Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Following on from the discussion half way down the page ...

Blood Boas are graded just like any other Boa mutation ... there are good ones (more expensive) and bad ones (cheaper) ... so yes you will see some kinda dirty Bloods, just like you will see kinda dirty examples of ALL Boa mutations and morphs (and every other kind of snake you can name)

Among our babies this year, there was a big variation. I'm in a hurry so can't hunt for better pics now but here is an example of a nice, cleaner 100% Central American Blood Boa (Note, this an AVERAGE example not the best!!)

Another quick point. I noticed our F3 babies looked a lot nicer and cleaner than the F2 and the photos I have seen of some of the original F1 Bloods. I think thats where some of the silly comments come from. Many breeders haven't really seen too many nice Bloods in person ... or may have only seen Bloods produced from Colombian hets, some of which can be rather drab.(note I said SOME again not all)

Bottom line, I agree the future of the Blood Boa mutation is red hot as we line breed the best examples we will produce better Bloods and some crazy looking designer morphs (anyone want to see a Bloody Sunglow, a Bloody Caramel/T or a Bloody Jungle ...I can't wait !!)

cheers, John

-----
www.johnberryreptiles.com
www.designermorphs.com - the most complete guide to boa & python mutations, morphs and hybrids

Not bad, John, but let me "air out" my opinion on one aspect of the Boa Morph Market in general ... Key Word "MARKET".

There is so much focus and emphasis on the next new morph and what we can make from a combo of genes (and I find myself guilty of this, as well), that we fail to simply appreciate the species or morph that just became available. We need to take some lessons from the "locality" guys. Gosh, we all need to slow down a little and enjoy our hobby, or we will end up with a bunch of mutts, an ambigous, "out-of-control" gene pool, and a wrecked Market ... that's where we are headed.

It's time to re-focus on the HOBBY and let the MARKET take care of itself.

Sorry, guys, but this knaws at me everytime I read the forum.

Bill

PS: This is NOT directed you, John. After all, you just produced 2 litters of Bloods for our Hobby.

I totally agree with you. A lot of work can, and in my opinion should be done with one morph.
It is good to use other types of breeding projects as examples. Plants, including edibles and flower species, livestock etc...
It is VERY important, for the longevity of the project, to put a lot of work into creating STRONG bloodlines that are not too inbred. Proper selection is key.
I think people focus on the buck too much. If you look at any activity that humans are involved in, the best are the ones that love it the most. They love the actual activity, sports, teaching, woodworking etc.. more than the results of their involvment.
-----
Jason Dowell

on my mind as well. I agree that our hobby is going berserk right now. I mean, it has been a great year for our morph market. We look forward to many new combinations this year; we've seen the Moonglow, Leucistic, and Paradigm boas all in the past 9 months. Anyway to get to the point, I was on the chameleon classifieds the other day, just looking around, and I thought to myself how nice it must be to just be able to relax with the hobby and enjoy the collection without the worry of big morphs and market value. I remember when I admired White’s tree frogs and Leopard geckos as much as I do boas, long before good investment opportunities popped up in the boa and ball python world and before I even knew what shed cycles were and the average length of gestation. Lately, I have felt like the forum has changed a lot. It just seems like a year or two ago people were more focused with community of the boa forum, rather than chewing people out when there toes are stepped on, or refuting a collection or bloodline to someone who feels they have a better snake, or that its worth the argument. It’s shameful to see friends of mine fall off the “face of the boa forum” because of the way things have been recently.

Maybe I'm just really short on sleep (having only 4 hours in 2 days) because of finals. I'd like to see us "Boa People" center a little better and stop treating our collections like investments and treating them as pets. I find it ridiculous to see a 06 animal that’s breeding size already; I mean my dad and I have our own supply of rats and feed weekly, but have never had an animal reach 4-4.5ft in 9 months. Our future gene pool could decline because of boa kills from overfeeding and losing them after only 5-6 years. I know there are many exciting things going on currently with our market, some huge price drops, and some new things to replace the high dollar stuff; not to mention the color and patterns we are going to see soon enough. I think we need a little reality check sometimes, and I know most of you know that there isn't anything more humbling than keeping, raising, and breeding boas. I'd just hate to lose site of that. Alright, I think its time to get off the soap box now. Thanks for listening, if you could make it all the way through the post. Trey

Well said ! add to that the other like minded opinions and the hobby would be a much better place.

