Wanting Information

[PhoenixGate]

Thank you everybody for the great posts! Now I have some reading material to work with.

Gio, I'm not necessarily interested in breeding boas, and I'm certainly not going to do anything right off the bat. I'm moving to Oregon for a year with my brother, building up money again and then we're moving to California to be closer to family. I'll be starting school then too. All my breeding plans are a few years off. I've wanted to breed ball pythons ever since I rescued one a few years back (even though that had a tragic ending), so when I do get into breeding that will be my first focus.

The boa I want to get in a couple months will be strictly a pet and never used for breeding. I just want a pet that I can enjoy taking care of and handling. I haven't been able to have snakes for two and a half years now, due to multiple moves (one of which was into a homeless shelter for 3 months) and I've had a hard enough time just keeping my cats. I've owned reptiles (my first was a pair of tokay geckos) and snakes since I was 16 and miss having them around. The only reason I'm considering getting a snake now is because this move will be a stable one into an apartment or small house and I'm moving to a full time job with the same company I'm working with now.

Rest assured, I never bring home an animal before I have all the caging requirements in hand and stable. When I bought my first snake at 17 I planned it carefully; I'd wanted a corn snake since going to a reptile show at the previous year. I had an appropriate sized cage, heating and cage clamps since I knew I'd be getting a baby corn and they're known escape artists. I had a good book, Corn Snakes, the Comprehensive Care Guide by Kathy Love and Bill love, and I'd joined a good forum at the time as well.

I'll be exploring local pet stores while I'm down there but I'll take a look at what's available online as well. If it's not too expensive I can get a morph and if I feel like breeding him or her five or ten years down the line it won't be just a plain old boa.

Also, beautiful boas Gio. You've got good looking setups as well.