Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I know nothing about boas and morphs. My boa was a gift and looks different than most I've seen. Why is mine so dark? You all have great looking snakes and I envy many of you. Mine is kind of ugly and hates me. I wouldn't give him up for the world though.

I would hate to get that snake out of that position...knowing my luck it would rip the bar right off the refrigerator!

Common boas are really quite variable in appearance. Two of my bci are so food oriented that they are borderline aggressive, but they were purchased as adults, so socialization was probably limited as well.
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Thanks,
Amy
www.myboids.4t.com
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1.14 Normal ball pythons
1.0 Pastel ball pythons
0.0.1 Sinaloan Milk Snake
0.0.1 Plains Garter
0.1 Normal Kenyan Sand Boa
2.0 Anery Kenyan Sand Boa
1.0 Mid-Baja Rosy Boa
0.1 Leucistic Texas Rat
1.2 Dumeril's Boa
1.2 BCI
That's Just The Snakes!

just varying degrees of beauty, I have one even darker. Your snake is a typical imperator, the Mexican imperator are even darker then that, still nice, even with a tude'. Glad to hear you will not give him up, he doesn't hate you. Aggression in snakes is related to fear of becoming a prey item, not the emotion of hate. If he lost that fear the aggression would quickly subside. I have been keeping and studying aggression in Boid's for over 20 years. ( reminds me I am getting old lol )
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Thanks,

Frank Roberts
Roberts' Realm Of Reptile Research

Hey Frank, what is it with these guys that think a dark Boa is ugly!?! I find beauty in everything from Sonora’s and Argentinean’s too Hypo Corn Islands. The variation is what makes it interesting.

PS. Frank: Sorry I didn’t respond to your earlier question, you probably saw some of my pictures on other forums, and no I’m not a breeder…yet. Next year should be a good year; I’m going to breed my JCP’s and my Balls and hopefully my Corral Albino Boa. Small time stuff but I hope to have some fun.

I have been keep and breeding reptiles and amphibians since the mid 70's. I have never bred BCI. I have bred Brazilian rainbow boas as few times, a few pythons, and many colubrids. One of my future current projects is lavender and lucy texas rat snakes. I am king of the small stuff. I truly love all reptiles and amphibians. So technically nothing is small, small time dollar wise compared to some of the available morphs. Here are a few of my 50 something snakes, most I do not even have pictures of ( I do not own a camera) snake foods more important at the moment...excuses...I stink at pics, you can tell which ones i took, very few lol...

here ya go....

my tat...

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Thanks,

Frank Roberts
Roberts' Realm Of Reptile Research

The small stuff is fun! The only BCI I have gotten lucky with was a mistake, but I'll give it a spin again! I've only gotten back into Boas this year so we will see.

We have about 4 of the same snakes. My Blood looks like your little one.

just wanted to say, that is a wonderful collection, love the albino retics and blood pythons.
-April
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'There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."' -Rainshadow

thanks
Link

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Thanks,

Frank Roberts
Roberts' Realm Of Reptile Research

I think the answer is obvious. You Boa clearly wants one of the ice cream sandwiches you have been hording for yourself. Open that freezer and give that little fella an ice cream sandwich silly... He will LOVE you for it!

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Thanks,

Frank Roberts
Roberts' Realm Of Reptile Research

I got him as a baby and he was handled a lot growing up. Just as he got bigger he got more aggressive. Now he looks at everyone as if they may be food. He follows any movement around his cage and will take a strike at anything that comes into it. He's a GREAT eater but it makes cage cleaning a little scary.

Most cage aggressive snakes are that way for a reason. I'm not saying that this is in deed your case but most cage aggressive snakes are that way because they have been conditioned to be that way. Conditioning of an animal can be intentional and it can also be unintentional on the part of the keeper.

I heard a story once about someone that had an extremely aggressive Boa. Every time someone walked past the cage the snake would strike at the passerby thru the glass. Upon further questioning, the owner admitted that when he wanted the snake's attention, he would simply tap on the glass to get the snake to respond. However, upon further questining, the owner also admitted that when it was feeding time, he also tapped on the glass before throwing the meal inside the tank for the snake to grab. Thus just as Pavlov's Dog learned to salivate at the ring of a bell, the snake learned to strike at any movement near the cage when it felt the cage shake. Be sure you are feeding you snake in something other than the cage it is being housed in to reduce this kind of conditioned response to a stimulus.

