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I am trying to figure out the type of boa I would like to get. I have many years of snake owning experience, and currently have about 25 snakes, but never a larger one like a boa.

I can't seem to find out exactly what I need to know, or I get conflicting information.

What I would like is an albino snake in one of the smaller sized boas. Or, ideally, a smaller Lipstick---but that is likely out of my price range. Do these even exist? If so, what type should I look for?

I have read that South American boas stay a bit smaller than Columbians, but Columbia is IN South America! I have also seen that Central American ones, or Hogg Island ones are the smaller types.

I have also been advised to get a male, as they stay smaller. He will be a pet, so gender does not matter otherwise.

Also, in the classifieds, so many of the ads don't specify a locality at all. Do I assume that these are going to be the bigger Columbians?

Sorry for all the newbie questions, but I want to make sure I make a good choice for both me and the snake.

Thanks for any help you can give me!

sonja

I have read that South American boas stay a bit smaller than Columbians, but Columbia is IN South America! I have also seen that Central American ones, or Hogg Island ones are the smaller types.

Depends on the subspecies - Localities get important when you're looking for certain visual characteristics, but it boils down to what subspecies you're getting - BCI and BCC are the two that get the biggest, if what I'VE read and seen is right.
Island subspecies will be the smallest - Hog Island, Corn, Caulker's Caye, etc, are all going to be smaller. Central American boas are also going to be smaller.

>>I have also been advised to get a male, as they stay smaller. He will be a pet, so gender does not matter otherwise.

Males do *tend* to stay smaller, but some boys can get hefty and some girls can stay small. It's not really a rule...like I've seen a lot of posters say, "snakes can't read!".

>>Also, in the classifieds, so many of the ads don't specify a locality at all. Do I assume that these are going to be the bigger Columbians?

Which classifieds? If they don't specify a locality or subspecies, ask, and if they don't know, don't buy the snake. Since you're looking for an albino, there should be some knowledge of the snake's history (takes an albino or a het albino from SOMEWHERE to make an albino!), so if the seller doesn't know that should set off red flags.

Hopefully someone else with more knowledge can contribute too.

~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

Jenny, I know you're new to boas, so I thought I would clear up a few points for you. It seems that you may not have been aware that the Central American locales, as well as those Island locales you mentioned are all BCI. Imperator has a very large geographic range, and wide phenotypic range, and a wide morphologic range.

While Colombian BCI can have the potential to be large boas, the subspecies is also that of most smaller boa varieties.
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Gilbert Boas
The Boa List!

I didn't know the island locales were also BCI, but this morning now that I think about it, I remember that the central american stuff was BCI as well. I suppose that's what I get for trying to post after studying math for a few hours. :-X nothing adds up anymore! Or rather, it all adds up, but makes no sense...

Anyway, thanks.

~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

No problem.

There are island populations of other subspecies as well.

There are BCC on Trinidad and Tobago.

Sabogae is entirely an insular subspecies.

Orophias found on St. Lucia.

Nebulosa found on Dominica.
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Gilbert Boas
The Boa List!

If your wanting an Albino, your pretty much dealing with Colombians. You say that you've heard that S American Boas were smaller than Colombians --- I think you may have meant Central American Boas instead. They are typically smaller.
Albinos are mostly Colombians, or Colombian crossed with BCC (larger) . I don't know of any smaller varieties yet except the CA T positives, but those are high dollar in comparison, and are a different look than the common Albino. To keep one that is smaller, a male would generally stay smaller unless you over feed it constantly. The classified Albinos are all assumed Colombian stuff unless noted otherwise. If you want to have a mellow pet, try avoiding the stripe line Albinos, IMO, as I've heard that those often come with attitudes, but I may be wrong on that.
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I'm just the snake room janitor

The two most common subspecies of Boa constrictor are imperator and constrictor, BCI and BCC for short.

South America is home to the larger boas. There are many subspecies found here, Amarali, Longicauda, Constrictor, Occidentalis, and Ortonii (which is not available).

Mexico, down through Central America and into Western Colombia is home to BCI. As well as numerous islands off the coasts of Belize, Honduras, and Nicaragua.

Some of the BCI locales are very small boas. A female Tarahumara Mt. Boa from the Sierra Tarahumara in the Sonoran Desert, Mexico, reproduced at 38" in length. So if you want a truly small boa, a Tarahumara would be the ideal choice.
Here are two examples from a pure line produced by Gus Rentfro of Rio Bravo Reptiles.


