red tail boa

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Originally Posted by jim020cricket

(Meme- are you sure you have a 9ft male? wowza!).

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actually no...we are not 100% sure.

As I have said he was a rescue and we were told...he was a male. and since he doesn't like to be handled a lot...he gets stressed, so I have never had him sexed.

We can take him out but he doesn't really like to be held once he is out.

and 9 ft is an estimate but he is for sure between 8 and 9 feet.

we have always joked that one day we are gonna find out that Prince is really a Princess! :eek:

I'd put a $100 on it right now, Prince is a girl! It happened with Rauri, Jo's Foster Boa, too.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jim020cricket

I'd put a $100 on it right now, Prince is a girl! It happened with Rauri, Jo's Foster Boa, too.

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Sucks you are so far away! I would totally have you sex...him...her. lol.

We have always said the Prince's attitude is probably because we had been calling it a boy! lol

There is nobody around here that I would even trust to sex him.

I will have to get some pics up for you with a measurement referance.

but if it helps I usually call him Princey-poo...so it's kinda girly. lol :P ;)

Awesome...lol

Pros
Awesome snakes
Awesome snakes
Awesome snakes
Awesome snakes

No but seriously
Pros
-Great feeders 99.9% of the time(3/4 of mine will eat in shed every time and all of them will eat f/t rats or mice with no hesitation)
-Not as secretive as ball pythons(None of mine, babies to adults have hides and do fine)
-Tame if you have the time to put into the few nippy ones out there(never had one)
-Can handle them every day and they will still eat as usual(Not likely with ball pythons)
-Some stay smaller, some get larger so you always have a wide variety of choices(Some stay under 5-6' awhile others have the POTENTIAL to get over 10' which isn't common)
-No two look alike, The colors and patterns of any two are so different so there is always something to suit your likings. With balls, I have trouble telling one from another by sight because most look the same to ME.

Cons
They take a slightly larger cage(4' by 2' is ok for most) than Ball Pythons(although some of the smaller ones can live the same size enclosure as an adult ball python)

Hope this helps a bit

How is the boas bite compared to a ball python? I have heard that a balls bite doesnt hurt it just feels like a scratch, but have not heard much referenced about the boas.

I haven't been bitten by an adult. My baby's bite was a prick, I saw one little dot of blood, and it itched for a few minutes. A couple hours later, I couldn't even see where it had occurred. I'm sure it gets a little more intense when they're older :) I've decided to always use a glove to lift him out of his cage since he's more likely to strike then.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jim020cricket

I'd put a $100 on it right now, Prince is a girl! It happened with Rauri, Jo's Foster Boa, too.

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Yep Ruari was "assumed" to be male by everyone but with the larger growth patterns we saw, we warned Becky ahead of time that he might well be a she. I had probed Ruari once, not easy with a big, strong snake and got what I took to be male on one side, but much less depth on the other so basically undecided gender wise. Rauri, now renamed Sonja, is definitely a big girl! :)

As far as bites, maybe other BCI's are more aggressive but we never saw a lot of it with the big boa or with the smaller, younger one we have now. Not saying they couldn't deliver a hell of a bite and granted, Rauri was very snitzy when hungry or deep in shed but the only bite ever delivered by this snake....

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...heldbymike.jpg

was this bite (can you see it LOL).....

http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...Rauribite1.jpg

Basically a love tap. Poor RoRo was in blue but had done a huge dump, while I cleaned it up Mike held the snake and got a grumpy tap for his troubles. Very obviously a 6 foot plus snake can do a LOT more damage but Rauri (aka Sonja) just dealt a very restrained reminder that it wasn't the right to be messing with her.

We just tried, as we do with all the snakes, to get to know this particular snake as a unique individual and learn to read it's signals, body postures, etc. and respect that.

The bite is slightly worse than a balls. I felt no more pain than a simple scratch. Lets put it like this, stubbing your toe 99.9% of the time hurts worse than a boa bite unless you have a low pain tollerance(sp?).

This was a feeding response from a 5' boa. Almost no pain at all, just a scare really. This was a feeding error and she went into full constriction on me.
http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e2...Picture039.jpg

I got bit by a 7'+ boa once and the bite was just a tag and release, no constriction like the above and there was almost no blood, just a bruise from where he got me at.

Man your hand looks pretty bad. Im not too worried about it though, to have 4 boas and only be bitten twice id say its not too bad. I cant wait to get one.