You also want to be sure that you are not wearing any clothes that are sented of any feeder items. This could also mean that if you have other animals such as a dog, cat or other small animals, you might want to try not paying attention to the furball critters before handling your snake. The sanke might just be sensing another critter on you that smells like it might be a meal. Since the snake can't really tell that something that smells like it's food is not actually it's food, it might be mistaking you or something else for a meal. I was accidentially bitten by a ten foot burmese python of mine once. It was clearly my mistake since I was handling feeders prior to doing anything with the snake. I failed to clean myself up before I handled the snake and WHAK! She tagged me on the arm. This was clearly my fault. So now every time I interact with any of my snakes, I am always sure to wash up before hand. And here's the real catch. I use the same brand of soap every time I wash up before I interact with the snakes and I only use this soap when I am planning on handling my snakes. This way, every time the snake senses that particular soap, they associate it with me and being handled and nothing else.
Of course I still get bit from time to time. These kind of things do happen even to experienced keepers. A snake may be a bit more hungry than anticipated, or it may be startled when it's not ready to have any interraction. But hey, thats part of the interaction I have with these animals. It's just part of what we do.

Hopefully, you are not feeding your snake in it's cage or taunting it. Hopefully there isn't someone else in the house that is doing these things when you are not around either. If the snake is housed in an area that has high foot trafic, try moving it somewhere in the house that doesn't get as much action. Also be sure to inform the rest of the family about the particular handling proceedure you want them to use when they may have to interract with the snake. This way, everyone in the household is interacting with the snake in the same way each and every time. And remember, no matter ho long we have been keeping these animals in captivity, they are not domesticated like a dog or a cat. They are still wild animals and they too will have their good and bad days. Just be sure to be careful about how you are interacting with the snake.

Hope this helps you a bit.

Chris

It seems obvious now that you point it out. I am guilty of feeding him in his cage. I use to feed him in a feeder box when he was small but after he hit about 5 feet, a large enough feeder box became a problem and since I live in a small apartment I kind of gave up on it. I started treating him like all of my ball pythons and just feeding him in the cage. Slowly after that is when he started biting and being more aggressive. I've had him about 11 years now, do you think it's too late to go back to the box?

It's never too late.

I used to use feeding boxes, but as my collection grew, I now just feed in the cage.
For a time I wasn't taking my large albino out very often, so usually the only time the cage was opened was for feeding time (and spot cleaning). She started being aggressive anytime the cage door was opened or there was a lot of movement near her cage. She's 9 years old this year. I've started taking her out at least once a week and just sitting with her for about 30min to 1 hour. She has calmed down so much and no longer strikes at the cage door. I can now pull her out without use of a hook as well. I belive they can all calm down, it just takes patience as some take longer than others to break the learned behaviour of "cage door opens = food".

btw, I like your boa, he's very nice and robust looking!
Good luck!
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'There is a very fine line between "hobby" and "mental illness."' -Rainshadow

I don't think it's ever too late. Like AbosluteApril stated in the next post, that snake changed it's attitude after the stimulus changed. Don't forget that your snake may still have another 10 to 15 years or longer to live so there is no reason why it can't be tamed back down. Be patient, be persistent and interract with your animal more often than feeding cleaning time. The good thing is that you dont have very many animals that you have to work with on a consistent basis so you can pay more attention to this guy. He should turn out just fine in a few months.

If you are looking for options for feeding containers, since you don't have too much space t work with, dont try to get really fancy and set up another cage for feeding only. The feeding container is only a temporary holding container and if you are not using live feeders it becomes even simpler. You can get a larger heavy duty cardboard box. Yes he can probably squeeze out of it, but he is large enough the you will know when he's out. If you are unsure about the cardboard box, try one of the home improvement stores (Lowe's, Home Depot, etc.), you might be able to find a collapsable plastic container type box, you could get a larger Rubbermaid container with a bi-fold top or you may be able to find something else that has a lid on it that will work just fine. You don't want to cram him into something that is way too small but in the same sense, he doesn't need to get his exercise looking for his food either. I'm just making this take longer than I should. Anything he will fit into comfortably will work. The advantages of the carboard box are 1) cheap, 2) easilly replaced if he messes in it, 3) when you are done, you can collapse it down and store it under a bed or somewhere in a closet out of site (won't take up any room).

Hope this helps you out. Oh, and I was all for the Ice Cream Sandwich idea.

Chris

ice cream sandwiches? They would smell so much better! : )
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Caden Chapman
slithering.serpents@gmail.com
http://slitheringserpents.com

when compared to Northern and Black Pines, they can easily stink up the entire house. ewwwwwwwww
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Thanks,

Frank Roberts
Roberts' Realm Of Reptile Research

I like that diet plan! You could sell it on TV! “Want to loose a few pounds? Just strap a mean snake to the fridge! The new and improved FRIDGE SNAKE!” lol