Hog Island Boas...tell me about'm...

[Jerhart]

Hey all,
The recent thread, about smaller boas, sparked an interest in Hog Island Boas. Can someone give me an overview on them. Are there morphs, locales....special breeding requirements? Who are some of the big Hog Island Breeders out there that I can check out? Thanks all!

[qiksilver]

typical Bci care requirements, they're 4-5 ft ish. They are a locale, there are no morphs, but it's harder to find full blooded hogs now because their pretty colors make them desirable to mix with Colombian morphs for a lighter color and many that you'll find will be hypo/hogs and normal crosses that people produce on their way to producing sunsets. Usually considered nippy, but personally I'd say no worse than a nic.

[Jerhart]

Awesome, who are some breeders I can look into?

[qiksilver]

off the top of my head, gus rentfro and paul mitchell... I think jeff ronne sold off all his hogs, but i could be making that up.

[JimiSnakes]

I got my female from Paul Mitchell and my male from Randy Wright. Both are top notch guys. Randy is old school, but his are from Sears stock. Pm me for his email or number.

Jimi

[Jerhart]

Hey Thanks guys, this is perfect. I was searching threw the sites of Paul and Gus, and it looks like the only morph out there is reduced pattern...there are hypos, but those are not pure, correct? But the reduced pattern are pure, correct? I like those reduced pattern, and then I saw a high color morph, is this pure? I would only be interested in pure animals I think.

Odd...I want a Boa now....ha!

[JimiSnakes]

Reduced pattern is a selectively bred trait...not genetic or a "morph", but cool nonetheless! Show me a pic of the "high-color". Pure is the only way to go. Check out my little write-up:
Boas

[Jerhart]

That is an interesting write up...here is a pic of the high color phase... http://www.riobravoreptiles.com/images/island_f08_f.jpg

[JimiSnakes]

Very nice...I've heard those called "Island Phase" though. Gus has some amazing boas and you can't go wrong with him at all. The Island phase or High Colors are what the Hogs look like in the wild, without selective breeding. There is an amazing write up in Vin Russo's book about Hogs and how much they've changed in captivity.

[Jerhart]

Sounds interesting, I like it!