Pure Tarahumara Mt. boas are however EXTREMELY difficult to find.

Most insular BCI are fairly small. Cay Caulkers, Crawl Cay, Hog Island (Hog is spelled with one G, two Gs are often used with non pure animals), and Corn Islands.
There have been some decent sized Hogs, but I expect most were crossed at some point. As well, overfeeding can produce an artificially large boa.

Mainland small BCI locales include Sonoran and other Mexican boas, Honduran, El Salvador, and Nicaraguan. Few pure Honduran and El Salvador lines exist. Many Nicaraguans are often sold as Hondurans, and within the US most El Salvador are from the Blood morph project (of which many today are not pure).

I have found that the Costa Rican and Panamanian boas I would not consider dwarfs. They have smaller body structures than say Colombians or BCC, however they are decently long boas.

Most boas are of unknown locality, or are crossed. There are websites that detail all the known boa morphs, and relation to different countries of origin.

The most common boas are Colombian.

While there was an Albino Sonoran, as well as an Albino Chiapas, Mexican boa, these are not available. Colombian Albinos are very common. Some breeders have produced Albinos with varying degrees of Cancun, Honduran, Mexican, Panamanian, El Salvadorian, and Nicaraguan blood. There are two Albino strains, Sharp and Kahl, which are genetically incompatible. If a strain is not mentioned, it is Kahl. Be weary as recently some people have tried to pass Kahls off as Sharp strain to unfamiliar buyers.
Example of Sharp strain:

Another subspecies to consider would be Sabogae, found in the Pearl Islands and other Islands in the Bay of Panama. Again, caution should be observed as true pure examples are rare and expensive.

If you want a small boa, there are many options. If you want an Albino, there are many options. There are still options for smaller Albinos, though they are limited and will still obtain a decent size.

If locality and predictability on how the boa will mature, act, and breed are important, it will be more difficult to locate what you want.

What size of a snake are you looking for? Other than Albinos, is there any other color morph or natural phase you like? The various subspecies and locales create a wide array of phenotypes without mutation.

Also keep in mind that one kind of 4 or 5' boa is going to be very different from another. A 5' Costa Rican male may only be 2 lbs. Where a 5' Colombian female may be 8lbs.
An example of said CR:

Those are two extremes for reference of a boa of the same length. Some locales have more arboreal tendency resulting in slim body structure, others are a little more heavily built. In general a healthy boa should have a lean body shape.

Hope this helps, please feel free to email me at chris.gilbertboa@gmail.com if you are have any off forum questions.
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Gilbert Boas
The Boa List!

Wow! Thank you so much for all of the information. That is exactly the kind of info that I have been trying to find!

Some follow up (might as well keep the questions here if you don't mind answering on the list so someone else can learn from my ignorance!)

You had asked what I would like to have. Here is my "dream snake", which sounds like it might not exist:

A snake that would have a decent temperament for being a pet. One that would be in the 6 foot range. And would cost $100 (OK, just kidding about that part!!)

I LOVE the look of all of these snakes:

(from OzzyBoids.com)

(from RalphDavisReptiles.com)

(from contrictors.com)

I hope it is OK to use these photos if the sites are credited. If not, let me know and I will remove them.

Two other questions:

Do the colors stay that bright as the snakes grow, or do they fade out? I especially like the bright tails.

And, you had mentioned to be careful about someone trying to pass off Kahls strain albinos as Sharp strain. Why would Kahls be less-desirable that Sharps?

Thanks again!
sonja

It is individual choice of which Albino strain you like more. However Sharps are rarer and when bred to a Carmel produce Paradigms. The latter two reasons result in Sharps being more expensive.

Traditionally Kahl babies look amazing and lose color with age. While Sharp babies look drab in comparison, but improve with age.

There are exceptions to the rule, but that is a general case.

Very few Kahls maintain good color as adults, but most Sharps do. There are also very different color spectrums within the two strains. One of the main differences comes in Reds found in Kahls while Sharps have orange.

Sharps also have purples, vibrant yellows, and distinct white. Recently some have been produced with pinks as well.

Kahls tend to be a softer yellow, less contrast, and pinks are more common in certain lines.

It is likely that the Kahl is a Tyrosinase negative Albino where the Sharp is a Tyrosinase positive.

