What RTB should I choose?

I've been thinking for a while about an RTB and wonder if I could get any recommendations from you guys as I want to do this right. Currently my largest snake is a year old BP who is sweet and loves handling - but of course not as big as an RTB - nor will she ever be so.

Originally I thought I would really like a Suriname (true RTB - beautiful tail etc) but it seems they grow really big (10ft) and need two people really to handle them so I'm not sure now if I'd be OK with it (I'm a short female ;) )

I will keep whatever I decide in a 6ft viv eventually when it's bigger.

So what I want? Basically a nice-natured snake (I know there are no guarantees and I might end up with the pissiest one of a generally loving ;) species) that tolerates handling well. I'd really like one that tends to keep some of its red-tail coloring. The largest snake I've handled is a female 5ft BP - and she was easy enough - so I guess I wouldn't really be comfortable handling anything larger than about 7-8 feet. I've read here on this forum somewhere that BCIs have the nicest temperament.

A specialist reptile shop in London has some RTBs (he'll have Surinames later) so I'm thinking of going along and asking to handle some of the adults to get a hands-on feel for what it's like handling larger snakes.

Please feel free to throw your ideas at me - I need to get what's best for me and the snake.

If your concerned about size, I would recommend a Hogg Island Boa. They can be gorgeous snakes, but they're not what you'd call a "red tail". A male suriname may be your best answer, you'd have the coloration you want, and it probably wouldn't get much larger than 8 ft, and not as girthy as a female. In other words, more managable.

Personally I'd probably go with a nice male Columbian boa from a good breeder, not a pet store. As I understand it, this is the time of year for the boa's to start dropping their litters so the right time coming up to have a good selection direct from the breeders. There are issues with boas and boids being housed in the same collection so I'd be very careful of who I bought one from and also make sure it's a definite male. From what I understand Columbian males generally don't exceed 6 to 8 feet though they are a heavy snake so that's a lot of strong snake per foot LOL.

I can only tell you Raz from having Rauri in our home what our experiences are with him. He's extremely easy to feed with no obvious prey preference. He does however have an awesome strike range and being a 6 foot male that's not something to be unaware of come feeding day. He has never refused a meal, never cared if it was live or f/t, never regurged, never given us one issue regarding feeding. At his size and age he eats twice monthly for a total cost of less than $20.00 per month.

He is very easy to handle temperment-wise, not given to striking or being "nervy". On the downside of that he is a big strong male and will get himself into the wierdest places you don't think he can fit. Hauling him back out is work but surprisingly he doesn't seem to take offense at it LOL. He does like to climb however as well as drag some pieces of furniture around with him.

He doesn't defecate often but it's huge...so if big piles of poop might bother you....don't get a BCI (it's bigger than what my 65 lb dog did!). He also toots....LOUDLY....very loudly! LOL.

He's good around kids being a pretty laid back snake but again, this is 6 feet of very girthy, very strong snake so one can't ever forgot that and get lazy about safety for small kids and other pets. I don't think Rauri presents a huge danger when he's out but I tend to always err on the cautious side of things when it comes to handling him.

All I can say is we took Rauri as a rescue and are now firmly in love with Columbian boa's. He's been a wonderful snake and we'll miss him a lot when he heads to Texas. I don't know if Rauri is an exceptionally nice Columbian or just a normal one, but he's definitely a good ambassador for his species as anyone who visits us soon gets over their fear of him and becomes fascinated by this big gentle male. We figure he's about perfect....a big heavy snake but still not something that will get as too big for us.

Here's a view pics of him. I personally think he's very nice looking though my experienced with Columbians is very limited. His tail is quite pretty and when he's in his light phase his pattern just pops! Oh and he has the number 18 in his scale pattern lol.

Rauri's face
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...tfaceforum.jpg

Rauri's tail
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil.../rauritail.jpg

No. 81 - Rauri came with his own sports jersery number!
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...8/number81.jpg

Me sharing a laugh with the big fella
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil.../8/raurijo.jpg

Hope my babbling and so forth helped LOL

Temperament-wise it's hard to beat a colombian BCI! Since you're into color, you may want to consider a pastel BCI or a high color bloodline. There is a big range in color in the species.

Hogg island boas rock.. I have a female she's around 6' and probably will not grow much more. She is a bit skittish, and hisses a fair amount, but she is not aggressive. This is her.

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil.../divafeb06.JPG

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...8/divahold.jpg

I have three surinam BCC. One is a juvenile female who is not aggressive at all, though she does get a bit nervous. She is still young though and I think she will grow out of it.

My male is a sub-adult.. around 5-6' and extremely laid back. He's wonderful.

My female is somewhat of a monster. She's 7.5' of angry, muscular boa. She hasn't actually bitten me yet, but she has come after me open mouthed. She is not easy to handle alone. I bought her as an adult, and she was not handled much when she was young, so I would say this is at least part of her issue.

This is my male suri.

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...8/surimale.jpg

And the female
https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...8/DSCN1356.JPG

I hope that helps.

Oh.. and consider the dumerils boa.. fantastic animals!

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...atrixfeb06.jpg

Love Dums! Go with a dum! They are probably my favorite locale of boa.

Locale? Hmm... when I hear that word, I usually think of the same species.

Is that the right word? I think so. Ohhhh, you mean because they are BCOs not BCI or BCC, gotchya. ...Species of Boas. Better?

No, it's just that when people talk about Boa locales they usually refer to Boa Constrictors (new world), not the Dumerils.

Hog Island no doubt! Awesome snakes. Hey April, when can I send my Hoggie boy over there for a breeding loan..Oh what sweet babies they would make :)

Jo, I caught the shameless 8 Ball plug... :)

LOL just noticed! Funny when we got those t-shirts we seemed to wear them in every dang snake picture we took! I swear we didn't actually wear them constantly LOL

I did wear my black one out the other day to WalMart and I actually forgot what it says on the back LOL. Lord but this man in line behind me was checking me out and I couldn't figure out what was up. Then it struck me he wasn't eyeing my butt, he was trying to read the back of my shirt and my swinging ponytail was in the way! I finally told him what the t-shirt was all about (thank you Adam for the opportunity to use "that" word to a strange male in a WalMart line up!)

Sadly, he wasn't looking at my butt :sigh2: