Behira - 2016 Female Ivory Ghost - First BCI

Deffo getting the girth now, I told you between 2-3 they really start looking like an adult in there body shaper, she really is a beauty
I love waking up to read all these new posts. Makes me want to go get mine out but got to go to work and play Christmas

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Forgot to post the best picture in my last post (below). Also, Behira dropped a butt bomb last night. Official dry weight is 1,170G.

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There's been a lot going on in the dakski/sunshinewalker house of late. Several new additions and one that we've been nursing back to health.

Don't think that means I forgot about my other animals; not at all!

Figment needs to use the bathroom any minute now, and Shayna is fasting, so they stayed in, but I took Frank, Behira, and Solana, out for some quality time today (the geckos prefer to come out at night and except for Cleo, are not as big on being handled).

Behira is awesome. She's due to eat this Sunday, but because of work/travel schedule, she'll have to wait until Tuesday. In the meantime, she's still chill and docile as can be and loves climbing on and around her Dad.

I got a couple pictures below and a link to a video of her climbing on my shoulders and being calm as can be. There's a reason I just got another Boa (Feliz); that reason is Behira - awesome animal!

My apologies for me looking pretty crappy. I feel pretty crappy too. I have a fever today and I am laying very low.

Video Link of Behira Being Chill and Climbing on Me: https://streamable.com/zhjnc

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Behira is looking as lovely as ever Dave. I love how relaxed she is. My BCI and BCO are both pretty chill too. Someone once told me that handling boas is like driving a nice luxury car. A really smooth ride. :)

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Originally Posted by EL-Ziggy

Behira is looking as lovely as ever Dave. I love how relaxed she is. My BCI and BCO are both pretty chill too. Someone once told me that handling boas is like driving a nice luxury car. A really smooth ride. :)

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Someone once told me that handling boas is like driving a nice luxury car. A really smooth ride.

Great quote El-Ziggy.

The new guy, Feliz, is already super chill as well. I can only imagine how cool he will be when he's Behira's age and been handled by me regularly for over a year as well! He's very trusting, but as with Behira, I need to earn and reinforce his trust. Behira was similarly trusting and docile in the beginning as well. However, with size, time, and trust, she's definitely improved a bit. Again, not defensive or anything to start, but much more relaxed now.

Start with a good species and animal and work with them and build trust and rapport you will be rewarded.

Had Behira out today to clean her water bowls. She was in a fairly dark phase and I grabbed some pictures.

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Behira ate a 110G F/T medium rat tonight. She's on medium rats every three weeks now.

I've been feeding her within a minute of her lights going out and hunt mode kicking in. It seems to cut down on the door striking. Plus, I can see where she is right before the light go out and go the opposite side of the tank!

I offered the rat to her and she was interested, but seemingly more interested in squeezing her head through the tiny opening at the top of the acrylic door I had open to stick the tongs through. NOT GOOD!

I had to think fast (luckily I use 2 foot tongs) and quickly opened the door more, bumped her on the head with the rat, and as soon as she stuck her head back in the tank, dropped the rat, and shut the door quick. She half struck at the closing door as it bumped into her head, but in the same strike managed to grab the rat off the floor in front of her, and wrap it up. She ate happily. I am actually going to prefer when she's bigger and won't be able to squeeze her head threw that tiny door opening on top.

Katie was watching and kept saying, "this is bad, this is bad." I wasn't too worried. She's been better about nailing the doors and striking wildly and I am getting her figured out, at least a little.

I'd be lying if I said my heart did race a little, but I stayed calm, no one got hurt or struck at (except the rat), and she's got a full belly now. Katie stayed really calm too and was both relived and impressed with how I handled the situation. Crisis averted!

We are currently having a snow storm here in CT. I am pretty sure Behira knew it was coming. I had her out a few hours before the storm and she seemed restless and couldn't seem to relax. I didn't take Shayna out, but I've had a similar experience with her under similar circumstances. They seem to know.

To be clear, she wasn't aggressive or anything, but she was clearly "uneasy" and unable to "settle down." After a few minutes I put her back and let her be.

