Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just thought I'd share my most recent acquisition!

This is my first boa ever. Kept balls and a kingsnake or two...been wanting a boa, was thinking about an Amazon Tree Boa...and then she came in to the store!

Couple questions - One, how do you tell the subspecies? One of the guys I work with said this is b.c.constrictor, and I don't doubt him, but how do you know for sure? Do I have to do a scale count/saddle count, or are there other characteristics?

Second question - I've kept balls quite successfully for most of my life, but most of my snake experience is with them. Are there any quirks to b.c.c. that I should know about? I'm looking for things like how balls can be tricky eaters, especially during winter, or like how kingsnakes will go into feeding frenzy mode and try to eat anything in front of their face (A coworkers has tried to eat feeding tongs before...). Do b.c.c. have any quirks that I should know about so I don't freak out later?

Just how humid do boas really need it? I've heard several different things about this, so some personal accounts of what works for you would be nice.
Temps? I've been keeping her at about 88, 89 hot side, with the cool side a few degrees warmer than room temp (so 75 degrees). She's hanging out on the cool side a lot...am I keeping her too warm?

All said and done...I love her already! I like her 'tude.

After taking these pictures, I think she may be going into shed.

Thanks for looking!

~jenny
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"Polysyllabism in no way insures that what you're saying is actually worth being heard." - Blake (an e-friend of mine)

"I have never made but one prayer to god, a very short one: "O lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And he granted it." - Voltaire

Nice snake, she (have you sexed her yet?) has a cool pinkish hue. Looks like a BCI to me. Temps sound good. For humidity, personally I don't humidify my boas' enclosures, but I live n Florida, which is naturally very humid so you might want to spray the enclosure every once in a while, depending on where you live. Boas have a somewhat large range for acceptable humidity, so just try to experiment and try to get it to aound 50-60, I think that should be good.

There aren't really any characteristic traits boas have that you should watch out for, except they can sometimes get moody when in shed (depends on the individual) in my experience. This is pretty common among all snakes though, so no problem there.

One last thing, if anyone contradicts anything I said, listen to them, not me, because most of the stuff I know about boas I've learned from them, and I'm probably remembering something(s) wrong.

I live in the mountains in San Diego county - it is dry, dry, DRY out here. I *have* to use tubs or other solid plastic enclosures (vision cages are lovely) because the humidity is just too low otherwise. It's been fun tweaking everything so that the balls can shed perfectly...

Since my balls usually shed well in the tub setup I've got, I'm going to give that a shot for my girl (yes, I did sex her ) and see how she does in there until she's big enough for the "grownup" vision cage.

Thanks for the help!

~jenny
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"Polysyllabism in no way insures that what you're saying is actually worth being heard." - Blake (an e-friend of mine)

"I have never made but one prayer to god, a very short one: "O lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And he granted it." - Voltaire

Those are BCI saddles, and a definite BCI tail. The head is somewhat narrow giving a hint of BCC, but not enough for me to say it could be anything but a cross. If you look at some of the posts below, you'll see some nice examples off BCC for comparison.

If it is in fact a BCI, it is an exceptional looking pastel with that side coloration.

Dale

.

Thanks!

I had posted a minute ago below about what about the saddles make them BCI saddles, but after looking at the BCC pics below, my guess is that this girl's saddles are smooth, and her tail is more like huge spots rather than red blotches with a thin breakline.

Now, I think I may be a bit confused on my geography... "true" colombians are BCC, correct? Or are most colombian red tails BCI? Suriname and Guyana red tails I've seen and drooled over, those are pretty much guaranteed to be BCC?

Thanks again for helping me out.

~jenny
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"Polysyllabism in no way insures that what you're saying is actually worth being heard." - Blake (an e-friend of mine)

"I have never made but one prayer to god, a very short one: "O lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And he granted it." - Voltaire

Pretty Boa that you got. It's a BCI, and does not resemble a BCC. Your temps should range from 82- 86 and a hot spot of 90-92. If your Boa hangs at the cool side always, it might feel most hidden or protected there. They'll choose security over temps. I like to put the water in the center of the cage, and a couple hide spots toward either end.
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I'm just the snake room janitor

Thanks all for the input...but why do you say imperator? What about the saddles tipped you off, what about the head?

