i want one! no no i need one!

[therunaway]

ok, i am looking into the bigger species, i have a ball python, and a corn, but i was just curious, would a 40gallon long be good for the rest of their life? aspen would be fine with me or even cypress mulch, feeding is fine, water(duh!), climbing stuff, and plants, the heat would be my only issue, where i live winters i really cold, summers provide tons of heat, just our ac would over ride the heat, which would be a good route to go, a ceramic heat emitter or a uth, or something else? give me ur opinions, also, which should i get bci or bcc, and are there morphs like in balls?

[therunaway]

i didnt mean ceramic heat emitter, i meant rhp,

[cmack91]

ok, i am looking into the bigger species, i have a ball python, and a corn, but i was just curious, would a 40gallon long be good for the rest of their life? aspen would be fine with me or even cypress mulch, feeding is fine, water(duh!), climbing stuff, and plants, the heat would be my only issue, where i live winters i really cold, summers provide tons of heat, just our ac would over ride the heat, which would be a good route to go, a ceramic heat emitter or a uth, or something else? give me ur opinions, also, which should i get bci or bcc, and are there morphs like in balls?

i wouldnt put an adult boa in anything with less than a 4x2 foot floor space, personally i consider that a bare minimum, even larger would be better, as for heating, it depends on the enclosure, for something like a boaphile or vision, i'd use an rhp, but if you have a rack room set up the usual flexwatt would be fine, if you want a fishtank, i'd use a combination of uth's and che's, and substrate doesnt really matter, its just whatever you would rather use

yes there are a variety of morphs in boas, from what i hear, most come from the bci's, but you should also look at all the different locality's.
look through here:
http://market.kingsnake.com/

in the boa section, the top three links are all "red tail boas", whether you want a bci or bcc is all up to what you like the most, just remember that bci's tend to be a bit smaller than bcc's (6-9 for bci, and a bit large for bcc), ive heard of specimens from both species reaching 12 feet, but thats just what ive heard and is probably quite rare

[Evenstar]

i wouldnt put an adult boa in anything with less than a 4x2 foot floor space, personally i consider that a bare minimum, even larger would be better....

I totally agree with this! A 40gal is definitely NOT big enough for an adult boa. It would be fine for the first year or even two if you get a baby though - so you'd have time to save for a larger enclosure.

RHPs are terrific and I'd stick with that for heating, especially with a larger enclosure. There's a lot of variables though so you shouldn't necessarily limit yourself to just that - the right wattage is really important and room temps, cage size, and other heating elements should be taken into consideration when picking out your RHP. You might have to combine an RHP with a UTH. CHE and lamps will suck out humidity so be careful with those...

I personally would stick with a BCI for your first boa. Some folks may disagree, but I've found BCCs to be slightly more tempermental and touchy about husbandry, not to mention they do get much larger. BCIs will be sizable without getting unmanagable and I love their personalities. My female, Peaches, is the sweetest and most personable snake I've ever owned. She's a doll!

The BCIs have morphs and there are quite a few nice ones to pick from. You'll find albinos, snows, hypos, ghosts, anerys, genetic stripes, etc. Pure lines of BCCs won't have established morphs as most breeders like to keep them pure, although you'll find some BCIs crossed with BCC blood.

I hope you don't think it too forward, but Tim Koppenhoffer with Special K Reptiles is a wonderful person to buy your first boa from. He is great to talk to and is very kind and helpful to newbies. I bought both my current boas from him and I have been extremely happy with them both. There are many fine breeders out there, but I do feel its nice to get your first from a recommended, knowledgable source. Good luck!

[xFenrir]

The rule of thumb I follow for housing is the length and the width of the enclosure should equal the length of the snake. Since I have a female and they get on the higher end of the length spectrum, I made my enclosure a 6ftx2ft, with a 3ft height so I could allow her to climb. Building your own enclosure isn't that hard, and it's fairly cheap, depending on what materials you use. I used sealed melamine wood though, because it's resistant to water naturally and the sealant keeps it watertight.

If you got a baby though, you could keep it in a tub for at least the first year, it's a lot cheaper and it allows you time to figure out exactly how you want to house it and to save up for it.