Katie got some good pictures of me chilling with Behira today. She (Behira) was being a real goofball!

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Think she likes your glasses tonight

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She looks good!

Lovely as always. There must be something about glasses...my guys seem to like to make a beeline for them as well.

My Aunt and Uncle spent last night with us and my Aunt held Behira and Feliz.

I am not sure she's ever held a snake before, but she totally hit it off with Behira.

Her smile says everything.

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That's so cool, nice when you get to convert some family members to liking your great scaly family ,, good job behira behaved her self

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Originally Posted by richardhind1972

That's so cool, nice when you get to convert some family members to liking your great scaly family ,, good job behira behaved her self

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Rich,

Once out of "food mode," Behira ALWAYS behaves herself. 100%. Totally puppy dog. I explained to my Aunt if she feels she wraps too tight to unwrap from the tail, but I also explained that she will never constrict except to kill prey. She will only hold on to feel safe and not to fall. I told her she's a nice, warm, tree.

She really is my favorite snake to handle and my most trustworthy snake. Snakes bite because of hunger/food drive and because they are scared/defensive. Behira only looks for food in her tank. Once touched with the hook, that problem is now solved. She is so brave and outgoing, she doesn't get spooked, at all. I can pet her head, poke her, rub her chin, etc. She just doesn't care. I don't have to worry about a defensive bite from her. Certainly not with me anyway. Although, I am able to do these things with her, I am respectful and deliberate with my actions. I explain this to others and always supervise when others' hold her.

As I've said before, I told the breeder the I wanted the most docile/tamest boa he had; any morph. He suggested Behira, who was a holdback, and a year old, and who had handled quite a bit. Small breeder and he knew her well. Add over a year of gentle handling and building trust with her and she's golden :).

Its great when you trust them that much, there’s only 3 and Gomez for now of mine I wouldn’t bring down if kids or family where round, all the rest are just fine


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My mother was over today and wanted to see Behira (as well as Feliz, Solana, Ferry, and Yafe, specifically - Yafe, of course she saw, but was not allowed to handle). She's both impressed with her size now, as well as in awe at how much more she has to grow, as well as a little intimidated. She commented both on how docile and sweet she is, but also on how incredibly strong she is already. I told her that sometimes, she doesn't want to back in her tank and that even at 1,200G, it can be a little work to get her back in.

We had a dialogue about it that I thought was kind of funny. It went like this:

Mom: If she's difficult to get back in now, and, as you say, she's going to be 5-6X bigger, and exponentially stronger, how will get her back in her tank if she doesn't want to go.

Me: Well, I don't think I can win on on pure strength. Even if I am in aggregate, stronger, she has better leverage, and can be very determined.

Mom: What will you do?

Me: I have a distinct advantage.

Mom: What?

Me: I am smarter than her.

Mom: Ahhhh.

Me: I have an entire brain section that she doesn't have. A frontal lobe. I can strategize and plan and think on the fly. I don't just react to stimuli (mostly). Watch.

I proceeded to show my mom several attempts at trying to get Behira back in her tank by going straight at it. Behira was having fun and wanted to play and climb and shot upwards every time.

So, I brought Behira down several feet and she shot up again and stuck her head into her tank. I put her tail and mid section in and closed the door.

Me: WALLLAH! Dave 1, Behira, 0!



Don't get me wrong. I love Behira to death. She's inquisitive, and brave, and curious, and a total sweetie. She's also great at climbing and striking and constricting rats, etc. Me, not so good on the climbing, or constricting part, and I'll be damned if I can eat my food whole or go weeks without eating for that matter. However, I'm a pretty good thinker. I am just calling a spade a spade. Not criticizing my beloved BCI.

Anyway, here are some pictures of my mom with Behira.

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Check out my new wardrobe! Didn't feel like starting a new thread, so I decided to post it here. I have one more coming, and it's boa related, but it's not as funny.

