pine shavings. There have been times when the hide box had pine shavings and the snake would not go into it. I've replaced the pine shavings with damp peat moss and the snake uses it for a couple of months. Then it refuses to use it until I replace it with dry pine again. Whatever makes the snake happy is what you want to use.

I use shaved aspen as a substrate. Butcher paper, newspaper, paper towels, terry cloth, peat moss or whatever type of substrate you prefer is probably just fine with an MTB. As always, NEVER use cedar shavings for anything but starting a fire.

The size of the cages I use range from 4'x18”x18” for the Mandarins to 4'x3'x1' for the Greens

From the first of April until about October 31st, I just keep the cages at 65-70 at night and 75-80 in the day. The cage will get a bit warmer during the day if the female is gravid. I cover winter temperatures in the “Breeding” section.

For humidity I just keep a large water dish in the cage. It seems to be enough. I also keep a humidity box or damp hidebox in the cage. They seem to tolerate a wide range of temperatures and humidity. Babies have been kept at room temperature without any sort of external heat and they are doing fine.

In a nutshell, they don't need much heat to do well, quite unlike any other arboreal. In fact, I'm finding them to be almost as easy to keep as any snake I've had.

My experience with MTB's and their feeding habits was frustrating at first, but with a little experience and research, became quite tolerable. I was used to feeding Eastern Indigos, which are absolute eating machines. MTB's eat when they want, and that isn't often. They have slow, efficient metabolisms and they just don't need to eat a lot.

My males usually begin eating sometime around April and will eat about once a month, sometimes more, sometimes less, until about October. In October, they quit eating, especially if a female is nearby, and they have less interest in food until daytime and temperatures increase again. Males, once adults, essentially don't need more than 6-8 medium sized meals per year. If the male is looking too skinny, toss a few extra meals his way. Fat males are ugly and poor breeders.

The female's feeding behavior is different. Due to their increased size and extra needs due to reproduction, females will eat once or twice a month, year round. They will eat a little bit less in the winter, but shouldn't have any trouble digesting even in the coldest months. One of my females has even eaten when the lows dropped near 60! When a female is gravid, she loses all interest in food and will refuse all food offered until she has dropped her babies and had a post-lay shed.

They also seem a little sensitive about being held and later eating. I avoid handling them if I plan to feed them that night. They are nocturnal feeders and are normally more willing to accept prey at night than in the day. My female has eaten during the day a couple of times, but normally wont. The males never accept food for me during the day. I just feed them at night now.

Madagascar Tree Boas have a reputation of being tough to breed. I agree with this to an extent. They may not reproduce annually. They have slow metabolisms and take quite a while to build up the energy reserves they need for reproduction. I suspect that reproduction happens every 2nd or 3rd year in most cases. Large females may produce more often. I have a female that produced a clutch 2 years in a row. The first year she had a large healthy clutch, but the second year had many slugs and few babies.

You can see this happen any time of year.
They like to mate, a lot. I have seen mating every month of the year. I'm not joking when I say that as I write this, they are mating... and it's September. However, successful mating does not guarantee reproduction. It just means the snakes are having a good time. I expect that the best time to put the pair together is around November and separate them around early February. Some breeders, myself included, feel that multiple males help with reproduction.

I put the males together in the same cage with one of the females. The males will ignore her and wrestle. I pull out the “loser” and leave the “winner” (the one I want to mate with the female) in the cage with the female. I've never seen anything other than “wrestling” behavior. I keep an eye on them to make sure that they aren't actually biting each other.

Ritual combat by males

This is the hardest part. If I plan on the pair actually reproducing, in November I drop the Night Time Lows (NTL's) to around 60f. I let the temps drop that low for 2 months. During this time I let the Daytime Highs (DTH's) only get to about 70f. For about a week in late December I might let the NTL's get as low as 55f and with the DTH's no higher than 70. To bring them out of the winter months, I return the temps back to normal, except that the female's basking area temperature will be much warmer, around 90-100f. The rest of her cage will be just a little warmer than normal.

These temperatures are really low and it's hard for snake keepers to allow the temp's to drop so low because of fear of respiratory infections and such. One could always drop the temps and if the snakes appear ill affected by it, turn the heat back on.

If the female is gravid, she'll let you know. First, she'll begin to soak, probably with the start of the warm up. Females will soak for several weeks to several months. It may have something to do with temperature regulation during ovulation. I take advantage of any moment the female leaves the water during this time to replace the water with fresh water. They might even feed during the soaking period. After the soaking period, the females begin basking.

My females never basks unless gravid. They will sit under a spot lamp for hours at a time and get their body temperatures to over 100 F on the surface. Then they will go to their hidebox at night.

Gravid MTB females darken significantly, presumably to better absorb heat. They remain darker until after they drop the babies. Then after the babies are delivered, the female sheds the dark colors off. The female will drop the babies around July. Most of the breeders I contacted agreed that the birth coincided with the arrival of a large storm front. Watch for babies when a storm comes!

In this picture, you can see how much darker a female will become when gravid and basking.

Gravid females may refuse to eat during the entire gestation. This can last an incredibly long time. In 2003, one female fasted 9 months and the other female fasted 11 months! Having a snake go 8-9 months without eating can be a difficult time for the keeper. After they drop their babies and shed, they become eating machines and will probably eat everything you offer them.

The males may also refuse to eat through most of this time, especially if there is a female in the same room, but should be willing to eat once April rolls around. Mine don't seem to be ill affected by a 4-7 month fast. I normally stop feeding the males at the beginning of October and start again in April.

The babies will probably be quick to strike at first, but should calm down once in hand. They quickly lose the defensive strike behavior. Newborn MTB's will probably want medium sized fuzzy mice right away and will accept thawed prey soon. I keep my babies at room temperatures, with no extra heat. They come out at night and love to climb around. I give them rather spacious cages as hatchlings and it seems to be ok for them.

In the past few years, I've made a few mistakes with caging, temperatures, and humidity, whatever. They have always come out of it just fine. The first year I had them, I kept them more like emeralds with higher temperatures and humidity, even misting them daily. They were fine except that they didn't reproduce that year.

Another time, I put damp peat moss in the hide box of one of the male's. I didn't check into his cage for probably 3-4 weeks. When I did, I realized he was sitting in a muddy mess. I had put way too much water in the box. I checked him out and there was nothing wrong with him, even though he had sat in a puddle for almost a month.

At night, one of my males will climb onto his basking lights and unscrew them. Regardless of all the goof ups I've made, they have continued to prove they are “Cast Iron” snakes.

My semi-aquatic female eating a meal almost completely submerged

Madagascar Tree Boas are, overall, a very easy snake to keep. They tolerate handling, don't need a lot of heat, don't need a lot of feeding, don't have any unusual requirements and don't get too big. They have neat markings, come in a few colors and sizes and have the coolest looking HEAD of any boa. I think that as they become more common and cheaper, that they will be seen as a good “first boid”. Hopefully more breeders will have success with these snakes and more people will begin to be able to enjoy keeping them.

I want to thank Rene Voss, Joe Dembinski, Ken Counts, John Hollister, Terry Lilly, Stuart at www.pythons.net, Bobby Pruett, Ron Huffaker, Dr Adolf Maas DVM, Steve and Kelli Hammack and any Mad' Tree Boa breeders I may have forgotten, who have been willing to share information about care and keeping of Boa manditra.