Progression of Muriel the Albino Paradox

[Fincayra]

This is an active progression thread for Muriel, a female Paradox Albino 100% het for Anery, born 3/4/15. It will undoubtedly be image heavy, as I am a photographer and I find myself suddenly in possession of a very photogenic snake- dial-up users beware.

The 28th of March - last Saturday - was Repticon Denver. I've owned a ball python for a year now but I'd still never been to a reptile show before, so then you can imagine my excitement when my roommate and I were finally able to go to one. I dragged my roommate along for hours, snapping pictures, researching snake species, ogling all the pretty morphs. I wanted to bring another snake home but all of a sudden I was unsure of what kind of snake- I had been certain up until that point that I would only be keeping ball pythons. They were easy to take care of, didn't get too large, and they were available in many attractive colors and patterns. I considered king snakes, Brazilian rainbow boas, woma pythons, corn snakes, another ball python. As I was perusing all my options I'd frequently wander by the couple of booths showing off a number of juvenile boa constrictors. I have always adored the triangular shape of their head and their amazingly beautiful eyes. But I was discouraged by how big the adults were- according to my research, they can grow to be 10'. But this was before I knew the difference between boa constrictor constrictor and boa constrictor imperator, tehehe. So, with the image of a monstrous snake in my head, I reluctantly decided not to consider getting a boa even though I really liked them.

Roughly four hours later, we're still at the show and I still haven't decided on my new snake. I came close to getting an ivory pastel ball python, but someone beat me to him while I was still being indecisive. We finally decided to call it a day but not before making one more pass at all the booths. Twisted Genetics had a stunning collection of young boas and by this time, I was so discouraged and hoped that maybe I had been wrong about their size. Turns out I was! The breeder kindly explained to me the difference between BCC and BCI and then he showed me his row of three-year-old's. They weren't even four feet long! It felt like Christmas, I was so excited. I examined them all- the anerys, the sunglows, the jungles. There were four paradox morphs that I was really in love with- sadly, three were hold backs. But there was one little albino paradox female I couldn't keep my eyes off of. She was a few hundred dollars outside of my price range, but then the breeder said he'd give me a discount. That's when I knew I had to have her.



It was a long drive home, but she rode comfortably in my roommate's front pocket. I wanted to name her Muriel- it was almost as if she had told me what her name was, it came to mind so suddenly and seemed to fit her so well. I did a lot of research that night after I had settled her into her 10 gallon aquarium. She was exploring her surroundings the next day, and because she seemed so adventurous and calm, I broke the new snake rules and took her out for a couple pictures.




She is currently in a 10 gallon aquarium with aspen bedding, a small hide, a couple of climbing plants, and a water dish. Her temperatures are fair- 83° ambient, 92° hotspot. I am having quite a bit of trouble keeping the humidity up but that's to be expected with a glass cage in a very dry state. Because of how much I've been battling with temperature and humidity levels, I've ordered a PVC cage from Animal Plastics. It's the T8 4'x2'x'1 so I plan on dividing it so I can fit both her and my ball python in it together. Eagerly awaiting its arrival.

Thanks for reading! I'll be sure to update on a regular basis.

[Sauzo]

Grats. That is a really young boa. I usually don't see em go for sale until about 6 months old or at least the first couple sheds and 4 or 5 meals. Also not sure if the breeder told you but a female BCI will get to around 7-8' on average but it is possible for her to get to 10' although not probable. Regardless though, BCI are generally really laid back so more than likely, she will turn into a 8' puppy Boas got the cutest little faces too And waiting for a new cage is the longest wait except when you are waiting for a snake to ship lol.

Oh also if you are having trouble with humidity, you can just put a humid hide in there made from a Tupperware container with moist moss in it. Works just as well and should do fine until you see the AP cage in about 3 months

[Fincayra]

I know, I was a little shocked myself when he handed me a genetics guarantee card with her birth date on it. Not even a month old! I learned later that females can get to be 8', give or take, but I knew that females would be the bigger ones because that's usually the case with other species. He actually sexed her right in front of me because he hadn't done it yet, and by then I'd already fallen in love. There was no hope for me- I was getting a female!