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Behira was all over the place tonight, so I only had her out for a few minutes. She has days like this. She's by no means aggressive, and at one point, was coming around my shoulder, rather quickly, and I put my hand up and knocked her good in the mouth. She shot backwards pretty good as I obvisouly spooked her a little, probably for the first time ever; she's pretty darn brave. I rubbed her side gently and after a few seconds, she calmed right down, and came around my shoulder, and of course, through my glasses again!

I got some really good pictures of her with the DSLR (below) and then put her back pretty quick. She's only like this 1/10 times I take her out and I make those handling sessions brief. She's getting strong and it makes for a lot of work for me. On a side note, I had Figment out earlier as well, and he's usually a spaz. Today, he was calm as can be. Go figure. Maybe they switched bodies for the day?

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I had Behira out today for a bit and she fell asleep in my lap. Not unusual for her to do so, but it's always cute. I was on the phone with a friend for a while, so I just let her be. She fell asleep about 5 minutes into the conversation and woke up about 40 minutes later and explored for the last 5 minutes of the conversation. Then I put her back.

It makes me very happy that she is comfortable enough with me to fall asleep on me all the time. She's very chill and relaxed when out, as are the other snakes, but she takes the cake. Out cold in a matter of minutes. No fears, no worries; just at peace with her dad.

Here are two pictures of her fast asleep on me.

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Such a beautiful and well behaved girl :bow:

Looking great Dave,love it when one of my boas do this,

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Originally Posted by RickyNY

Such a beautiful and well behaved girl :bow:

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I wish I could say it's because I've worked with her for the past year or so.

"Yes, she was a wild one, but all the gentle handling and building trust has calmed her down and turned her into a sweet snake."

However, she's always been very docile, calm, and easy to handle. The breeder worked with her (being a small breeder and a holdback) and I asked him for his most docile animal, male or female, any morph.

Has she improved? Slightly. The hook training has definitely helped avoid incidents in the tank due to her strong food response, but you can't hold that against a Boa!

The difference is in the level of trust. Yes, she's always been calm and docile, but I believe she is much more trusting and calm now, especially with me. She's great with everyone else, but we seem to have a special bond.

I notice little differences with her in the past 6 months (after 6-7 months of working with her and her getting over 800G or so, or doubling in size since I got her). She is startled or spooked less easily, or it's almost impossible to do that now. If I am gentle, she lets me support her neck and rub her chin. If I support her neck and chin, she even lets me gently stroke her head. She didn't let me do that before. She wouldn't get mad, or bite, or anything like that, but she would pull back. To be clear, I do not do this regularly to her, or any of my snakes, however, every once in a while, I like to gauge where they are at and how they react to stimuli.

I do let other people hold them from time to time, even kids like my niece and nephew, supervised and with me a foot or less away, etc. but I want to know how they would react to negative stimuli.

Behira is the one I am least worried about. Period. She just doesn't get scared or spooked anymore. Snakes bite out of hunger or because they are scared/defensive. Out of the tank she doesn't look for food and she doesn't get scared. Problem solved.

I think I mentioned a few posts ago that she came around my shoulder quickly the other day and I put my hand up not expecting her head to be there and basically popper her good in the face. She shot back for a second because I startled her, but after a stroke or two to the side, was back to normal. She didn't even tense up her body or anything.

To be clear, I've worked with all my snakes, except Yafe and Feliz (new additions), for a while now, and this is how they respond to head support and gentle head touching:

Behira: Could care less

Shayna (BP): Anywhere from PLEASE STOP and gentle pulling away, to shooting head back/pulling head away quickly. She does not show any signs of defensiveness or any hissing, biting, etc. Total sweetie. However, she clearly is not a fan.

Figment (Adult Corn): Anywhere from, eh, to not crazy about it and therefore I am going over here now. Again, zero defensiveness.

Solana (juvenile corn): About the same as Figment as this point. Big improvement from a few months ago when she would spaz a little, but show no defensiveness.

Feliz (yearling BCC): Please stop and gently pulls away, much like Behira used to. He's very small (about 140G) now and just getting used to being handled. He's even calmer than Behira was at that age, so we will see.

Yafe (Carpet Python): Kind of darts away and doesn't seem to like it, but shows zero defensiveness. Just a "please stop" mentality.

