New snake owner. Advice???

[tylervelez]

I have recently gotten 2 red tail boas. A male and female. Sunglow and Ghost, respectively. I have done a lot of research on the internet, but was wondering from some people with experience if there is anything else I should know.

When they are of size, I plan to breed them. Any advice on this would be great, such as when to start housing them together.

Another thing, My female is a great eater, but my male has not eaten, although i have only had him a week. Is that just stress from a new home?

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[Evenstar]

First off, yes, your male has likely not eaten because he is stressing from being in a new home. Boas are generally garbage disposals so give him some privacy, leave him alone (no handling), and wait another week before you try feeding him again.

Secondly, you should NEVER house them together. For breeding, you would pair them for a few days at a time so they have the opportunity to lock, then separate them. But as far as housing, they should have their own separate permanent enclosures.

Third, unless the male is het for anery or the female is het albino, by pairing these two, you won't get anything other than a litter full of hypos dh albino anery. Those are pretty common and might be hard to sell.

Boas can have up to 30-40 babies in one litter!! Are you prepared to keep that many babies for as long as it takes to sell them??

If these are your first snakes, I STRONGLY suggest you do a LOT more research and talk to as many long-term breeders as you can. Go to shows/expos and meet people in the hobby and find someone you can trust to mentor you. BE PATIENT and don't rush into breeding. Boas can have a higher risk for complications related to the pregnancy because of the nature of having live births. It is not something to be entered into lightly.

And I caution you - the boa community is very welcoming, BUT it is a close-knit community. If you go about breeding the wrong way, do it randomly or irresponsibly, no one will buy the babies. Just giving you fair warning up front. Our concerns are for the safety and well-being of the snakes. We also do like to mentor new people - but do it the right way and ask for help and be patient about it.

** They are very nice - I like the female ghost in particular. She is awesome.

[tylervelez]

ok that sounds good. I have like 4 years or so to learn before they are ready to breed. I do house them separately. He still seems very she when i hold him. I have only had the ghost for about a month and a half and shes fine, even though i switched cages like a a few weeks ago with her. I am very exciting and just wanted some general info. I know i am not ready to breed but i just want to raise them right from the start and thats why i joined this site for great information

[Evenstar]

And we are glad you've joined! Please ask away with any other questions you might have!

And, yes, if the male is shy, then stop holding him and leave him alone to settle in. Once he's eaten 2-3 times for you, you can start holding him. Give him a chance to settle first though.

[Physician&Snakes]

My adult male was always a bit timid with feeding...still is a bit, just not a big appetite on him. My female is the complete opposite. Evenstar brings up a good point...I cared for about a 30 specimen breeding colony at the exotic pet store I worked at and throughout the years it got a little bit harder and harder to sell even morphs of BCI, the market can be good if you produce quality and can stand by your animals, but, based on my experience as a store employee, the boa constrictor market may not be the best place to start if you're a new breeder. Like you said, you have a good 3-4 years before it's that time so why not grab a nice proven pair of kingsnakes or BPs, something that will not be too clutch/litter heavy and will give you a good learning curve as far as breeding and selling goes. Good luck, despite their declining market value, I have to say my pair of BCIs are one of my favorite parts of my small collection.

[tylervelez]

ok well whats an affordable snake to start breeding. Keep in mind I only have one 3x2 cages for now so what all set up would i need for other snakes?

Also, whats a good feeding schedule based on age, and also when should we switch them to rats from mice?

[Physician&Snakes]

Every boa in my care has gone straight to rats soon after birth. As far as frequency and size of prey, it is debatable, what I did was allow the specimen to decide, my male was not big on feeding so he grew a bit slower and only ate about every 10 days or so on average. He is now a well proportioned 6ft animal. My female was my little garbage disposal and thus skyrocketed in growth, sometimes feeding every 6 day. She is a beautiful 8ft with fine muscle tone and a nice "square" shape, as you will hear some refer to it. The goal is to produce a nice well balanced physique that reflects a well fed but at the same time fit animal.

[ViperSRT3g]

Daaaaaaaw, I'm not a huge fan of boas, but the one on the right of OP's post is adorable.

[Evenstar]

The problem with your two is that we don't know if they are het for the recessive gene that the other is expressing. "Het" means heterozygous. Both albinism and anerythrism are simple recessive so a snake must carry 2 copies of the gene in order to express the trait. Hypomelanism is co-dominant so the snake need only carry 1 copy to express the trait.

Your sunglow is a hypo x albino. The ghost is a hypo x anery. The sunglow has to be het anery and the ghost needs to het albino in order to combine all the genes at work here.

For future projects, IF these two snakes are NOT het for albino and/or anery, then I would suggest picking up a nice female arabesque or jungle that is 100% het for albino to pair with your sunglow. You will get some outstanding babies from that pairing.

For the ghost, I would get a nice male jungle that is het anery. In my humble opinion, you can't have too many jungles. And anery and ghost jungles are hard to come by.


As far as feeding, boas do best on smaller, less frequent prey. I keep all my babies on mice until they are up to large adults. Only then do I switch to rats. Rats are much higher in fat than mice and can cause a baby boa to grow too quickly and can sometimes cause other issues.

One a week is good for baby boas. Babies should be on a 7-10 day schedule (no more frequent than that!) and can go to a 10-14 day schedule after a year of age or so.

[tylervelez]

Ok thanks. I have these to work with and am going to breed those. So what do you recommend to pair with my male sunglow? and what type of babies would they have. Also, how long should you let your boa settle into his new home before you handle him or feed him? Also, what would i get from a sunglow breeded with hypo?