Thank you, I think I'll try that. (: I want her to be as comfortable as possible during the wait.

[Reinz]

Congrats on your beautiful little girl! I liked the back story too.

[Sauzo]

You'll be fine. All my stuff are females and Rosey my 6' BCI is like a giant puppy dog. Just today she finally came out of her hide after going into blue and she is out of her cranky mode and sat at the front of the cage till I opened the door. Then she popped her head out to say "Hi" and let me pet her head and body. Then she lounged at the doorway for about an hour and then back under her RHP and curled up to finish her shedding. They truly are like giant puppy dogs.

[CloudtheBoa]

Both males and females can get as large as 9'-10', there's often threads started to show of large snakes in the boa constrictor FB group I'm a part of and those threads are surprisingly dominated by BCI. That's just how large they can get, though, not how large your baby will get. I see so many males just as large or larger than a female that I don't normally recommend male vs. female anymore, there may be a general pattern of females being larger but it seems getting a big male is still a high enough probability that I personally just recommend staying away from Colombians if the size is an issue.

As far as humidity, you can always put a humid hide in there to help her out, but you still have to have the rest of the enclosure within the acceptable range for her species. I'd suggest switching to EcoEarth tbh, it does wonders for humidity in a set up that allows the bedding to release moisture. In my personal experience, it doesn't do well in a UTH/heat tape set up, so if that's what you use you may want to try cypress mulch or sphagnum moss instead.

I would not allow the ball python and the boa to share an enclosure, even with a divider until her quarantine is over (3 months minimum, I prefer 6 months myself). Diseases and parasites can easily get around that wall and cause your ball python to become sick.

That all said, very nice BCI! Do you have any photos demonstrating her paradox? It's hard to see any in those photos.

[Sauzo]

Her species is just a BCI and honestly I would be floored if I ever saw a 9-10' male BCI. That thing must have been powerfed from birth to achieve that length. Now a BCC can achieve that but even males, I would be surprised to see over 8' on a male BCC like a Suri or Peruvian. males do stay quite a bit smaller and they biggest thing is they stay much thinner assuming you aren't powerfeeding them. And again yes any BCC or BCI is going to get kind of big but again, a male BCI, I would be surprised if it got over 8', very surprised. Now insular boas like caulker or crawls or hogs will stay smaller if that's what you want.

As for humidity, she will be fine for a couple months as she said she ordered an AP cage and any PVC/HDPE cage is going to hold humidity easy. My Pro-Line that I got my 6' girl in keeps at 50%+ humidity and even tanks can be made easy. Both of my 40 gallon breeders hold 50% and I use aspen in all my cages with nothing but RHPs for PVC cages and CHEs for tanks. People say you NEED 70%+ during shedding and I call BS because I have kept 50-60% humidity for 2 years on my 6' girl and she has never had a shed that didn't come off in 2 pieces at worst, 95% of them are 1 pieces rolled up like a sock. And again i'll say it and it will probably piss off someone but I find UTHs a waste. I have used then once for a few months and dumped it. All I run are ambient heating and its fine.

And I do agree, I wouldn't house your boa and BP in the same enclosure as boas can be carriers of IBD and not affected by it but IBD in a python is quick and 100% lethal. I read about people checking for IBD in boas by throwing a normal BP(because they were cheap) in a critter cage and then putting it in the boa cage and if the python got IBD and died, they knew the boa was a carrier and would keep it out of their collection.

[CloudtheBoa]

Power feeding does not affect the end size, only the speed with which they reach that size. They got that big because they were meant to. Many of them were over 10 years old, which power feeding usually cuts their lifespan off much sooner than that, and most looked in good health and body tone. You also have to keep in mind BCI are commonly crossed with BCC, and it's not well documented so you could have a cross and not even know it.