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Originally Posted by richardhind1972

Looking great Dave,love it when one of my boas do this,

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Rich,

It's adorable. It's a special thing I have with Behira too. We have a special bond as I mentioned above.

I love my other snakes and enjoy handling all of them. However, no way in hell (except maybe Feliz as he grows and trusts more) any of them would fall asleep on me. They wouldn't relax long enough or stop exploring long enough for that to happen.

For what it's worth, I sent a video of Solana, about a month after I had gotten her, to Don Soderberg (her breeder). She was in my hand and drinking out of her water bowl. Don was shocked that she trusted me enough, and that quickly to do that. I think, except for Feliz and Yafe at this point (and not sure I've tried), I've had all of them do that with/for me. Especially with the young snakes, I always show them the water bowls when I put them back every few times to make sure they know where they are.

I work hard and take a lot of pride in working with and building trust and a rapport with each one of my animals.

I know I keep saying it, but that's why I think I am very close to closing, if not done with, the collection. Yes, I know, I've said it before, and yes, that was like 4 or 5 animals ago, and yes, I've added a lot lately.

However, it's not just a time and energy thing. I wouldn't want to jeopardize these precious moments, like Behira falling asleep on my lap for an hour.

It would have to be a very special animal at this point to cause me to make another addition (not that Solana, Ezzy, Yafe, Feliz, and Ferry are not very special; they all are).

You are one lucky dad!

Behira had some fun on the couch today.

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Doesn't happen too often, but I caught Behira in a light phase. Took a few pictures in not great light and with my iPhone, but it still shows a stark contrast to her dark phase and her in between phases.

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Looking great Dave, I love how boas go thru these dark and light phases, has behira got a pure cream belly or is it speckled looks clear from that photo some of mine have speckles and some are as clean as can be

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Originally Posted by richardhind1972

Looking great Dave, I love how boas go thru these dark and light phases, has behira got a pure cream belly or is it speckled looks clear from that photo some of mine have speckles and some are as clean as can be

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Rich, I am pretty sure it's cream colored. However, I'll get back to you on that.

So of course, I post pictures from last night, then go down to the reptile area, and Behira has dropped a "butt bomb." So I took her out to clean her tank.

I weighed her and she's now 1,230G. She seems to gain about 30G per 110G (give or take) medium rat. She also fell asleep wrapped around my arm waiting for the F10SC to do its job. What a sweetie.

Pictures below.

P.S. Rich - you can see her belly and my memory is correct; cream colored.

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Ok cool Dave , just wasn't sure whether ghosts had speckled bellies or not

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Look what Katie got me for Christmas!

Two signs for the reptile area!

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Now that's a gift!

Awesome! You musta been "good" this year...:D

Those are awesome!

Behira is doing great. I haven't talked about her too much of late, which is unusual.

I took some pictures of her the other day and I'll post them below.

Additionally, I had the opportunity today to hold a 10 year old female Kahl Albino BCI. She was a total puppy dog, like Behira, and I got to spend quite some time with her. When I had held the female sunglow at the reptile show a while back, it was for all of 30 seconds. This girl I got to spend a meaningful amount of time with and really get a feel for what a full grown Behira will be like. This girl seemed well cared for and not too big. She had been used by a friend of my friend, Adam (who is a breeder and owns a local reptile shop), as a snake/reptile ambassador. He recently gave her to Adam to breed as he has a male het Kahl and moonglow and she is Kahl and beleived het moonglow.

I've seen giant female BCI's and I am not a fan. I plan to slow grow Behira and I've talked at length with people like Jeff Ronne who preach keeping them lean and healthy over feeding huge meals and shortening their life. Believe me, a healthy female BCI is an impressive animal, I don't need to make Behira an extra foot and an extra 10+ pounds just so I can tell people how big my Boa is!

I plan to feed Behira large rats as an adult, and if that means she needs to eat every 2-3 weeks instead of a small rabbit or an XL, or bigger, rat ever 4-6, fine. XL rats or bigger are too fatty and boas do not do well with fat. Rabbits are fine nutritionally, but will cause her to grow more than she needs.

