Alex I'm glad you're doing your research first and considering if you want another type of snake. That's always a benefit for both you and your snake.

Our Colombian boa is a male. We specifically wanted a male for our teenage son as they get a decent size but not usually as big as the females. Getting your boa from a reputable source that has sexed it properly is always a good idea.

If you have ball pythons and add in a boa, you'll want to do specific and careful quarantine and again, buy from a good source - not the local pet store. There are diseases boas can carry that may not show obvious effects but are deadly to ball pythons. It's not like this happens every day, but it is a consideration when you have a mixed collection.

I love the inquisitive nature of our boa. He's not easily stressed by handling and is generally just a big busy goof when he's out to visit. He does need watching closely as Severus will literally get into anything he can shove his snout into. LOL He's a well socialized snake that we've yet to hear even hiss. Sev is likely an unusually easy natured snake though so don't expect that from every boa.

Even Sev with his easy nature is a strong, aggressive snake on feeding night. Boa's have a lot of power in that strike, a long strike range and they are nothing to fuss with when they are hungry. This is a snake that preys on animals both on the ground and in the trees in the wild. They are not playing about when it's time to eat so keep that in mind and watch your fingers.

At maturity some people feed jumbo rats to large boa's, some do feed appropriately sized rabbits too. We had a large rescue female boa who ate jumbo rats, rabbits, guinea pigs, etc. She'd always been fed a varied diet having grown up in a pet store and basically could have cared less as long as it was warm and fuzzy - it was dinner. As long as you are offering top quality prey and enough of it to satisfy the size of the boa you are feeding, it'll be fine.

~EDIT~ if you are feeding rabbits, it's important to note that some rabbits are meat rabbits and bred specifically for that purpose, they are certain breeds that are better fleshed for that purpose (examples would be the New Zeland, the Californian or the Florida White just to name a few)