Quote Originally Posted by frankykeno View Post
Personally I think if you work with Jimi or another boa breeder of that knowledge and standard, you won't go wrong. I'm glad you aren't looking at a pet store purchase. I was in our local chain store pet store the other day and about fell over at the $169.99 price tag for the poor little BCI that got stuck being sold by them. Some new keeper is going to put out that cash and gawd help them and that underfed looking, stressed out little boa.

It sounds like you are taking your time and really making long term decisions about owning a boa. I'd definitely suggest a male as they have a tendency to stay smaller. There's a huge difference in our 3 year old male BCI (Severus) and our 16 year old female BCI (Tequila). While Luke can easily manage Sev on his own, Tequila isn't a snake I want my teenagers handling alone ever. For that matter, I don't handle her myself alone since I'm barely over 5 feet and she's between 8 and 9 feet long.

I will say BCI's I think are a great choice. They normally are even tempered if handled correctly. Aren't terribly picky about what they eat. Aren't easily stressed as compared to ball pythons. A very nice snake for a pet for the right owner.
Yeah, I'm really getting tempted on just buying from Jimi. I've seen some pretty nice Boas at our Expo a while ago but I really want to not have to deal with mites or any of that and I know I have the best chance of a healthy snake with Jimi. =) I'd rather sacrifice that extra money from buying from him then having to spend that money on vet bills.

I don't remember if you posted it before, but how long is Severus and do you think he'll grow any longer? (I have no idea about what age BCIs stop growing...)

Yeah, I got lucky with my Ball Python. As soon as he came into our house, he hasn't had ONE feeding problem EVER. I say that was more than good luck. ehh?

I have two more questions though, one, I have a 3 1/2 year old in my house (but he's a BIG one at that!) and my mom's all freaked out that if the snake gets 8 feet big or something that he could mistake my little brother as food. I HIGHLY think thats unlikely... I mean, he'd just be eating jumbo rats or small rabbits at that length but I just wanted to get a Boa owner's opinion on that to show her thats pretty much impossible. Also, secondly, do you think I'd ever have to feed him rabbits? I don't care about actually having to do it, but I don't have a sorce for rabbits that I can think of... Can I just go about giving him a couple rats instead?