Another dumeril boa vs Columbian boa question

I have both BCI's and Dumerils boas. The Dum's boas tend to be more placid "lap snakes" when being handled but they do have their moments, and because they are naturally thicker than BCI's they tend to be heavier and stronger at the same length.

My larger adults all eat appropriately-sized rabbits of 1-1.5#. They could eat jumbo rats but I think boas do better on a lower-fat diet.

Also remember that Dum's prefer a lower temperature gradient - 75-85*F - so if you have a room specifically for reptiles the ambient will need to run a few degrees cooler than if you only had BCI's and ball pythons in it.

Also temperament will depend on handling and stuff too. Like I mentioned earlier, both my gals are puppies. I can just reach in head first with them and they just look up and tongue flick my hand and then lay down. Heck I can even pet their heads and they sit there 90% of the time. Sometimes they get in a mood but that means they just move their head back a little which means "leave me alone". You pretty much will get out of them what you invest in them timewise. My advice is go to a reptile show or local zoo and take a look at each one if they have them. And of course a reptile show will be a great place to look at them as well.

Just remember, boas don't grow that fast so it will be a long time before you got a 8' gal. My 6' gal is just over 3 years old and I got her as a baby. My sunglow gal is 4' and is almost 2 years old and that's with a not so conservative feeding. I was feeding them once a week as babies and then every 2 weeks after 1.5 years old. Some people feed their snakes every 3-4 weeks even yearlings.

Also males don't grow as big so you can expect somewhere around 4-6' for an average male. Females you can expect around 7-8' with a lot more girth and heft. My 6' Colombian girl is pretty hefty yet she wants to sit on me like she is still a baby. She loves to try and curl around my shoulders and neck and stretch her head out to check stuff out or try and climb the rain gutter to the roof when I'm outside on the deck.

And avoid jumbo rats. Those are usually retired breeders which are fatty and boas don't handle fat well. Stick to rats or if your snake gets big enough to eat jumbo rats, try rabbits. I'm just not sure if 2 medium or large rats are better than a young rabbit as the rats will be more developed.

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Originally Posted by Sauzo

Also temperament will depend on handling and stuff too. Like I mentioned earlier, both my gals are puppies. I can just reach in head first with them and they just look up and tongue flick my hand and then lay down. Heck I can even pet their heads and they sit there 90% of the time. Sometimes they get in a mood but that means they just move their head back a little which means "leave me alone". You pretty much will get out of them what you invest in them timewise. My advice is go to a reptile show or local zoo and take a look at each one if they have them. And of course a reptile show will be a great place to look at them as well.

Just remember, boas don't grow that fast so it will be a long time before you got a 8' gal. My 6' gal is just over 3 years old and I got her as a baby. My sunglow gal is 4' and is almost 2 years old and that's with a not so conservative feeding. I was feeding them once a week as babies and then every 2 weeks after 1.5 years old. Some people feed their snakes every 3-4 weeks even yearlings.

Also males don't grow as big so you can expect somewhere around 4-6' for an average male. Females you can expect around 7-8' with a lot more girth and heft. My 6' Colombian girl is pretty hefty yet she wants to sit on me like she is still a baby. She loves to try and curl around my shoulders and neck and stretch her head out to check stuff out or try and climb the rain gutter to the roof when I'm outside on the deck.

And avoid jumbo rats. Those are usually retired breeders which are fatty and boas don't handle fat well. Stick to rats or if your snake gets big enough to eat jumbo rats, try rabbits. I'm just not sure if 2 medium or large rats are better than a young rabbit as the rats will be more developed.

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thanks for the detailed reply. Do you have a picture of your 6' Colombian girl? Would you say she is at the size of a full grown male Columbian at this point? Is she on rabbits yet? I mainly interested in only feeding her rats is because I will be having a rat colony and feeder rabbits are hard to come by in my area. Honestly I'm more concern with the heft and girth more than the length. I don't want to end up with a boa that I can't handle by myself but looking at video of male Columbian boa on YouTube make me feel they are too small, I'm not sure if it's because most of them are breeder and kept small.

Hey zero in that pic he's around 9 feet and around 30 lbs believe it or not. I should also mention he's about 17 years old so i'd imagine that's a big factor. I forgot you mentioned you wanted a girl so i'm not sure Columbians are best cause you see what my boy turned in to. If this is to big for you i'll respect your decision i'm just trying to help you get an idea of what you want.:gj: With that said again he's a puppy but a little much for me to handle by self but i get by. I gotta remember to get some pics of me holding him sometime with a better camera too. I'm gonna just suggest a bci they got decent variety like sun glow and others. I'm not a pro at boa genetics but bci are smaller sub species and pretty common in the pet trade especially at expo's and shows.

