Noob Boa Questions from a BP Guy

I have a ball python and 2 RTB, one male and one female. The rtb are fairly new to me, but big difference when compared to the ball...personality wise.
The ball is shy when you first take him out and if he's shedding, you won't see him out until the shedding is complete (my corn is the same.)
Boas are not shy at all, ate three days before the shed. Had her out two days before she shed...very calm, no problems being handled...then i noticed her eyes were a milky bluish colour. She shed perfect yesterday (both boas shed yesterday.)
Love my ball, boas are just different...then again, so is the corn and the bull...love them all

I took the plunge just today with Special K Reptiles ( http://www.specialkreptiles.com/ ). Tim was fabulous to work with! I highly recommend them. And they had many babies of various colors/genetics available.

Well, I am not looking for anything fancy. Just a plain ole BCI. I want a baby too. The Petland (the only chain here I respect) in town has like 20 babies right now for $70 each. So I may get one from them if I can't find a good breeder online.

So far the places I've seen either have nothing, have only older snakes, or have only morphs.

Conventions are always fun! We got our little boa at a local expo. She was the price of a normal but is technically a possible low-expression jungle(one of the annoying ones that doesn't show the wonky pattern, but shows the color, spear pattern, and still passes on the trait itself) which was pretty sweet :)

I have one bp and one boa. They are so different. When I want to let someone handle a snake who is still afraid of them, they of course hold the ball python, since all he does is just chill, maybe move around a little out of curiosity. The boa is just so curious and wants to LICK YOUR FACE, which is frightening to people afraid of snakes, lol!


Nagini(the boa) is..intimidating compared to Maru. Even for her size! It's impressive how STRONG she is. She almost slipped out of my hand once and grabbed on so tight by just the tip of her tail and pulled herself up and I could just feel how tense and powerful her muscles were. And yeah, feeding is always an adventure. She is one of those snakes that would never stop eating if I let her! And she has a habit of turning her mice/rats into sort of.. uhh...rodent..goo. Via explosion. :O I think she enjoys making us clean up the mess. But I love her anyway!

There really is a huge difference in boas and balls! They are just so SMART.. It's awesome. And fun to hold, they feel so different. I love my maru, but I love holding nagini more.

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Originally Posted by MasonC2K

Well, I am not looking for anything fancy. Just a plain ole BCI. I want a baby too. The Petland (the only chain here I respect) in town has like 20 babies right now for $70 each. So I may get one from them if I can't find a good breeder online.

So far the places I've seen either have nothing, have only older snakes, or have only morphs.

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It is true that there are good chains out there (though I've never been to a Petland), but I still shy away from any place that can't tell me exactly where they get all of their babies from. Even if the chain is reputable, the breeders the chain buys from may not be. I'm usually not opposed to buying snakes from good pet stores, except when it comes to boas (the whole IBD thing again, not knowing the boa's history, etc).

Most breeders don't advertise their available normal neos (I don't know why, I think they'd get more business if they did), but the truth is in every litter of morphs, they get a ton of normal babies in addition to whatever morphs, and all breeders have a plethora of normal babies, it just takes an email to find out about them.

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Originally Posted by Crazy4Herps

It is true that there are good chains out there (though I've never been to a Petland), but I still shy away from any place that can't tell me exactly where they get all of their babies from. Even if the chain is reputable, the breeders the chain buys from may not be. I'm usually not opposed to buying snakes from good pet stores, except when it comes to boas (the whole IBD thing again, not knowing the boa's history, etc).

Most breeders don't advertise their available normal neos (I don't know why, I think they'd get more business if they did), but the truth is in every litter of morphs, they get a ton of normal babies in addition to whatever morphs, and all breeders have a plethora of normal babies, it just takes an email to find out about them.

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Yeeeah.... Considering that darn ibd thing, I would have to agree with this. I do believe that ibd is somewhat blown out of proportion now and isn't something to be necessarily paranoid about, but it does pay to be careful - very careful - when buying boas. Even if you only have 1 other snake, it would be tragic if it died because your boa brought something into the house. There's another thread regarding this in this same forum you might want to check out, but basically, if you're going to buy a boa, get a baby (babies don't incubate the virus nearly as long) and buy from a reputable breeder only. Just my .02....

Incidentally, Tim at Special K had some very nice "normal" babies for about $30-40. I don't intend to "push" a particular breeder. I am sure there are other great breeders here who have some good babies available. But since I just worked with Tim myself, I happened to take note of some other things he had. Might be worth checking with him....