Peruvian Rainbow Boas, Epicrates cenchria gaigei. Most Peruvian Rainbows offered for sale are really Brazilian Rainbows, E.c.cenchria. Peruvians have fewer and larger scales than Brazilians. Many of them grow larger than Brazilians and large adults often have very large heads. Most of them that I have positively identified with low scale counts have also had very distinctly darker and more pronounced markings. These markings are most obvious on the heads. Some Brazilians do have very dark markings like this. The low scale counts are the only way to positively identify the gaigei subspecies. Whenever I see Peruvians for sale that seem to be the real deal I buy them. This first one is a 2005 female.
This one is a 2006 female. She was shy and did not have her head out so you could see the nice dark markings.
A breeder had 2008 babies for sale and I got ten of them. He said the parents had low scale counts and he had gotten them from the same stock as some of my adults. The PICs he showed of the babies and adults looked right. I have not yet done scale counts on these but I am pretty sure they are really gaigei. My intent was to sell most of the 10 I bought. I sold two of them right after I got them. Since then I have become attached to the rest of them and cannot part with them. These are PICs of four of them that have shed in the last day or two.