I can tell apart any of the ball python mutations, but I definately need to work on my boa eye.

Thanks again!

~jenny
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"Polysyllabism in no way insures that what you're saying is actually worth being heard." - Blake (an e-friend of mine)

"I have never made but one prayer to god, a very short one: "O lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And he granted it." - Voltaire

I don't know what exacly to point out, but I've seen enough to know that its not a BCC - could be a cross at best. If you scroll down thru the forum for a few pages and clicked on anything thats titled BCC, Suri,Guyanan, FLRT etc ... you should notice the differences needed to show you. The tail, saddles and sides of the tail are clearly not a BCC. To me BCC bodies appear more "squared-off" with a more triangular head, and crisper, cleaner pattern. None of this is to say that yours isn't very pretty - it is, just a different type of pretty , not BCC pretty, but rather BCI pretty ... lol.
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I'm just the snake room janitor

After going back through a few posts and comparing to mine, I see what you're saying.

BCI don't get as big as BCC, do they...? I was kinda hopin for a nice big girl, like the 9 ft one that a coworker of mine has. I remember reading somewhere that BCI don't get as big...
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"Polysyllabism in no way insures that what you're saying is actually worth being heard." - Blake (an e-friend of mine)

"I have never made but one prayer to god, a very short one: "O lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And he granted it." - Voltaire

Unless you get definitive word from an actual "scientific herpetological journal" (not a hobby book), saddle counts, scale counts, and size are less than scientific determining factors. Possibly better than guess work, but not scientific. While they DO work for certain reptile classification, BCI and BCC are cloudy. They are general guidelines at best due to cross breeding and the fact that Boas can't read maps.

Your first indicator is appearance and an experienced eye, then you can look to generalized ranges suggested by hobbyists on things like saddle/scale counts and general size maximums. Reliable info on bloodline origin is obviously a plus.

The BCI and BCC have seen so much integration (in the wild and hobby), it makes it very difficult to put a definitive scientific classification in the world of Boa Constrictor. If you'd like a big headache, try to classify the different locales of BCC, i.e Guyana vs. Suriname. This is why I call my BCC's "BCC's".

If a journal has taken a definitive stance on classification, I'd love to see it as I'm unaware. Until then, you have a colorful BCI (with an outside possibility of it being a cross) IMHO.

Ref: Jerry G Walls, The living Boas, p54.
bcc 15-21 dorsal saddles
bci 22-30 dorsal saddles
I would say it's bcc. or a mix. Judging a boa on looks is not always right. The reason we use scientific methods is to get facts not quess's. I've posted pictures of known bcc circlebacks and of course everyone said bci, and this was a 10 foot snake. It's quite easy to do scale counts if you save a shed and use that to do your counting on.

I had planned on doing a scale count after she sheds just to practice - but I'm just kind of a nerd that way. Thanks for posting the bit about the saddles. It's nice that there's no overlap between the two ssp. Where do you stop counting the saddles as "dorsal" saddles? Above the vent?

Could you do me a favor and post the scale counts for BCC and BCI, if your book has them? Thankyoumuch!

~jenny
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"Polysyllabism in no way insures that what you're saying is actually worth being heard." - Blake (an e-friend of mine)

"I have never made but one prayer to god, a very short one: "O lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And he granted it." - Voltaire

bci
saddles 22-30
dorsal scales 55-79
Ventrals 225-259
Bcc
saddles 15-21
dorsal scales 81-95
Ventrals 234-243
The counting of saddles ends at the vent or were the saddles become tail blotches.
Although more area of Colombia is home to bcc, more bci are imported from there.

Awesome, thank you!

~jenny
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"Polysyllabism in no way insures that what you're saying is actually worth being heard." - Blake (an e-friend of mine)

"I have never made but one prayer to god, a very short one: "O lord, make my enemies ridiculous." And he granted it." - Voltaire