BUT SADLY .... there are those cracker smackers out there that
just "gotta" hose someone with a 5 digit sales pitch supported by a bunch of novice keepers who quote websites and book pages in attempts to kiss butt and act like a player in the field of dreams and it only fuels the GREED.

The more truth that gets unveiled the sooner this hobby returns to it roots.

M/

>>on my mind as well. I agree that our hobby is going berserk right now. I mean, it has been a great year for our morph market. We look forward to many new combinations this year; we've seen the Moonglow, Leucistic, and Paradigm boas all in the past 9 months. Anyway to get to the point, I was on the chameleon classifieds the other day, just looking around, and I thought to myself how nice it must be to just be able to relax with the hobby and enjoy the collection without the worry of big morphs and market value. I remember when I admired White’s tree frogs and Leopard geckos as much as I do boas, long before good investment opportunities popped up in the boa and ball python world and before I even knew what shed cycles were and the average length of gestation. Lately, I have felt like the forum has changed a lot. It just seems like a year or two ago people were more focused with community of the boa forum, rather than chewing people out when there toes are stepped on, or refuting a collection or bloodline to someone who feels they have a better snake, or that its worth the argument. It’s shameful to see friends of mine fall off the “face of the boa forum” because of the way things have been recently.
>>
>>Maybe I'm just really short on sleep (having only 4 hours in 2 days) because of finals. I'd like to see us "Boa People" center a little better and stop treating our collections like investments and treating them as pets. I find it ridiculous to see a 06 animal that’s breeding size already; I mean my dad and I have our own supply of rats and feed weekly, but have never had an animal reach 4-4.5ft in 9 months. Our future gene pool could decline because of boa kills from overfeeding and losing them after only 5-6 years. I know there are many exciting things going on currently with our market, some huge price drops, and some new things to replace the high dollar stuff; not to mention the color and patterns we are going to see soon enough. I think we need a little reality check sometimes, and I know most of you know that there isn't anything more humbling than keeping, raising, and breeding boas. I'd just hate to lose site of that. Alright, I think its time to get off the soap box now. Thanks for listening, if you could make it all the way through the post. Trey

Glad to see that there are other like-minded folks out there who care about the hobby more than trying to make a name for themselves in a flooded market. Don't get me wrong, I'm not just a boa keeper, but I think that the love for boas is what initially brought people into this hobby and they need to be brought down to earth occasionally instead of being up every top breeders rear end trying to find out whats new, how much, and how to be with the incrowd of big name boa breeders.

Thank You Sir !

M/

>>Not bad, John, but let me "air out" my opinion on one aspect of the Boa Morph Market in general ... Key Word "MARKET".
>>
>>There is so much focus and emphasis on the next new morph and what we can make from a combo of genes (and I find myself guilty of this, as well), that we fail to simply appreciate the species or morph that just became available. We need to take some lessons from the "locality" guys. Gosh, we all need to slow down a little and enjoy our hobby, or we will end up with a bunch of mutts, an ambigous, "out-of-control" gene pool, and a wrecked Market ... that's where we are headed.
>>
>>It's time to re-focus on the HOBBY and let the MARKET take care of itself.
>>
>>Sorry, guys, but this knaws at me everytime I read the forum.
>>
>>Bill
>>
>>PS: This is NOT directed you, John. After all, you just produced 2 litters of Bloods for our Hobby.

" Bottom line, I agree the future of the Blood Boa mutation is red hot as we line breed the best examples we will produce better Bloods and some crazy looking designer morphs (anyone want to see a Bloody Sunglow, a Bloody Caramel/T or a Bloody Jungle ...I can't wait !!) " J Berry

The bottom line is any one of a million $45.00 central American boas can be line bred and used to produce designer animals that would smoke anything that could come from the "Bloods". That's the truth. But the rub is there's no hook doing it like that and with out a hook you can't catch the fish.

Many investor collectors have seen more web pages and Punnett Squares then animals and really don't know what a good looking snake is and that's where marketing over takes truth. Making the fish think he's getting something much more beautiful and special then it really is.

I've always felt that if an animal was all that's cracked up to be it doesn't have to be accompanied by an infomercial . The story of the emperor's new cloths comes to mind when I see some of the animals that are passed off as red hot. Ernie Eison