Female BCI's can easily be 5.5 - 6FT or so and 12-15 pounds and healthy and happy. I've been told they breed longer and produce healthier litters at those sizes as well than bigger (7FT 20+ pound) females. They also, as stated above, live longer.

I am not trying to preach and I am only saying what I've been told and what I plan to do. If you feel differently or want to do something different with your Boa, be my guest. That's your prerogative. Not my place to tell other people how to live their life or how to feed their snake.

In any event, spending time with her today gave me continued confidence, and excitement, about Behira growing up. I have no doubt that I can handle her at that size and that the work I am putting in now, and have put in, plus her general demeanor to begin with, will equate to a big puppy dog as well. I am really excited to see her at that size, but have no intention of rushing either. I'll have to wait another 3-5 years, but that's okay. I'll have a long time to enjoy her!

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​"Pardon me. Do you have a moment to talk about our lord and savior, Medusa?"

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​"Dad? Are those big mites?!? Why would you keep those in the house!??"

"No, Behira. Those are Dubai Roaches. They are food for your sisters, the Leopard Geckos. They love them and are good for them."

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And.....Asleep in my lap again!

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This is the Kahl Albino Girl. She has a growth on her neck, but it's been checked out and isn't growing or harmful. It also doesn't bother her at all and she sheds normally, etc.

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Originally Posted by dakski

This is the Kahl Albino Girl. She has a growth on her neck, but it's been checked out and isn't growing or harmful. It also doesn't bother her at all and she sheds normally, etc.

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Interesting you mentioned the growth. Eli (my adult normal bp) has two flat disc shaped growths, one on the side of his head and one further down his side. They were checked out visually and it was decided that as long as they did not appear to cause pain or prevent normal activities, we’d leave them be. They don’t prevent him constricting and eating prey, he does not react when they are inspected or pressed, and they haven’t grown and larger or changed shape in the 15+ years they’ve been there. His sheds are perfect.

I’d already been down the road with a snake that had an abscess that had to be opened and cleaned out, then left open to heal from the inside out with daily cleanings and injections on top of it, only to lose him in the end. I cannot imagine he did not feel pain during that time. If Eli suffers no ill effects from his ‘warts’, I saw no reason to subject him to surgery. If there was any inkling he was suffering, that would be a different story.

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Originally Posted by Dianne

Interesting you mentioned the growth. Eli (my adult normal bp) has two flat disc shaped growths, one on the side of his head and one further down his side. They were checked out visually and it was decided that as long as they did not appear to cause pain or prevent normal activities, we’d leave them be. They don’t prevent him constricting and eating prey, he does not react when they are inspected or pressed, and they haven’t grown and larger or changed shape in the 15+ years they’ve been there. His sheds are perfect.

I’d already been down the road with a snake that had an abscess that had to be opened and cleaned out, then left open to heal from the inside out with daily cleanings and injections on top of it, only to lose him in the end. I cannot imagine he did not feel pain during that time. If Eli suffers no ill effects from his ‘warts’, I saw no reason to subject him to surgery. If there was any inkling he was suffering, that would be a different story.

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I am glad Eli is okay, but very sorry you lost your other snake.

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Originally Posted by dakski

I am glad Eli is okay, but very sorry you lost your other snake.

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Thanks, Dave. The one I lost was Storm, a grey rat snake. He had what appeared to be a small scratch on his neck when I purchased him, which turned out to be infected and abscessed. It was no fun for any of us...as you know I’m quite partial to my scaly babies.

As for Eli, I’m glad the growths never changed or grew and don’t give him any problems. Considering he’s had them for more than half the time I’ve owned him, I’d say we made the right call to leave them be.

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Originally Posted by Dianne

Thanks, Dave. The one I lost was Storm, a grey rat snake. He had what appeared to be a small scratch on his neck when I purchased him, which turned out to be infected and abscessed. It was no fun for any of us...as you know I’m quite partial to my scaly babies.

