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Hey, I'm confused I recently purchased a "Columbian Boa". Is that a Columbian Red Tail boa, or is it a common boa? I don't know what is going on here. I read on a site that columbian boas are not "true" red tails. Please differentiate the two for me. Or are they the same thing. Thanks a lot.

You basically have a Columbian BCI or Boa Contrictor Imperator. It is often referred to as a common red tail. The "true redtails" are the BCC or Boa Contrictor Constrictor, which can be from different localities such as Surinam, Guyana and some BCC even hail form Columbia if I am not mistaken. IT is basically the same species but differnet subspecies. The BCC have a slightly higher sensitivity to husbandry and have been known to be a little more to handle than the BCI. I think BCI is a better place to start with the red tails. Check out Gus' site at Riobravoreptiles.com for great info on each subspecies and locality.

Your boa, a Colombian...[Red Tail]...Boa, is species Boa Constrictor Imperator (BCI). These animals range all the way along Central America, from Mexico to Colombia and some of the islands along the way.

True 'Red-Tails' are Boa Constrictor Constrictor which are located from Colombia through the rest of South America including a few caribbean islands.

BCI have Copper, Brown, or Orangish tails with squarish saddles along the back.

BCC have redder tails (Crimson, Maroon, Bright Red, Purple, etc) with saddles that contain 'widow peak' formations for the most part. There are other scientific differences including scale counts, and saddle counts, etc, but I won't dive into that.

BCI are known for smaller size and tamer attitudes and like said before are a better place to start.

Continue to do research and you will soon tell the difference with no problems at all.

Good luck.
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-Iman
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>>You basically have a Columbian BCI or Boa Contrictor Imperator. It is often referred to as a common red tail. The "true redtails" are the BCC or Boa Contrictor Constrictor, which can be from different localities such as Surinam, Guyana and some BCC even hail form Columbia if I am not mistaken. IT is basically the same species but differnet subspecies. The BCC have a slightly higher sensitivity to husbandry and have been known to be a little more to handle than the BCI. I think BCI is a better place to start with the red tails. Check out Gus' site at Riobravoreptiles.com for great info on each subspecies and locality.

Thanks a lot guys...It was just a bit confusing. I will read up more about them, very interesting stuff, and I plan to get more. Once again, Thanks.

The Colombian "Red-Tail" Boa or Boa constrictor imperator are the most common species of Boa kept in U.S. collections. These animals are the easiest of the Boas to take care of as well as the most forgiving of bad care and one of the easiest to breed in captivity. If my memory serves right These animals are from the west of the Andes and all throughout the area listed by someone else here.
The Colombian "True" Redtail boa or Boa c. constrictor is from a small area east of the andes and alittle south of the more populated Colombia. These animals are Super Rare and True Locality animals are almost impossible to find in U.S. collections.

I guess the Main Difference would be locality. Both of these animals come from Colombia but, I have seen B.c.imperator that would outdo any B.c.constrictor as far as Color goes. I am sure that when these animals where first imported into the U.S. there where many Cross breedings between the two animals and would bet that there are very few True Locality imperators here as well. There are a few people that are trying to keep the True locality boas in American collections and at this time I am trying to set up a group of Locality Boas but the one I can never seem to find is the Colombian Redtail (B.c.constrictor) so If you come across any let me know and I will buy all of them you can get at any price.
Just my .02cents.
Hope this helps alittle.
Justin

The name "Redtail" is just a name that the american market put on the "Common" Boa in order to make it more desireable to the buyer. Many years ago when we did not have email or enet. or reptile mags. you had to buy these animals from importers through the local papers in hardware stores or your local market.
Common Boas sold for alittle
Redtailed Boas Sold for alittle more
when these snake started to become available in pet stores and stores including Wal-Mart at one time the sellers had to come up with a catchy name to sell the animals so they coined them all as "RedTail" in order to atract potential buyers and make more money from the animals. Over the years the Once used discription became the new Overused Common name.
This is one more reason you have to be carefull when you are looking for future breeding stock "If you are wanting to keep Pure Localities" Be carefull who you are buying from becouse the Reptile world is a Big Money business for the ones that come up with these nice little Nicknames for Normal everyday animals.
Just the other part of my .02cents
Take care
Justin