Sooo...what is this?!

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Originally Posted by jfreels

Wow, that's a crazy transition, Void. I have never seen anything like that in my RTB. Maybe they don't do the phases as much when they get bigger?

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Yea he looks like a whole different snake lol I'm not sure how often they do it as adults...I read somewhere on kingsnake that Nicaraguan and central American rtb do it a lot but didn't say how much in terms of size or age.

Well it's obviously a boa and not a python. A quick google search would have shown that much to your friend. What bothers me is that there is someone out there who is breeding red tail boas, which give birth to live young, and is marketing them as Burmese pythons??
That's a little disturbing coming from a breeder. That's a difference of night and day in the snake world.

Definitely direct your friend to this forum or to the red tail boa forum. She needs to know what kind of snake she has before she can properly care for it and I hope she can convince the other friend that he is wrong.

I really hope that the mis-identification of this snake was just a misunderstanding on your friends part. I would avise your friend to contact the breeder and clear some things up, such as:

1) what is it's sex and age? Did the breeder actually use this snake as a breeder or did they produce it?

2) What Locality is it? This is important for your friend to know so they will know what type of future caging requirements to plan for. That boa could be anything from a Nicaraguan that is almost full grown to a Columbian that will double in size...

as pointed out u have a lovely RTB (Red Tail Boa)there

Everybody's already shed light on the type =P so I'll throw my two cents in about the changes in coloring.

My Guyana RTB is constantly changing colors, for about the first two or three weeks after he sheds he is so silvery white he's almost an albino, by the time he is ready to shed again he is a dark tan color.

My friends female does the exact opposite but still has a huge fluctuation.

She's 5 years old and mines 2 years old.