Size in the boas (Boa c. ssp.) is a factor of genetics and food availability. In captivity feeding (and temperature) is the dominant factor. How long or how massive your boa will get is perhaps 75% due to how you feed it and keep it. But some boa groups do have the genetic potential to be much larger or mature much smaller than others.



In nature the amount and quality of food available varies according to where they live and even seasonally. Sometimes of the year they can be nearly dormant due to weather or lack of moisture and scarcity of food. In culture most keepers supply their boas with an eternal soft summer day and top-quality food as often as desired.



Breeding for a certain look or morph has also yielded unexpected changes in the boa populations. In some cases, most notably the Hog Is. boas, this seems to have enhanced their size potential to some extent. Wild-collected or F1 examples of some dwarfish boas may be up to 30% smaller than successive generations. There are other less benign effects of inbreeding...



And this is an important note that is not often discussed: Length alone does not give an exact comparison of size.. a 4' Colombian BCI might be as large in diameter as a soda can or a little larger and be within normal weight, a 5' Corn Is. boa will be considerably more slender.



Here are some numbers. Judging by their initial growth rates observed here or by other keepers as well as the minimum size that they will successfully breed and bear young this list will give you some understanding of Boa sizes, beginning with the smallest. The size in " is minimum breeding size observed:



Tarahumara BCI (Mexico) 37"

Hog Is. (Honduras) 41"

Caulker Cay (Belize) 42"

Nicargua dwarf (some populations) 42"

Corn Is. (Nicaragua) 44"

Sonoran Desert BCI 46"

Can Cun or N. Yucatan 46"



Certainly some of the other insular boas could fit in that list but I do not have access to info from known pure locality groups to share. It seems plain that some boas have the genetics to mature at a substantially smaller size but keep in mind my earlier observation on feeding. If you try to feed your dwarf boas to the size of a redtail, you might get pretty close.




-----
Gus

A. Rentfro

RioBravoReptiles.com



"Quality is not an accident. Perfectly healthy animals are a minimum requirement.. everything else is just salesmanship" gus

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