They've always been theorized as T- by appearance, but this doesn't fit the model. In every other species when another Albino is found that is T-, it is compatible. Basically the general assumption is that whatever gene causes a T- Albino only has one trigger. However there are many triggers in melanin production that can cause various forms of Albinism.

Trey Schneller, myself, and a Ph.D Geneticist are working on a test for 11-13 different Albino mutations to test compatibility as well as form of the mutation. At the very least we should be able to understand the details behind Kahls and Sharps.

Back to you choosing a boa. 6' is fairly large. You can get any BCI except for a Colombian female.
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Gilbert Boas
The Boa List!

Thanks so much, Chris. This is so helpful. I just looked all thru your website and learned a lot on the Boa List page, too.

If you aren't getting sick of me yet, I have more questions!

Are there albino BCIs that have the "look" of the pics in my previous post? If so, what should I look for in the ads? I guess I mean, what would someone advertise them as? I don't see any ads saying "Albino BCI for sale".

Are the Sharp and Kahl strain albinos BCIs?

Can you explain where "short tailed boas" fall into things? How big are these guys? Are there albinos?

Again, thank you so much for answering my questions. Your answers are the clearest info I have seen to help me decide what to look for.

sonja

All of the Albinos that are being produced and available are BCI. There have been some breeders that have mixed Argentine blood into the Kahl strain, and both strains have been mixed with some BCCs by a few breeders. But it would say that.

You can assume that your Albino is Colombian, or at least primarily so. Hypos/Salmons that have been bred into Colombian boas originated from Panamanian stock, so technically speaking any boa that has that ancestry is a cross. Take the Sharp Albino I posted in my original reply, she has somewhere around 1/8 Salmon blood in her. I use Salmon instead of Panamanian because at the point it was introduced in her heritage I am not sure how strong the Panamanian part was, but it would be no more than 1/8.

This is just technicality.

If you want an Albino with influence from smaller kinds of boas I believe there are 3 primary sources. If you get a Kahl Albino related to Jeremy Stone's Blizzard line he produced his first DH by breeding Type II Anery Mexican X Kahl Albino Colombian. Mike Weitzman has produced Kahl Albinos with Cancun influence, as well as a Sharp Albino litter last year with Panamanian and Honduran blood. Rich Ihle has produced Sharp Albinos from stock related to Blood boas which incorporates some degree of El Salvador influence. All of these boas should be slightly smaller than a typical Colombian. They also tend to have more pattern on them as many CA locales have higher saddle counts and just overall more pattern density.

Short tail boas are one common name for B.c.amarali. Amarali have smaller tails in proportion to their body length than do other boas, thus the name. Similar to Longicauda being long-tails. Amarali are generally a shorter and stockier boa. Most are under 6ft. I do not recommend them for a starter boa as they are not very forgiving to husbandry error. If you ever do obtain an interest in getting one or more, be very selective of who you buy from. Reading forums, emailing breeders, going to big shows, etc, are all good ways to get a feel for things. You need to find breeders that you can trust, that have built integrity, that offer healthy stock, diverse bloodlines, and over all everything that you would want. Be it morph, pure locale, or mutt. Just because a seller labels an animal as something doesn't mean it is.

The best advice is just talk to as many people as you can. There are countless breeders who have helped me tremendously that I have yet to buy from. Many I have met, some I haven't. But I wouldn't have the knowledge or connections I do now without them. Don't be afraid to email people. At first take things with a grain of salt. There are a lot of extremely experienced people with tons to share that are behind the scenes so to say, out of the public eye. You won't see them posting on forums, maybe not even email. Good phone calls are always a great way to get a feel for people and discuss and learn on a more personal level.
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Gilbert Boas
The Boa List!

Chris, I can not thank you enough for taking the time to answer my questions.

You have given me a lot to start with and I have a better idea of what I need to look for.

I think you have also helped my future snake by helping me make a more informed decision. I definitely read all of the forums and websites I can find and I go to every show in the area, so I can learn more that way.

Thanks again for helping out a total stranger!

sonja

Blonde Bolivian, born 2003, produced by Barry Miller.




Orange Crush Bolivian, born 2004, produced by Kevin Barnett.





Barnett line, born 2007, produced by Gus Rentfro.

Amarali also have flatter, broader heads than other boas. And are more heavy bodied. Slow metabolisms, and are supposed to be one of the more difficult to breed. They also take a long time to reach maturity and grow slowly.
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Gilbert Boas
The Boa List!