RT Boa or Burmese Python that is the question

[drugaria]

Actually I have a number of snakes shipped in that are very happy and healthy in my collection. Reputable breeders tend to be top shippers (they are certified by the shipper) and the snakes come in generally in beautiful shape. Just got 5 in recently - shipped in cool weather all the way from Texas to Ohio, beautifully, safely and professionally packed. Every one of them is perfect, all have settled in and are eating.

Still it's a chance to be taken, and I know for a fact that any animal gets stressed out in the shipping process, I've worked in the shipping industry and have seen packages being kicked around .

[littleindiangirl]

Yes shipping is stressful and it certainly a risk, but many times they aren't even in the air for a full 24 hours. There are some horror stories out there, but I can say that our snakes all arrived within 24 hours, warm, and very secure with no damage to the box. Fedex did a top notch job with our snakes, and got them to us very quickly.

[ladywhipple02]

Yes I would. Don't you people really see the purpose of this experiment?
I certainly hope that everyone of you testdrives their new car and does some research before you purchase it .

Does this answer make anyone else feel slightly ill???

NO, I do NOT see the purpose of this experiment. If I like a snake, I do not poke it and prod it to try to make it angry. I check and make sure it's healthy---which you clearly have no care for if you're purchasing a mite infested animal---and happy. It it bites or hisses a little, big deal! I'll work with it, no biggie.

I agree with Jo on the immaturity on this one. The fact that you MUST have this snake also speaks volumes. There are plenty of snakes that I have seen that I have wanted... and I have had to take a step back and think to myself, is this really the best thing for me or for the snake?

Perhaps it's time to take a step back and do some thinking? Instead of wanting to take advice, you seem to either ignore it or run right through it...

[drugaria]

Still that doesn't change tha fact that I don't get to interact with the snake before buyin it .

[littleindiangirl]

Well, why not wait until a reptile show? Like NARBC? (Just an example) At the show you can meet hundreds of breeders, handle the animals yourself. It's a great way to get first hand experience with the animal, have any questions answered by the breeder, and just get to meet some more enthusiasts like yourself.

Trust us, we all know what its like to see a snake and just HAVE TO HAVE IT. I am there most of the time I'm awake, but practicing patience will often have great results. I'm not putting you down, but sometimes buying from an unknown source like a pet store is just not going to be good, esp when it comes with free mites. Unless they produced the animal themselves and have done so for some time, I wouldn't trust them anymore than any good boa breeder like Jeremy Stone. (Someone who has worked with boas for YEARS, and is arguably one of the biggest boa breeders around.)

In the end, it's your decision, we're just trying to help you make an informed one.

[Freakie_frog]

Well Yes of course, I only used that as a quote.
Unfortunately my choices are very limited since I do not know any local breeders around here and I wouldn't buy a snake online without interacting with it first, and lets not forget how stressful the shipping process can be to an animal stuck in a box and being tossed around on conveyor belts in the shipping process.
As far as feeding record they said they have one. As you can see there isn't much choice here .

Why is interacting with it so important to you. If you can handle the animal and are ready to care for it think of it like a marriage for better or worse. Animals can be calmed with time and patient work. If your not willing or able to give that from the door walk away till you are.

Your choices are not limited they are narrowed by the manner you wish to get your animal. Which is no big deal but it also limits the number of and quality of animals at your reach. Which is totally your decision. But to knowing get an animal with mites and risk health of your other snakes and sacrifice the quality of the animals in you collection because of the possibility of stress from shipping or the fact that you might get a nippy baby is not the mark of a person that should be adding any new animals just yet. It sounds more like the kind of impulse by that cost loads in vet bills and ends all to often in keeper stress the inability to enjoy the animal they just MUST have.

As many have said boa's are no joke..They have way stronger feeding responses so a SFE is painful and can be dangerous. Prior to getting a boa think long term. Will you be able to house it in say 4-5 years when it is 4-6 feet long and eating a large rat every week or if its a female house a 9-11 foot snake with more strength than three men.

