Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Ive heard they are more aggressive and grow to larger sizes than most of the other boas, but is it really rare to tame them? I dont want it to strike every time I reach into the enclosure, but they are very beautiful snakes.

Many start off very nippy but turn into calm Adults.
I say most that I've encountered .I have 1 fem
that refuses to be nice,LOL
. . . . Lar M
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Boas By Klevitz
Boas By Klevitz

Mine's a sweetheart and is what I'd guess is pretty normal sized for a male boa--about 7'. Slow growth though I'd say he took a good 5 years to hit the 6' mark and he's just grown really slowly since. Been pretty handleable the whole time.

that is the NASTIEST snake I have ever seen. I swear she is possessed! The spawn of Satin himself..... I produced her myself in 2006. I bred a pure argentine female to an albino male. The mother argentine was as sweet as can be, and VERY large too, she was 30lbs before breeding. Gave birth to 33 babies and 6 slugs. I held back one baby, and she is now 7' and about 14lbs. The meanest snake I have ever layed my eyes on. Grant it, I do not handle her very often, which I am sure has a lot to do with it, but every time I walk past the cage I can hear her hissing or striking the glass. I have been bitten by her several times and I always have to hold her behind her head to handle her, she has ZERO freedom when she comes out of her cage. She is NASTY!

But from my experience, the more you handle them, the more they calm down. I have seen plenty of argentines that are sweet as pie! I dont really handle any of my snakes, so the majority of them are mean, so I can't say it is only the argentine blood. Handling them will come them down, thats all.

Here is mom, like I said, sweetest snake ever....

and here is her baby, who is now breeding with a salmontine het albino- Taking this pic was NOT fun, hence why she is on the floor instead of in my hand, she tried killing me several times. I have a 4' snake hook that I had to pin her down with, the word NASTY just does not seem to describe her completely

She is beautiful though......-



This was her as a yearling..... look how red she is.... She is going to throw some KILLER argentine sunglows this spring!

Nice couple of Arg fems Nucc. That big gal is something.
I'm looking forward to seeing your Salmontine Sunglows !
. . . Lar M
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Boas By Klevitz
Boas By Klevitz

I have around 12 adults, some exceeding 30 pounds, and they are ALL as tame as can be. I only handle them when I am cleaning their cages and they just seem to go along with the routine. I often wonder what some people due to make their boas (including Columbians) so aggressive.

A beautiful and very misrepresented boa. My Argentines have more personality than any of the other species in my collection.

The photo below is 1 of my currently gravid females.

Bill Gaines

I do Absolutely nothing to make them aggressive but that
includes not handling many of them often.
I believe non handling as Nucci stated tends to make some Boas
with aggressive tendencies more defensive /aggressive.
. . . . Lar M
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Boas By Klevitz
Boas By Klevitz

Over the years, I've had a few Argentines. I had a trio that I raised from neos, to adults and never had any aggression issues. I currently have a pair that I bought as young adults. They are also non-aggressive. Argentines "generally" have a strong feeding resonse. So some might view that as aggression. I use a hook, to let them know it's not food. They great after that.

I sold some baby argentines at a show. The following year, I did the same show and someone came up to me and told me how psycho his argentine was that he bought from me. I had a sibling there with me and I pulled her out, calm as could be. He told me his always hissed at him and he would let her be instead of picking her up and handling her when she was small enough that a bite would be nothing to endure. So, I think they're a little bit chicken, and if you buy the bluff and let them keep going with it, you could very easily end up with a 7' boa with a bad attitude. Buy a baby, and handle it like you would any other boa and you shouldn't have any problems IMO.