As for Eli, I’m glad the growths never changed or grew and don’t give him any problems. Considering he’s had them for more than half the time I’ve owned him, I’d say we made the right call to leave them be.

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Yeah, I love the scaly babies too! Can't say I don't love my furry babies too though! My dogs are precious are well.

However, having gone through what we went through, and are hopefully over, with Yafe, I can only imagine how heartbreaking it would be to have done that all for naught.

So sorry again Dianne.

David

She's looking good! That reduced patterning is awesome...

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Originally Posted by cletus

She's looking good! That reduced patterning is awesome...

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Thank you cletus. Behira's really starting to get very rich coloration. The reduced patterning is definitely cool too. On the flip side, I have Feliz, who's pattern is so incredibly sharp and he has amazing contrast. Opposite ends of the spectrum, but both beautiful.

She's already impressive, but it's going to awesome to eventually see her at size.

Really looking great Dave, really starting to to look more adult now,
That big albino looked nice too,there strength is just so impressive in larger adult boas

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Originally Posted by richardhind1972

Really looking great Dave, really starting to to look more adult now,
That big albino looked nice too,there strength is just so impressive in larger adult boas

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Thank you Rich. She's going to shed soon as well, I believe anyway. She's not showing signs at all, but she's due soon. Will be interesting to see her after her next shed and how rich her colors are.

Behira is definitely getting a more adult body and head structure.

Totally agree on the adult boa strength. Incredibly impressive. However, they seem to know not to abuse it. Even Behira is pretty good about that as well, but this big girl, was awesome about it; very gentle. Little Feliz, he will practically take my finger off, or at least cut circulation, just putting him down in his tank. He doesn't want to fall, and I understand that, but even at 165G or so, is WOW strong. However, he uses all of it! He hasn't figured out finesse yet!

Behira was being goofy today (pictures below).

Also, I spoke to Jeff Ronne today about something else, and showed him the pictures of the female BCI I held yesterday. He clarified, and so I want to as well.

He said if I feed large rats every 3 weeks or so, Behira could get that big. It would take time, but she would probably get that big. However, if I stick to mediums and feed every 3 weeks for now and then every 3-4 as she gets older, it will take her about 6 years or so (total - so another 4 or so) to reach adult size, but that size would be much less than the female pictured in the post above. He said you can keep a female perfectly happy and healthy at 5-6FT and 8-12 pounds. He guess the female in the picture to be 16-18 pounds.

He said if I want a happy and healthy female, on the small side, to feed medium rats and maybe an occasional large rat, if ever, and she would probably stay under 10 pounds and live a long time.

He told me about a female he had that he kept under 5ft and about 5 pounds her whole life. She lived about 20 years and was happy and healthy. He also said that more people are keeping their females smaller for breeding purposes. Not that small, but probably closer to 10-12 pounds than much bigger than that.

This is new information to me and I wanted to share.

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That's interesting,think she likes your glasses Dave

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Originally Posted by richardhind1972

That's interesting,think she likes your glasses Dave

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Likes them? She can’t stay off them!

it's not some great secret or anything, feed smaller meals, they stay smaller. That's how I and a lot of boa breeders I know keep males small and have for years - sticking to medium rats. There would be no difference for a female. Also if and when you do move her to larges, there's no need for every 2-3 weeks. Once a month should be fine, you are so on her, you'll notice if she starts looking too thin pretty quickly and can bump up if needed.
:gj:

Behira was wanting food tonight. She was ready to go! I used the hook to calm her down and take her out. Total puppy dog as usual once out.

I updated the hook training video thread I started a while ago with the new video: https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...14#post2670814. Look for the 1-11-19 post.

The first picture was her when I took the drape off, ready for food. The other pictures were here a few minutes later, chilling with me.

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I was off. Feeding day was this week. Behira was right; I was wrong.

She did not hesitate with her 110G F/T medium rat.

BAM!

Also, she had some bonding time this weekend with my niece, Meghan, who adores her. I think the feeling is mutual.

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/zAIFrOK.jpg

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Your niece is getting a wonderful & early education about snakes. :gj: