Argumente among friends

When someone says they have a boa constrictor, what does that snake look like?

depends on the location, most likley they are reffering to a BCI.

Like pretty much any of these:
http://images.google.com/images?q=boa+constrictor&hl=en

At any rate, it generally refers to any locality of Boa constrictor constrictor or Boa constrictor imperator.

so what size are we talking?

how old is it?

Depends.

BCI's are generally 5 to 8 feet depending on the sex of the animal and BCC's are generally more on the order of 7 to 11 feet depending on the sex of the animal. What it really comes down to with boa's is locality. Those sizes are very general. You might get a giant BCI or a really small BCC. If you are just going to buy one from a petstore, more than likely its a Columbian BCI.

Moved to the RedTail Forum.

Or with a dwarf locality, you might have even a 4' adult BCI versus an adult BCC at 10-12 ft.

Alot of female BCI's can hit 10ft
i've been around and in contact with several in my boa expiriences.

I like your rationale Marla. I use Google for everything. So helpful when you wannt a pic of something!
However, Harry Potter is not sitting with a boa in one of the pics on that site; it looks like a burm to me. :)

Yeah, I was amused by the Harry pic, too! :)