A couple of months is too long to be going bone dry, EcoEarth is much cheaper than aspen pound for pound, so it's also more economical.

But I agree with your stances on UTHs, I personally am not a huge fan of pure belly heat, I believe all but burrowing species require ambient heat.


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[Sauzo]

Well I agree that most powerfed snakes don't make it past 5 years or so but snakes never stop growing, its just during the first 3-4 years that they do most of their growing and that is why if you feed them very generously during that time, they will grow bigger if that makes sense. For example, you got a baby boa and you feed it every 10-14 days for 4 years. Then you got a baby that you feed every 7 days. That second baby will achieve a much bigger size than the conservatively fed one. That is partly how people can keep their boas on the smaller size and how people do it with retics too. Now yes genetics will play into it as well but that is end size. So like I said, the second boa will be probably 4'or so by the end of the first year and the first one will be 2.5-3'. And I also agree that most BCI are crosses somewhere and that goes back to the genetics end of the equation but again that is only part of it. Food is the other part. A good example is dwarf and SD retics. They are much smaller than their mainland cousins because of the food supply that was available. Mainlands got big because they had lots of food while the island guys didn't.

As for bone dry, that's why you run a humid hide. The boa can regulate the humidity it needs and no house is going to be bone dry anyways. I'd guess most peoples houses sit in the 30-40% range so uping it by 10-20% isn't really too hard. Maybe where you come from Eco Earth is cheaper but here in Washington State, aspen is pretty cheap. I buy it from Walmart for a smidge over $3 for 20 quarts. Aspen is much easier for me as I do complete cage cleanings monthly so its much easier to scoop up aspen, throw in bags and then vacuum the cages, spray em all down with Chlorhexidine, wipe em out and throw new aspen back in. I used Eco Earth for a year and I hated that stuff. It got all over everything, got dusty if it dried out and with using 2" of it, my big girl would pack it down from her weight which I'm assuming is the reason it molded on me. I had to throw out all the Eco Earth, all the wood she used to climb on as that molded where it touched the Eco Earth and tear down the Pro-line cage and completely scrub each piece and then put it all back together. That's when I switched to aspen and didn't look back. Now aspen will mold too if it gets wet but I use large heavy water bowls that even my big girl cant tip over.

[CloudtheBoa]

I am not sold on them growing their entire lives, there is no proof. As much as personal experience is worth, my bp will be 9 years old in September. He reached 3'7" when he was 2-3 years old iirc. He hasn't grown even a millimeter in that time. Also, boa constrictors have noticeable growth for the first 5-6 years of their life, they are extremely slow growers.

Your retic example is more evolution to combat the lack of food rather than the lack of food itself making them smaller. A snake conservatively fed will reach the size it was meant to, just as a more generously fed one will. To further complicate matters, individuals grow at their own rates and may still grow fast despite a conservative schedule.

The 8.8 L of aspen I bought for my garter was about $4-5 iirc (I'd have to double check). I can buy a set of 3 blocks of EcoEarth for $7. That's 21-24 L of substrate. Hence why pound for pound it's cheaper. Of course I'm buying all my bedding from pet stores, which may explain it. I can't find aspen in 20 qts in any pet store where I live.

I've had the exact opposite experience with EE. The only enclosure it molded in was the BRBs, where I used belly heat. I have had wood mold touching it if it lays on top, but haven't had mold if I had a branch buried in it. I guess being on top of it more humidity was held. In my set ups, humidity is released easily so I don't really encounter mold.

As far as cleaning, use a dust pan to scoop up bedding in the enclosures I can't lift and then vacuum up the rest. Otherwise I just dump it and spray out the bedding before cleaning. I don't really have a problem with it sticking to stuff or getting everywhere either.

The humid hide doesn't negate the need for RH. It should still be kept within the range (50-70%) so that the snake can still have adequate humidity even outside the hide. Inhalation of water particles is important for internal hydration, and promotes better skin health.


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