Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Well once again, another change that is beyond my control. Do kids ever grow up and move out?(LOL) Just lost my reptile room.

When I decided to work with boas I knew space would be an issue. So I built a small but what I think is a nice collection.
My own reptile room was in the schedule and about the time that my females would start exceeding 6 ft, the room would be available. My wife has been cool about having the snakes in our den but there is a limit. A 7-8 ft BCI, 20 pounds plus, roaming in our den is just not going to happen. You can't keep them in a 4ft. cage all the time. Besides the fact that a 4ft cage just doesn't seem to be big enough for a larger female. My largest female is 6ft and borderline weight for breeding according to what I have read and seen posted on this site, minimum weight is 10 pounds. She is well fed but not overweight. The same is true of a 5ft albino female, well fed, not overweight. Another year to go before she is ready for her first breeding.
So I would like to hear back from everyone about the size of their breeders.
Am I wasting my time trying to breed a 6 ft 10-12 pounder?
Do I need to pump up the females to the 15-20 pound range?
What is the smallest female that has bred for you?
Just how large are your breeder females?

I'm thinking that it may be time for me to switch to the dwarf species. I have a beautiful pair of hoggs and wouldn't mind switching to the smaller boas. Nics, Corn Island, Caulker Cay, etc.

Thanks

Boa, just like people are all going to breed at different sizes and ages. It is going to depend on locality and genetics. My two biggest females are 10’ and 9’ feet long and huge. The 10’ footer is as big around as my leg and the 9’ footer is quickly catching up to her. The 9’ has some Suriname blood in her so I expect she will be in the 10-12’ range when she is all done, she is only a 2000 baby as it is. The 10 foot female seems to be pure Colombian I got her as an Adult so I don’t really know how old she is, but I have had her for about 4 years and she has only gained about a foot.
Now my Ivory Anery and my Het for Albino female are both 2000 babies and both are in the area of 6’ long. The Het is a bit more Hefty then the Anery but I assume both have some central American Blood in them some where down the line, as they do not seem in Any great hurry to grow bigger.
All of my 2002 babies (that I hope to breed next year) are mostly in the 5 foot range and they all include
Female Double het For Ghost Hypo
Female Albino
Female Ecuadorian Boa
Female Leticia Boa
I think most of them will be of size for next season (finger crossed) and should be right at the 5-6 foot mark then.
Other will be able to breed boas at the 4-5 foot mark depending on the locality. Nics, Insular and many other central Americans will never reach the six foot mark and therefore never breed if you wait for it to happen.
I hope it helps. I in general use the age of three to try the first breeding. I feed my boas on a normal basis with out overfeeding and most will become size by then.
Thanks
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Jim Hopkins "Hoppy"
Hopkins Holesale Herps
Hopfam1@aol.com

Mature breeding females, minimum size observed:

Common Colombian boa.. 1.6 meters, 4.5KG
Suriname redtail 1.9 meters, 4.4KG
Brazil redtail 1.8 meters, 4.5KG
Venezuela redtail.. 1.6 meters, 4.9KG
Can Cun imperator.. 1.3 meters 2.9KG
Hog Is. .. 1.2 meters, 2.4KG
Sonora desert boa.. 1.5 meters, 2.7KG
Tarahumara boa.. .95 meters, 1.6KG
Corn island boa.. 1.1 meters , 2.2KG
Caulker cay boa.. 1.0 meter, 2.2KG
Longicauda.. 1.8 meters, 3.8KG
Peru Redtail (Iquitos) 1.9 meters, 4.9KG
Peru Redtail (Pucallpa) 1.7 meters , 4.7KG
Occidentalis 1.9 meters, 5.4KG
Dumerili.. 1.6 meters, 4.4KG

...and a few others I will have to go look up..

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Gus
A. Rentfro
RioBravoReptiles.com
www.riobravoreptiles.com

"Quality is not an accident. Perfectly healthy animals are a minimum requirement.. everything else is just salesmanship" gus