What morph (if any) of boa am i dealing with?

[lightpied]

Hello all,

I had a litter of boas last year and held 1.1 of them back.

The female I held back starting turning a purple coloration with each
Shed was wondering if anyone can pinpoint which morph if anyshe is?

I've been told Nicaraguan a couple times but would like to get a couple more opinions?
I recently had another litter from the same sire and dam and held back a couple more females
who have a slight purple to them in case I am on to something new..

I can post photos of her parents later but don’t have them as I'm at work.

Thanks,

[lightpied]

no one...

[JLC]

Nicaraguan isn't a morph, it's a locale that boa constrictors have been imported from.

Without knowing more about the parentage of the boa, it's impossible to say what's going on. My first thought on seeing it is that it's a BCI x BCO hybrid, but I'm not a boa expert by any stretch of the word.

[Luciferskeeper]

I know nothing about boas to helo identify but just want to say I love the look of that girl.

[Daybreaker]

I'd like to see the parents, but my first reaction was some sort of Central American. I'll admit I've never seen a boa who has such a dramatic color/pattern change that starts abruptly at the neck.

[Evenstar]

Nicaraguan isn't a morph, it's a locale that boa constrictors have been imported from.

Without knowing more about the parentage of the boa, it's impossible to say what's going on. My first thought on seeing it is that it's a BCI x BCO hybrid, but I'm not a boa expert by any stretch of the word.

Totally agree. We can't make any kind of a guess based on one picture. Do you still have the parents? Can you post pictures of them? What is the parents' lineage?

I'd like to see the parents, but my first reaction was some sort of Central American. I'll admit I've never seen a boa who has such a dramatic color/pattern change that starts abruptly at the neck.

She does have some very interesting color changes going on. I'll agree with Judy that it appears there may be some BCO (Argentine) influence going on. But there's no way to say for sure until we can get a little more information.....


If you're going to be working with boas, you need to understand that there are "localities" and "morphs". In ball pythons, there are no various localities - every different animal you see is an example of a morph - a specific inheritable trait or combination of traits that express themselves as dominant, recessive, incomplete dominant, or co-dominant - but all the animals themselves come from one specific geographical area.

Boas, however, have a much wider range and can be found in several various geographical areas. Boas that come from one specific area, or "locality", tend to be slightly different from boas coming from another locality. While their traits which distinguish them to their locality, may be inheritable, they are not delivered in the same way. These traits will blend with those of another locality to create something in between. A boa cannot be "het" for Nicaraguan, for example. If one parent was Nicaraguan and the other was Colombian, then the resulting babies would be a 50-50 Nicaraguan x Colombian cross and not a morph.

Hope that is helpful to you!

[lightpied]

Totally agree. We can't make any kind of a guess based on one picture. Do you still have the parents? Can you post pictures of them? What is the parents' lineage?



She does have some very interesting color changes going on. I'll agree with Judy that it appears there may be some BCO (Argentine) influence going on. But there's no way to say for sure until we can get a little more information.....


If you're going to be working with boas, you need to understand that there are "localities" and "morphs". In ball pythons, there are no various localities - every different animal you see is an example of a morph - a specific inheritable trait or combination of traits that express themselves as dominant, recessive, incomplete dominant, or co-dominant - but all the animals themselves come from one specific geographical area.

Boas, however, have a much wider range and can be found in several various geographical areas. Boas that come from one specific area, or "locality", tend to be slightly different from boas coming from another locality. While their traits which distinguish them to their locality, may be inheritable, they are not delivered in the same way. These traits will blend with those of another locality to create something in between. A boa cannot be "het" for Nicaraguan, for example. If one parent was Nicaraguan and the other was Colombian, then the resulting babies would be a 50-50 Nicaraguan x Colombian cross and not a morph.

Hope that is helpful to you!

Thank you for making that clear to me, i mostly work with ball pythons. to be honest i purchased the parents about 3 years ago from a pet store. I did my research on the husbandry, and on breeding but i never did look into localities of them. Just wanted to make sure they and there offspring were healthy which i did accomplish. I can defiantly post some pics of the parents however my brother in law have the parents but i can probably find some photos of them. Ive asked other breeders and seems like no one can pinpoint the mix. Anyways thanks for the info and all the kind words!!

[BigJayPiercer]

Picture of the parents would be helpful. Really that female just looks like a baby Nicaraguan boa to me.

Sent from my LGL45C using Tapatalk 2

[lightpied]

BigJayPiercer I get Nicaraguan a lot but usually I hear it looks like it’s a mixbetween Nicaraguan and Central American. If that’s what she is any explanationas to why she’s so purple in coloration or is that a normal occurrence? Like I said I deal mostly with ball pythons and there genetics but I am now becoming quite curious into the genetics of Boas.

Any help is much appreciated guys!!

Here’s a photo of the parents there not the best because they are when I firstpurchased them. They are quite a bit bigger now.

First photo is the sire





Second is of the dam









Third is of a male holdback from last year

[lightpied]

Any more opinions ????