Boas vs Balls

Well I'm due to pick up my new girl this weekend. It will be my first ever boa (although I've held someone else's adult before) and I'm starting to wonder how different the personality will be vs a BP - my BP (a year now) is so sweet, docile and has never, ever attempted to bite anyone. Like I said, it's a year old already, hasn't been handled much I would imagine as the breeder has just over 200 snakes. He was going to keep this one for possibly breeding but has decided to let her go.

With my BP I lift her hide, talk to her, then gently stroke her before lifting her out - does the same apply to boas?

Any insight into these critters' personalities would be much appreciated :)

i have boughten many boas from big breeders who dont handel there snakes. i will give you the same advice that was given to me. day 1 put the boa in the new cage, then leave it extreemly alone for one hole week. day 7 feed it a appropriat sized rat or mouse. then leave it alone for another 7 days. on day 14 pick it up slowly from the midsection. hold for about 2 mins. do this every day for about a week. after this breaking in period you should have a well settled in snake. boas are good natured and quite gentel but juvies can be a bit nippy. avoid sudden movement. once you snake gets used to you they usually become puppy dog tame.i love all of mine and they all have there own personalitys. i wish you the best of luck with your new boa. if you have any questions dont hesitate to ask.

fish

I am a previous ball python owner, never owned a boa...but i've *read* that boa's are not near as picky eaters as ball pythons. When i get back into reptiles, I am going to pick up a BCI.

Sue I can only speak from my limited exposure to Rauri and now Severus. They both seem very calm and easy to handle snakes, not given to being terribly shy or overly head shy. Given that this one you're getting is a year old and hasn't been handled much that will probably be a factor but I'm sure with patience you can overcome it.

Boa's seem to have stupendous feeding responses and don't seem to be as prey specific as ball pythons. Again though, remember I have very limited experience so hopefully someone like Kara or Gerry will jump in that have years upon years of working with these wonderful snakes.

Hey Sue, hows it going? I have my 2 boas and they are as gentle as can be. I would trust even my little 3 y/o cousin holding her because of her calm tempermemt and she is so perdictable. Only heard her hiss 1 time and thats because she was in shed. As far as feeding goes, boas will usually eat any time food is offered except in shed for me at least. I like them a lot more than balls because of there great attitude, always willing to feed, and large yet handleable size.

As for taking her out of her cage, I just open it up and pat the substrate and she sticks her head out of the hide box, thats when I reach in and pick her up. You don't want to just reach in because since boas are fairly large, their bites can leave a good mark and a full grown boa could possibly threaten your life if it got ahold of you. Very rare for a cbb boa to bite you can go into full constriction though, smelling like food is the only thing I would think that could cause this. Good luck!!

Jake

I am going to agree with Fish on this one...if you're buying from a so-called "bigger" breeder then expect the boa to be more aggressive and more apt to hiss and bite. It is a good rule to let them "settle" in for a solid two weeks before beginning to handle them. You have to remember that when they come from a bigger supplier they are not handled nearly as much as they should be. They are used to be left alone and never bothered with except for cleaning and feeding. They WILL calm down though, it just takes some TCL is all. The Salmon and 2 Hybrid Hets I have are awesome pets...now. They weren't when I first got them though. They didn't like to be handled or messed with at all. TLC finally brought them around and now they are fine and friendly boys and girls. Good luck.

Thanks for your input guys :) Yep, it's going good for me, Jake ATM anyway like what have I let myself in for tomorrow? LOL


I'm going to go along with the advice and leave her alone for a couple of weeks except for feeding and cleaning (sit on hands time again).

So when it comes to it I should never take her out of her hide? I do that quite a bit with Emily (BP) otherwise it seems I would never see her sometimes. She comes out every day except for the 2 feeding days.

Jimi - the snake I'm getting is a Salmon Hypo BCI - I've been told it should only get to about 6-7 feet as that's the size of the parents - though you never know she might get bigger.

Here's the pic of her from the breeder's page

http://boamorph.leeardern.com/stock_...p?stock_id=440

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Originally Posted by Razaiel

Thanks for your input guys :) Yep, it's going good for me, Jake ATM anyway like what have I let myself in for tomorrow? LOL


I'm going to go along with the advice and leave her alone for a couple of weeks except for feeding and cleaning (sit on hands time again).

So when it comes to it I should never take her out of her hide? I do that quite a bit with Emily (BP) otherwise it seems I would never see her sometimes. She comes out every day except for the 2 feeding days.

Jimi - the snake I'm getting is a Salmon Hypo BCI - I've been told it should only get to about 6-7 feet as that's the size of the parents - though you never know she might get bigger.

Here's the pic of her from the breeder's page

http://boamorph.leeardern.com/stock_...p?stock_id=440

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Thats a very pretty boa!!! Let us know how his temperment is when he arrives!!

I'm going to go along with the advice and leave her alone for a couple of weeks except for feeding and cleaning (sit on hands time again).

good move. it is just not worth rushing things. getting bit is as termatic for you as it is them. i have 12 bci's. you could easly keep it at around the 6-8 ft mark. just dont power feed. just a good sized meal every other week and you should achive that smaller size. but bci's that are power fed will reach monsterious sizes. i have a 10ft 45lbs male normal bci that was a rescue.

fish

Thank you! I've just heard from the breeder - he said she's nice and tame so hopefully she'll stay that way for me. Don't worry - I shall leave her well alone for a bit, just let her get used to seeing me about. I've got her viv up in my bedroom as it should be more peaceful there, things are always hectic downstairs in our house and we have a dog (and sometimes a monitor) wandering around.

