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I maintain a fairly large group of these animals and they are among my favourite snakes,growing to six feet on average though i have seen wc imports at up to nine feet in length,they come in every colour you can possibly imagine(within reason)they are hardy and while their requirements in captivity are slightly more complicated that say a corn snake they make a good introduction to tree boas,humidity needs to be above 60% at all times with a daily spike to 80-100% being much appreciated,however this must be combined with good ventilation which is always the key factor that people miss out on,you must experiment with your cage setups to get the right amount of ventilation,its about right if the humidity in the cages reaches 100% after a good spraying and then falls to around 60% a few hours later,a water dish on a small heatmat will then maintain this humidity,without the ventilation you will grow some interesting fungus but your tree boa will not thrive, temperature gradient of the order 78-88F by day(tune this by watching the behaviour of your animals,if they are constantly at the cold end of the cage your temp gradient is too high for that individual) with a slight drop at night will see these animals thrive on a diet of defrosted rodents,while many people recommend tall cages,in practice a long cage with a height of 18 inches or so will make it much easier to maintain the temperature gradient and provided plenty of branches for perching are provided the snakes wont mind their low-rise housing.

On the subject of perches,hortulanus dont perch on single branches like emerald tree boas,preferring to have at least three points of contact,so a tangle of branches around the thickness of the snake is required for them to feel secure,preferably arranged so that there is cover above the resting animal,in the wild their main predators are birds of prey that come from above.Dont be suprised to see these animals on the ground though and if a hide box is provided, this will usually be used in preference to perches even if the box is on the ground.

Again this species has an undeserved reputation for being savage,but this is mainly due to the snakes being perched with nowhere to go,therefore they tend to lash out in defence,when a sleeping tree boa is suprised by an unwelcome intrusion the preferred behaviour is to simply flip off the branch and fall to the ground/water below,the reason many tropical arboreal reptiles can be found perched above rivers and streams.