Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello everyone,
I live by myself and right now have a neonate male anerythristic boa. Supposing that he'll grow to a size of seven feet (give or take) would you say that this is a snake that will grow to be big and strong enough to pose a legitimate threat to a 20 year old guy? I'm alluding to the possability of the snake biting and throwing a coil around me for some reason (he appears, at this point, to be extremely "tame". I love handling my snakes and I'm just wondering if I should take steps to ensure that someone else is with me while I'm handling and feeding him as an adult. Thanks for your time and input,
_Wayne.

So long as you handle him regularly he will probably become very calm and tractable. Usually boas tend to calm down with age anyway. Even if he was the nastiest boa going at full adult size with proper handling techniques he should not pose you any threat. Again this all depends on your experience level and confidence in handling snakes in general as anything is possible. The key is to always show respect and use common sense.

Did you watch "The Big Squeeze" on Animal Planet last night and are now wondering?

Jason Gonzalez

That's exactly what happened! So what do you think?

I knew after watching that show. It was going to scare people. 1 point I would like to make is the guys that got coiled had been doing something wrong. Like the sent of prey or handling a large snake by themselves . and when I say (large snake by themselves) most of these were 15 ft. Plus snakes lol like they said at the end of the show if you keep your wits about you and keep your self educated you should be ok and enjoy your herp.
....Now I am not an expert and this is just my opinion.....
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1.2.0 ball python (aragorn, arwen,`eowyn)
1.0.0 100% het pied (frodo)
1.0.0 columbian boa (squiggles)
1.0.0 rat snake (alabastered)
0.1.0 corn snake (baby)
0.0.2 whites tree frog (trevor, kirmet)
0.0.5 pacific green tree frogs
3.2.0 cats (rockie, bs, brownie, lerrado, kole)
1.3.0 kids (dilyen, dakota, chyanne, sierra)
Brian n Chrissy
"snakes are kind of like potato chips, you cant have just one"

Well I think if anyone is really worry about that and have a few female Sunglows, Motleys, Jungles, Ghosts, you could send them to me I will take them from you, so you do not have to put your life in danger.
E-mail me, LOL.
Not but seriously.
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Joel Pretz

and I find it hard to believe the guy who was "just going to change the water" was attacked as said. He just seemed to anti snake to have been telling the truth, kind of misplacing blame, ya know?? "I always look out of the corner of my eye, and the snake was coiled and docile, I look away for one second and he latched onto my face", from my experience, that is just about impossible to go from coiled position and make a 3' lunge with accuracy. Either way, aerial access enclosures are NO GOOD for large boids, and if you plan on reaching into your snakes enclosure, be sure to lightly nudge it on the nose with an inanimate object to turn it's feeding responses off (cold bottles of water work GREAT, but a snake hook will do). I saw that show last night and listened to that guys statement and saw a bunch of new boa enthusiasts just turned off.. And to make matters worse, they played the statement at the end during credits.. Nothing like one man's irresponsible mistake misleading the mass public.

Well said that is what I was thinking. a quote from that guy, "they are wild and can not be tamed" Duh if you think you can train a snake to sit and roll over you are mistaken and should not have one.
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1.2.0 ball python (aragorn, arwen,`eowyn)
1.0.0 100% het pied (frodo)
1.0.0 columbian boa (squiggles)
1.0.0 rat snake (alabastered)
0.1.0 corn snake (baby)
0.0.2 whites tree frog (trevor, kirmet)
0.0.5 pacific green tree frogs
3.2.0 cats (rockie, bs, brownie, lerrado, kole)
1.3.0 kids (dilyen, dakota, chyanne, sierra)
Brian n Chrissy
"snakes are kind of like potato chips, you cant have just one"

Thanks for the input everyone! I'm glad that i got the kind of responses I was hoping for! Take care,
_Wayne.

Follow the advice of the posts below and you should be fine. As for the show, I think it did more damage to our hobby than anything else. I hope we (the herp community) were the only ones who did watch it, and there aren't any more bans that come from it. God knows we don't need that kind of publicity!! Take care!

Jason Gonzalez

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Just use common sence, keep a hook handy incase they cop a tude while they are out. Don't get to thinking he's your buddy he could never hurt you, it's a snake. Keep other pets away when you have the snake out.
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Ed Lilley, www.constrictorsnw.com

first all the snakes in that show were burms,retics and afrocks....no boa constrictors anywere....but i realize not everyone knows the difference...(almost everyone i meet asks my if my boa is a "python"...and as far as i know,no one has EVER been killed by a boa constrictor...well exept for some small animals...as for saftey...a male boa dosent really get big enough to hurt you (unless you are very weak or dont know what your doing...in closing maybe we should all email someone at animal planet and try to get them to show a more positive side to snakes as "pets"...maybe they could show one of the big reptile shows the way they do the dog shows....then everyone can see that not all snakes are vicious monsters...and maybe if noone watch those stupid,insipid shows they will quit playing them...