Hogg Island boa opinion?

[mr. s]

Hey, I have been looking into Hogg Island boas for the past couple months and preparing to pick one up hopefully at a local show this weekend. I was just wondering how everyone likes theirs.

How do their personalities compare to ball pythons?
What do you generally think of owning one?

Thanks everyone.

[Aleria]

My hog island girl is not just the favorite snake I've ever owned, by my favorite animal period. And that's saying a lot considering I've owned nearly every domesticated house pet you can think of since the day I was born.
When it comes to personality, they are just like any other bci, it all depends on how much you work with them. If you buy an older one that hasn't had much handling, expect some general weariness of handling. If you buy an older one that was held a lot, you're likely to have a much calmer lovable snake. If you buy a baby then it will all be up to you as far as just how it's personality turns out.
And, although they are supposed to generally be one of the smaller morphs, I have seen plenty of pure hogs get into the 8'+ range, of course that does also still depend on whether you go with male or female. Being female mine is rather large to begin with. At last measure she was right at 8', and that was about 7 months ago. Their colors also seem to vary greatly. I have seen some of the hogs that have a very grainy brownish gray overall pattern with lots of speckling, and I have also seen ones like mine that have a very sharp clean gray/blue and salmon pink pattern with an orange tail and a handful of solid black speckles along the body.
I bought my girl from LLL Reptile back in 07 and they did allow me to request one with the least amount of speckling and I am very happy with her. A lot of others will recommend buying from a well known pure hog breeder, but I suppose that is up to you. I figure if you find one in particular that you fall in love with, go for it. They are gorgeous animals that have thus far been able to make some absolutely amazing new morphs and some even cleaner and more amazing pure hogs along the way.

[mr. s]

WOW, that was the kind of response that I was looking for.
Thanks very much miss.

I am surprised to hear that your HIB is pushing 8'. I'll hope that mine will stay smaller, but I'm sure that I'd be too attached to care when the time came.

Anyone else out there enjoy their Hogg Island boas?

[Aleria]

Yeah, the smaller size was one of the main reasons I went with a hog in the first place too besides the amazing look. But the bigger she got faster and faster I just didn't care and loved cuddling up with her for a few hours even more.
Prior to her the only thing I had was a bp and was a little weary of anything that'd get too large, but the size hasn't become too big of a deal for me. She's a little heavy for someone as small as me to haul around by myself, but I manage.

[Michelle.C]

My Hog Island Boa is only around 5' and he's an '07. Then again, he's male. He's also from the Rio Bravo line, so..very colorful. He's a stunning little guy and just happens to be my favorite animal in my collection. Their personalities are untouched in my opinion. Very personable and generally docile. Their color change is also a huge bonus.

[Aleria]

My Hog Island Boa is only around 5' and he's an '07. Then again, he's male. He's also from the Rio Bravo line, so..very colorful. He's a stunning little guy and just happens to be my favorite animal in my collection. Their personalities are untouched in my opinion. Very personable and generally docile. Their color change is also a huge bonus.

Your guy has quite the long tail pattern too. My girl's tail pattern ends right at her vent, very short, may just be a female thing though. Nearly all of the pattern along her back as she's grown has also lightened to the point of almost vanishing too. Now it looks like it's only her sides that have a pattern to them.
Some blurry cell phone pics, but actually managed to capture almost entirely true color with these ones. She gets very very blue in her lightest phase like that and loses almost all of that graininess you see when they're in dark phase. She's courting with my albino now.

[Michelle.C]

Your guy has quite the long tail pattern too. My girl's tail pattern ends right at her vent, very short, may just be a female thing though. Nearly all of the pattern along her back as she's grown has also lightened to the point of almost vanishing too. Now it looks like it's only her sides that have a pattern to them.
Some blurry cell phone pics, but actually managed to capture almost entirely true color with these ones. She gets very very blue in her lightest phase like that and loses almost all of that graininess you see when they're in dark phase. She's courting with my albino now.

She's a very pretty little lady. Okay, not so little, but she's gorgeous.

Peaches does the same thing, when he goes into his light phase, he almost gets whiteish blue. It's really quite stunning to see them go from one extreme to the other.

Honestly, I'd give up my entire collection before him. They are scaley heart thieves.

What line is she?

[Aleria]

No line at all that I know of. I actually just picked her up sight unseen from LLL reptile. Not what most would recommend for a first time reptile purchase, but I took the risk and was soooo glad I did when I first opened that box. She was super light and blue with a nearly hot pink patch covering the whole top of her head that first time I saw her, gorgeous.

[mr. s]

Thanks everyone for the replies and the pictures! I appreciate it very much.

Good news, I BOUGHT ONE! Yup, picked it up a great little female at a local show. Haha, it was the first time I ever took my girlfriend to a show and her first reaction when I asked what she thought of it was, "You have too many snakes", but I got it anyway, and now she is in LOVE with the little girl after just holding onto her while I got the enclosure finished. She even wants me to break tradition and NAME it...................women, eh?

[Tim Mead]

I sure hope any resulting babies from that pairing don't make it to the market place as Hog islands..They will be mutts and not of any viable use for a locality that is essentually extinct in the wild..