Should I just be feeding her once every two weeks? I currently feed my BP (she's also just a year old) once a week - though I'm starting to stretch it out now to once every 8 days. I don't want to powerfeed but I don't want to underfeed either.

Feed an appropriate sized prey item once per week. Boas love to eat and I have never had any of mine refuse a meal. Good luck with her!

you can feed an appropriate sized rodent weekly. but your bci female will reach 8-10 ft. if you feed every other week it will not grow to be so ginormious, with no ill effects. i have read this first hand out of the Boaconstrictor mannual. from the herp society. it all depends on what you want a pet or an animal to breed. as a pet you may not want a snake that is 9-10 ft and weaighs about 30lbs. but if you only want a mannagable pet that is between 5-7 ft 10-15 lbs i would only feed every other week. (like i said earlyer it will not hurt the snake at all) and will proabbly make your snake live longer. it has been proven a snake that is thinner will have a much less of a chance of organ failure.

matt

I feed my baby male born 4-12-06 about every 7 days now and my 2 year old female thats 5' about every 2 weeks now. Neither are obese at all. I don't really do a schedule myslelf. I just wait till they look like they are back to normal and becoming increasingly active by looking for food. They seem to do well with that

It's the "actively seeking food" bit that alarms me - they might mistake me for food LMAO!! I don't want a really enormous snake though that is unhealthy, so I'll feed less often than once a week. Should I apply this to my BP as well now she's a year old? Neither of these snakes are fully grown yet that was why I was wondering if I should wait.

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Originally Posted by Razaiel

It's the "actively seeking food" bit that alarms me - they might mistake me for food LMAO!! I don't want a really enormous snake though that is unhealthy, so I'll feed less often than once a week. Should I apply this to my BP as well now she's a year old? Neither of these snakes are fully grown yet that was why I was wondering if I should wait.

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Actively seeking food is just my way of saying they are out and about in their cages more often. If you don't smell like food, and follow their body lanuguage(hisses, not willing coming out of their cage) then you shouldn't have any problems. I wouldn't even be worried, just leave him/her along with no handling for 2 weeks like everyone said and the rest will usually just fall into play. BTW, I've yet to see a boa besides when in shed that won't come out to exercise when you let them. Very fun and any fears you have about them will soon be relieved as soon as you hold him and see the tameness and personality they have.


Good luck

I would continue feeding an appropriate prey item once per week for both the ball and boa. That is in NO way powerfeeding.

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Originally Posted by jglass38

I would continue feeding an appropriate prey item once per week for both the ball and boa. That is in NO way powerfeeding.

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Agreed. Boas are hard to over feed but I would consider more than 1 time a week for a juvi boa over feeding. My girl Ruby was eating XL rats everyweek for a while and she was getting obese. I could tell. Just stick to 1 time a week until you get on lets say medium rats go to around every 10 days. Then for large on up I would do around every 14 days depending on the body condition. Bunnies can vary but thats a long ways away so lets not get into that.

PS Sue, I got banned from rtb.net

I got her home yesterday - long trip - 3 hours there and 2 1/2 back. The snake is absolutely adorable - when the breeder said originally to a question I had about how big she was and came back with the reply he had over 200 snakes and couldn't be completley sure - he meant including all the babies - so as he'd had her for a year she seems to have been handled regularly and is totally happy with it. She's tucked safe in her viv now - she's got a hide one end and a load of foliage the other to hide in and a big branch thingy in the middle. I thought (being used to BPs) she would just scoot for the nearest hide and I wouldn't see her for days - but she wasn't at all interested in hiding from us. She was zipping all round the viv, up the ceramic guard and the branches and finally settled in front of the vivarium for a bit before waking up and exploring some more.

This breeder also believes in not feeding too much - he mentioned the same as you did, Fish, about feeding till they're obese and it leading to shorter lives and organ failure plus, in males, a disinclination toward breeding. I shall get her settled in though and feeding once a week starting the weekend though she's such a calm snake I almost feel she's settled in already - but don't worry - I shall continue sitting on my hands :D

Jake - You got banned???? I didn't realize that but haven't been there much lately. Well, I got a warning for something that seemed totally over the top to me - I used a blasphemous word (not even swear word!) it would mean nothing in the UK. I couldn't believe it then up came the little red warning signs ... I also got ridiculed for saying a Ball Python should be kept at a hotter temp than the low to mid 80s - ah well ...

Edit: She has a name now - It's Sakura ... Japanese for cherry-blossom

Congrats Sue! BCI's are so different than BP's we're finding with our very limited experience. Severus came out of his shipping like he rides around in a box every other day LOL. We're still giving him his quiet week but he peeks out or comes out to watch me regularily (he's doing his quarantine time in the room the computer is in).

That's a lovely name you picked for her...very unique and pretty. Oh and we will feed Severus every week just like the BP's until he's a fully mature male then go to every other week like we've done with Rauri. Hopefully that's the correct feeding schedule as that's pretty much what we were told to do when we took the big fella in.

Thanks, Jo - good that Severus is settling in well too :) They look so adorable when they come up to the front of the glass to look at us. When my little girl was out and about last night I didn't see her very well when I first looked in (I was expecting her to be in her half log still) so I was peering inside the viv and suddenly there was this little face coming towards me to stare and flick her tongue - I'm in love already :love: I can't wait for her 2 weeks to pass.

Lots of good info you have received here. Hope you enjoy the little girl. Boas are a lot of fun to have.

I have received lots of good info - this is a great place with lots of helpful people :D

not munch a little of the same