Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recieved this male boa from Shawn Morelan at Southern Boids today and his tail has what appears to be large folds of skin (looks like the skin is really loose) that start directly behing the cloaca and continue approx. 4 inches down and then stop and the rest of the tail looks normal. I spoke with Shawn and he says its because he has not been feeding him alot. It does not look that way to me. My question is has anyone seen anything like this before and if so do you know what causes it and will it effect breeding? I am going to try to enclose a pic.

ERRR I cant post pics unless I put them in my gallery first. I dont know why.

If you want a free photo host that allows for larger more detailed pics, try printroom.com - I have an account there, but also pay for picturetrail, because the albums are pleasant to look at.
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I considered purchasing that same snake, but I noticed something weird about the tail in the pic that was attached. I don't know what it is, but it did cause me to not even inquire about the snake. I hope it is healthy and all works out for you.

Matt Crabe

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Linda Hedgpeth
lindafh@frontiernet.net
Sierra Serpents

"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away"

Im not seeing them either
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http://aircapitalconstrictors.com

I can't see them either. I just remember the for sale add a while ago. I thought about adding this snake to my striped sunglow project, but the tail looked to have folds in it. It just looked like the snake had maybe been overweight at some point and then lost the weight. I don't know for sure, but that was my guess at the time. Either way, it caused me not to even inquire about it.

Matt

Well this is a problem.. I would not want to buy something I was not comfortable with, and I do not want to sell animals others are not comfortable with. I plan on being in the herp community for years to come and I do not want unhappy customers.

I had this male for a few months for a female that was supposed to be on the way, she never showed so I put him up for sale. I did notice the wrinkles but to be honest, it never really struck me as a medical condition etc, or I would have NEVER sold him. For that matter I would have been upset as well as he was the only perfect genetic match I had for the female I was supposed to be getting. I just thought he was a BIG boy and had a wrinkled tail.. Granted my other two that are that large really do not have this on their tail.

So now the question is, what to do. I have emailed the original breeder as well as who I purchased it from to see about past breedings, is this a problem tail, can he breed, has he bred, do they have pictures of him breeding etc.

I personally purchased him for a Breeder only, and that was known when I bought him. Because of this, I did not question the tail as again it did not look terribly horrible to me, just had some wrinkles.

As for my feeding schedule, I had him on once a month just because he was already a big boy. I do not associate the wrinkles soley with lack of feeding, but I did say that if they are wrinkles that I have not feed him heavy and that may have helped in not filling them out.

Here are the pictures I have of him:

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Thanks
Shawn Morelan
www.SouthernBoids.com

This is why when buying a snake from ANYONE you should ask for a SATICFACTION GARUNTEE if you are not 100% happy with the animal for any reason. Simply return it. Why should you the buyer have to go through all this agrivation to find out whats wrong with an animal? do you buy a car without a testdrive?
What if it is something that will enable him to breed you just baought a car without a steering wheel.
On the other hand this case may turn out that he is just a little chunky and needs to go on a diet.But if you were told about the wrinkle prior to buying the snake than thats fare for both sides, no surprises when you open the bag.
This business is a BUYER BEWARE type of dealing so do your homework people, ask los of questions about the stuff you are going to pay good money for!
and always get that SATICFACTION GARUNTEE, if not go somewhere else ther are thousands of snakes for sale in this country.

Thats all

I spoke with Shawn before I bought him and have delt with him in the past as the seller. Shawn assured me that my satisfaction is gauranteed that is not my concern. I do wish however that I had known about this before I bought him. Maybe I let my guard down a little because I have delt with him before. I have no problem with keeping the snake if I am confident that he will breed. I just don't think that there is much that will change my mind about that unless I hear from Pete Khal, (original owner of the animal) that sold it as an adult breeder that he had this condition prior to the sale and was a proven breeder. This condition is not from lack of feeding I can tell you that much. It looks like maybe it was an accident from when someone tried to "pop" him???? I don't know for sure. In any case if I dont end up keeping him I'm sure Shawn will refund my money.

Well I have seen tails like that before from the pic I see, it looks like he may have been a little obese or chunky at one time.
It could just be fat build up in his tail.