Here's my 6 foot female Columbian. I was told female, but it may be a male.

She is not showing any noticeable growth, so I suspect that she is at least 4-5 yrs. The largest girth on her is about the size of a Coke can.

Don't let this picture fool you, the stool is cut in half.


http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...cfc3e8db01.jpg




My 10 year old male here is right at 7 foot with a girth a bit less than a half gallon milk carton. (Supposedly a male, but I have my doubts) He weighs 14 pounds, but feels heavier while handling.

He/? dwarfs the female/? in size.
http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...13a2559233.jpg



I keep looking at the Dumerils. I almost pulled the trigger on a pair this week with a tank for only $200. But it was a 3.5 hr drive and I had crappy photos. Also I only want 1, not 2.

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Originally Posted by threezero

thanks for the detailed reply. Do you have a picture of your 6' Colombian girl? Would you say she is at the size of a full grown male Columbian at this point? Is she on rabbits yet? I mainly interested in only feeding her rats is because I will be having a rat colony and feeder rabbits are hard to come by in my area. Honestly I'm more concern with the heft and girth more than the length. I don't want to end up with a boa that I can't handle by myself but looking at video of male Columbian boa on YouTube make me feel they are too small, I'm not sure if it's because most of them are breeder and kept small.

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Sorry I don't. I live in the dark ages and don't have a smart phone as I don't need one. I am going to buy a little camera one of these days(I always say that but I end up buying stuff for my beardie or snakes haha). She is probably about the size of a full grown male. Now males can get larger than 6' but that's not the norm. She is definitely thicker than a male. She is about as thick as a pop can or maybe a little thinner. She isn't on rabbits, I feed her medium rats as she is a little overweight so I have been restricting her feeding. She can eat weaned rabbits which I might try next week when I feed her.

Males will definitely be smaller, most notably in girth. I would be surprised if you couldn't handle a male as boas are pretty mellow to start with. Its the girth that gets you. Like my 6' is almost as thick as a pop can yet she still thinks she is a baby and tries to ride on my shoulders and neck which can be a pain especially when she decides she wants to drive and blocks my face lol. If you are concerned, just get a male and after a couple years if you find he is easily manageable, then maybe look at a girl. You will learn boas are like Pringles, you cant just stop at one. Heck I've been getting the itch for a male high expression jungle but I need to get 2x AP T13 cages first so I can shuffle around my girls into the bigger cages and stick my BP in my Proline which my big girl is in now.

Oh also remember, boas grow slow so its going to be a long time before a girl is going to get to 8' unless you power feed them. My sunglow gal is almost 2 years old and is only 4'. Also as you see them everyday, you don't really notice the size unless you really look at it or they start dragging on the floor when you carry them and then realize you got an extra 2 feet of snake you didn't notice before lol. Their fastest growth is the first 3 years, after that it slows down a lot but they do have growth spurts.

Great so I show my girlfriend what I thought was a beautiful Columbian baby and she disapproves (she had snake phobia but is slowly coming around and trying to accept my snakes) the dumeril though she was cool with. I guess i can live with a pet head :rolleyes:

Is is it really common to get a trouble feeder? Is it on the same level as ball python or a little better? Is substrate a must or have you guys successfully kept dumeril on plain newspaper? looking at couple dumeril babies at the moment the shade of color varies from babies to babies. Do they tend to get darker with age?

lastly please show off any adult dumeril you guys might have! Excited to say the least. Won't have fund for one for a few months but pictures would help!

My boas ar my garbage disposals. (sorry trying to type with a baby boa wrapped around my wrist and severa; fingers lol///


Ive never ever had a healthy red tail refuse food. (I do have a baby that came out of the egg "wrong" so i dont count him... and i would never sell him.

amyways, i think a pet head wont be as bad as you think... because a happy girlfriend makes everything better :)

i will try to get a pic of my male red tail when i cleam his tub since he is dark like you wanted. but he body painted with his poop so efterr his shower he may not cooperate lol. he hates getting wet. and this surpasses a sponge bath. i may be a wet miserable mess so i may not want any part of him and pictures when im done haha

....wisj me luck...

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My longer but darker rtb.

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...5aa485520f.jpg

My shorter but thicker female for a size comparison

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Female around my leg for comparison

http://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/2016...1d1af8ac44.jpg

The male with the hubby for more size.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Feeding problems with Boas are uncommon.

I converted my boy to F/T on the first try after having been on Live for 10 yrs.

Same with my girl which I received as an adult as well.

You will very pleased at how much fun feeding time is with Boas compared to the typical Ball.


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