Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I read somewhere that all common boas have 23 or more dorsal blotches in there pattern up to the vent, and that true red tails have less. Is there any validity to that?
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1.1 Columbian common boas (Zeus, Athena)
0.1 BCI 50% het albino salmon (Aprodite)
1.1 Corn snakes (Appolo, Boreas)
0.1 King snake tri striped cal morph (Helios)

BC imperator 22-30 saddles
BC longicauda 19-21
BC melanogaster 20-21
BC ortoni 22-28
BC constrictor 15-21
BC amarali 22-28
BC occidentalis 22-30

so does that mean that mine is a mutt? or maybe another line because i only count 19 to the vent

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2.2 Columbian common boas (Zeus, Athena, Aphodite, Hades)
1.1 Corn snakes (Appolo, Boreas)
0.1 King snake tri striped cal morph (Helios)

He's to pretty to be a mutt. With 19 saddles he could be (Boa Constrictor constrictor) or (Boa Constrictor longicauda). I don't know all the morphs or trade names. But the only way to narrow it down for sure is to do a scale count. More than likely you have a BCC. If this is to be proven you need to count ventrals and at mid section rows all the way around. BCC will have 234-243 ventrals and 81-95 rows of scales around the mid section.

do i count all ventral scales or just to the vent. Also is there any possibility it could be a BCI with less blotches than normal?
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2.2 Columbian common boas (Zeus, Athena, Aphodite, Hades)
1.1 Corn snakes (Appolo, Boreas)
0.1 King snake tri striped cal morph (Helios)

ventral scales are all the belly scales (past the vent too). The dorsal saddle count isn't very reliable. We don't know the parents. BCI dorsal count will be 55-79 wheras BCC is 81-95

Take the Salmontine as a case in point! Yours is a hypo colombian. That is a cross between a hypo panamanian and a normal Colombian.

Is that a mutt? I don't know. They are both BCI. I usually use the term mutt for crosses between different subspecies, but strictly speaking I guess all hypos are mutts in that they are not pure anything, unless they are pure panamanian hypos (andf yours isn't).

Good luck on your boa
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Caden Chapman
slithering.serpents@gmail.com
slithering-serpents.com

1.1 guyana bcc
1.2 suriname bcc
0.2 DH snow bci
0.1 red possible DH snow bci
0.2 hypo possible het moonglow bci
0.1 possible het albino bci

Counting saddles won't tell you if you have a BCI, or ???, it was primarily a guidline. BCI will still be BCI if they were born with low saddle counts. Your pic appeared to be a Hypo, which to my limited knowledge are all BCI. Ed Lilley made a great post awhile back on scale counting , by using sheds and a fine point"Sharpie" pen, pics were included. You might try to reach him @ NW constrictors or constrictors NW -- I forget. Yours, if Hypo, is a BCI and possibly a type of mutt, which is fine, alot of BCI/morphs are types of mutts.
If you're wanting to own pure breeds, then I'd be getting into boas outside of the common BCI realm. Take care, David
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I'm just the snake room janitor

Hypo, therefore, it being a morph known for abberant patterns, wouldn't be an example to fit to those numbers. Saddle counts were numbers collected from certain specimens, and is just one trait to look for.

Also, dorsal saddle count includes tail blotches. So your boa has 23. I can clearly make out one of the blotches that is abberant.

Also, unless your animal was pure Panamanian, Nicaraguan, Sonoran, or another pure locality of Hypo then it is a mutt.
I am willing to be your is a "Colombian Hypo" which is slang for MUTT. The Hypo origins to the "Colombian Hypos" were Panamanian.

Saddle count is just up to the vent, however the rest of my post is valid.

Hypos are known to causes pattern abberations, so they are not a good example.

Scale count is the valid method for morphs. Defineing characteristics such as the saddle counts and scale counts were derived from specimens captured when the subspecies was described, wild type animals.

Why does a Hypo gotta be a mutt? Are you saying Panamanian boas are not BCI? Only one I know of that isn't, is Sabogae. LOL
Granted, it's not a Locality boa, but it's 100% BCI just the same, and therefor not a mutt since kept in the same ssp.

Anyway, like mentioned, looks like a salmon Hypo, and it's BCI, but not locality specific. And a good lookin one too.
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Richard Carew
Sunset BCI
You laugh at me cuz I'm different! I laugh at you cuz you're all the same.
Stop Inhumane and Illegal Practices

To me, a mutt is anything that is not pure locality.

That is debateable. Some will see it as a mutt only if it is a subspecies cross. While to me that is a hybrid.

I guess my view stems from this, there are different types of Bulldogs, if you cross two, the offspring are mutts. Well the different localitys of BCI are like that to me.

I get ya. I just had to ask.

I also agree to an extent. While some forms of BCI should remain pure IMO, (like island forms), As long as they don't cross that ssp barier, I don't really look down upon it.

In some areas you have overlapping ranges, whats to say these wild caught locality boas wern't intergraded naturally some time down the road? LOL It's all debatable actually.

But I do agree to an extent like I said. I don't dig things like bat eaters, and carpondros. That's just me.
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Richard Carew
Sunset BCI
You laugh at me cuz I'm different! I laugh at you cuz you're all the same.
Stop Inhumane and Illegal Practices

Oh, I have nothing against them. That's just my outlook on how I classify/refer to things.

Most of the locality animals do have geographic barriers that separate groups and result in unique phenotypes.

While I think it is important to keep some pure stock, even in morphs, I do not totally have a problem with cross locales and cross subspecies. As long as they are properly represented, and there was some specific reason for the breeding.

Someone that had say an Amarali for a pet and an Occidentalis for a pet and just kept them together and they had babies, I'd have a problem with that. Maybe it is hypocritical, but unless there is some reason I don't see the point. Generally this leaves me accepting crosses for morphs, but nothing else.

Since morphs are allready separate from natural lineage, crossing say a Leopard and a Blood I could see. Why? Because there are no Leopards and Bloods of the same locale.

I happen to like Bateaters, Carpondros, the Wall, Coma, Carplots etc. LOL

>>I happen to like Bateaters, Carpondros, the Wall, Coma, Carplots etc. LOL>>

Well, to each his own is what I say. I view that kind of stuff different than a lot. But diversity of thought is what makes us different. It's good for mankind.
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Richard Carew
Sunset BCI
You laugh at me cuz I'm different! I laugh at you cuz you're all the same.
Stop Inhumane and Illegal Practices