changing color

When I had Rosie out today, I noticed that she's gone from a nice gray color to a light red / salmon-ish color. Her belly is also dotted in this color, and her brown spots have almost turned black. Is this normal?

As far as I know, she's no sort of morph.

I'll post photos as soon as I find batteries.

Color change in boa's can be related to stress, housing/husbandry issues, impending shed or it can be just their natural light/dark phases. They seem to darken to gather heat, lighten when they don't need to and it's pretty startling how different they can look. Anytime you aren't sure what's going on though, always check husbandry and health first.

Several of my boas will pink up when they are in their light phase. Pretty, isn't it?

I notice a pink belly for most of the boas as they approach the shed cycle

Petey is VERY silvery grey when in a light phase, but almost a dark brown in the other. Hera doesn't change much except right after shedding. Pinky T gets VERY, VERY pink bright..and dark when she gets ready to shed. (She's a pastel).


If the husbandry is okay, then he's probably getting into a shed cycle.

This is gonna sound stupid, buuuut...

What's this phase stuff?

Not stupid at all....


Just a time period when the color of the boa changes from either temperature, shedding or ??? I'm not sure, but the articles < I've > read said that the color changes or "phases" in boas aren't really understood.

Now, when a snake changes before shedding (pink belly, dull body color, etc.) that's well understood, but for the boas it's a little different.

Maybe one of the BREEDERS will have a more definitive answer for you. Mine is just from articles I've tried to find as research for answers.

Same snake, different phases:

Light phase (the flash washed the colors out a bit but basically more of a light grey/dry sand background color)....http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...aceCloseup.jpg

Dark phase....
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2.../rauriface.jpg

Sonja also has really really dark phase :) Like today after her bunny meal.

Heat conservation mode= dark phase.
Cooling off mode= light phase.

This is 99% of the time true, like with every snake rule...there is always a few exceptions. :)