My suggestion: Take it or leave it. Get some time dealing with snakes first. I gather your new to snake keeping. Deal with some problems remember these animals are way long term. So when most people say "oh yea I want to add another snake. I think I'm ready cause I have been keeping a ball for 5 or six months" thats a drop in the bucket for the amount of time you will spend with it. To say "I think I'm ready to add another snake" means that person is not sure you can handle it.

An experienced keeper even of just one snake doesn't look at like "I think I'm ready" they simply say hey thats a hot animal I want to add that one and boom its done. I my self waited 2.5 almost three years before adding even one more ball to my collection of a whopping 1 when I first started keeping. I dealt with not feeding, escapes, temp problems, humidity problems, bad sheds, bedding scares and more and thats just with one snake.

As for trying to "piss it off" to test for temperament...Its a snake if you succeed in pissing it off it might bite you...brovo! you pissed off a snake and it bit you what does that prove? You poke and pester a snake long enough and it will poke back. I have animals that will bite you if you sat there and tried to piss them off, but I would hand these animals to a 4 year old with no worries. If your worried about getting bit...I'd suggest a different hobby..Because sooner or later you will get bit.

Remember marathon not sprint. Theres no rush at all on adding a new animal. There will be RTB and all sorts of boas to choose from for years to come. They are fantastic animals and offer years of companionship and enjoyment. But like any animal and snake in particular you have to take to good with the bad.

[drugaria]

I couldn't agree more with you Freakie Frog. So far your comment has been the most meaningfull, and not biased for which I Thank You. Bottom line is that every keeper wants a good animals in their collections depending upon on their criteria for good is. And because of that I am going to select it . Boas are certainly a "No Joke Snake" and I truely believe the extra effort selecting it is worth. With different individuals different instingts are stronger than others .They can be somewhat modified over the course of their life depending upon their interaction with the environment but cannot be changed.
For that reason interacting with a snake first is so important to me.

[drugaria]

Well then to make that equation make sense you'd have to "testdrive" that car into a brick wall to see how it reacts to "stress" wouldn't you. Poking at animals to irritate them is NOT an "experiment". It's a childish behaviour that personally I would send my kids to their rooms for doing. Then sit them down for a long talk about respect and common sense.

Well that is just your interpretation of this.

[littleindiangirl]

Apparently I read something different in his post.

[SatanicIntention]

Why would you even support a pet store than knowingly has mites? Mites suck blood, which make the snake anemic, which weakens the immune system, and the snake gets very sick. WHY? There are SO many good breeders out there with high quality animals, that it's really never a question for me to buy from them over a crappy pet store.

With a quality breeder, you KNOW that animal has been cared for properly, doesn't have internal OR external parasites, is well-started, eating and growing like it should.

With a pet store, you don't know any of those answers. That snake could be 8 months or it could be a stunted 3 year old.

I've had ALOT of snakes shipped to me, and all of them have come out of the box just fine, settled in quickly, and ate within the first week of having them. It's a minor setback in their world compared to the many vet visits, car rides, mite treatments, etc that you would have to put them through if you bought that pet store boa. Who knows what could be passed onto your Ball Python if you didn't properly quarantine..

I got my boa a year ago from Jo(Frankykeno) up in Michigan/Ohio. She rescued Sonja from this twit of a girl who didn't have a clue and was scared of the snake. Sonja was being kept in a 40 gallon tank with a big heat rock on one side and a huge tub of water on the other, no other heat sources. So, she was either freezing or was being burned. She actually came to Jo with a big burn from her chin to her vent on her belly. After a few months in Jo's care, Sonja was shipped down here by Casey Hulse and arrived just fine. She settled in and has been trucking along perfectly ever since.

She's now around 3-3.5 years old, 8ft long and weighs 25lbs+. She just ate a 2lb rabbit last night as a matter of fact.

I've handled Burmese Pythons of 8ft+ and I've held Sonja, and nothing really compares to the strength of a boa. I ALWAYS have another person available if I am taking her out of her enclosure. She's incredibly strong and doesn't just "sit there" like a limp noodle.

Why not try for a Carpet Python or something. They get to 7-8ft but are more slender. It's a good step up from a Ball.