New to the boa game

I am fairly new to the boa game as well but I have a Nicaraguan, 2 baby Columbians and 2 huge Columbians. I also have balls. Love all my snakes but the boas are by far the more curious ones and like others have said, hate going back into the cages. Good luck!

2 Hogs and Nicaraguan, very different from balls, more intelligent and sometimes feisty. The Hogs are a joy, the Nic is pure evil.

Can't wait to see pictures of your new boa.

I have a lot of boa's. When I say a lot, I mean a lot. I have more boa's than balls. While my ball collection is moving up in numbers, that doesn't mean my boa collection numbers have stayed the same...lol

I have never been bit by a baby boa or struck at (not to say this will never happen though). However, I have a friend who had a litter of CA boa's and I will say, I had never heard a boa hiss until I visited them. I don't know much about the CA boa's as I don't have any but I have heard they can be very temperamental and have attitudes (obviously this isn't true of them all). People have stated that BCC's can be more temperamental than BCI's but I haven't really seen that either. I have one BCC that had an attitude (the rest don't have attitudes) but I truly believe it was a result from the shipping and he was an older snake. My largest boa is a BCC and she is the sweetest thing ever. Even when they are large.

Boa's are really a lot of fun. My BP's are curious but it takes them longer to start exploring. Some of my BP's will jump back into a ball when their heads touch anything and others jump a little. My boa's never really jump when their head touches something. I always fight my boa's to go back in their cages like other people have stated. Sometimes, this can be a hassle. Word of advice, get their head to touch the ground of the cage. Once their heads touch the ground, they will move forward instead of backwards to get out of the cage.

I have some boa's that will strike at the cage when you have food and some that will wait for you to leave the food on the newspaper and grab it when you leave the room. Each boa has a different personality just like BP's.

If you want a boa that doesn't get as large, stick to BCI and get a male. My older males are relatively large but they still don't eat XL rats. I only have one snake right now that eats XL rats and it really took her a long time to get to that point and she is my BCC. While the BCI's have the capability to get quite large also, the males usually stay smaller and you can feed them medium to large rats for most of their adult lives.

Good luck with purchasing your new boa. :D

Star

The only thing I've noticed with my adult boa is that she's veeeery eager when it comes to food, put something rodent-smelling near her and anything that has a heat signature is yummy. She even tried to eat my tongs last night because they smelled like rat.

I've never had a young boa, but I've heard that (like most baby snakes) they're very nippy and/or defensive, but they usually grow out of it. I've also heard of boas being cage-aggressive, but fine when they're out. I've never had any of these problems luckily, and I LOVE my boa; I highly recommend one if you find that you're ready for a pretty big, powerful snake. :)

Other advice: buy prey in bulk from a show. It'll save you a lot of money!

Out of the almost 20 boa's I have had as babies, not one was ever nippy, ever. I haven't heard they were nippy nor have I seen it before. I don't think it is the norm.

Star

I got my baby boa at 3 months old. She has only ever struck at me once and that was when she thought I had food. She could smell it - it was out waiting for her and I stupidly thought, oh I'll change her water first. Haha! Feed your boa first THEN do other stuff - or even wait til the next day before doing other stuff....

But seriously, Peaches is the sweeting thing ever. Great personality and no baby nippiness whatsoever. I think maybe baby boas get that reputation cause they're always hungry. If they even suspect you might have food, they'll try to find it.

On that note, one additional piece of advice - do NOT overfeed your boa! They must be grown slowly for good health. Adults should usually only eat once every 2-3 weeks. Babies shouldn't ever eat more than once a week and some recommend only every 10 days. I feed my baby 1 hopper every week and she's doing marvelously on that. We're moving up to a small mouse next week. ;)

Good luck! Can't wait for pics! :gj:

Yeah, I don't think baby boas should be labeled as nippy. Every now and then you'll come across a nasty one, but all the babies I've raised and also the ones I've held have all been incredibly sweet, and the only bites I've received have been my fault. Don't be surprised if you get bit once or twice, but most hatchlings are docile.

Its funny, my ball acts like a boa apparently. She hates going back in her tank and she LOVES exploring. In fact I've never seen her stationary when shes out of her tank. And she feeds like a boa too ;)

Loving these comments guys, I was just out at a reptile show in dupage county illinois looking at what was available as far as cages and snakes go and I saw several columbians that I liked but a little hypo rtb kind of stuck out to me so I think that might be the route I take

and quick question but what is bcc and bci? I've seen it around but I just dont know what it is.

Thanks,

Alec

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by HostilePB11

Loving these comments guys, I was just out at a reptile show in dupage county illinois looking at what was available as far as cages and snakes go and I saw several columbians that I liked but a little hypo rtb kind of stuck out to me so I think that might be the route I take

and quick question but what is bcc and bci? I've seen it around but I just dont know what it is.

Thanks,

Alec

---

Hypos are Colombians. I've always been a big fan of hypos, I think that would be a great choice.

They're the Latin names, Boa constrictor imperator and Boa constrictor constrictor. There are a number of other B.c. subspecies as well but these two are the most common. Then there are locales within the subspecies. For example, there are Bci that originate from Colombia, Hogg Island, Central America, etc, and the most common Bcc are from Suriname, Peru, Venezuela, and many other places.