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I suppose it's shape and to a lesser extent color.. but can a tail blotch have the lateral holes in it that a saddle does?
Thanks-
Matt Schubarth
Pet Nebula
2100 Stephens #116
Missoula, Montana 59801
406 541 9929

...and I wish I knew the answer. If anyone has a good idea on what the answer is, how many of these would you say are tail blotches?


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Davey Giltner

Great question,I count all the way till the red cease to exist?Do you count the very tip of the tail as a blotch?HHMMM...

biggworm everytime i see you post that animal i get chills !! awsome tail !!
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NO BEAUTY LIKE THE BEAUTY OF A TRUE REDTAIL !!

Thanks Koky,I too really love pure red tails!!!!Don't tell anyone,and BLOODS!!!

i unfortunately sold my blood... gonna concentrate mainly on redtails and maybe a couple of emerald tree boas
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NO BEAUTY LIKE THE BEAUTY OF A TRUE REDTAIL !!

>>...and I wish I knew the answer. If anyone has a good idea on what the answer is, how many of these would you say are tail blotches?
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>>Davey Giltner
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"To be the best..........You must lose your mind."

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Boa constrictor

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The #1 Boa constrictor site in the world wide web

Tail blotches being post vent. But what are the other markings, ie blotches from the vent up that look like tail blotches in color and shape? Is there a term for these intermediary markings?
Thanks-
Matt Schubarth

I agree with you that some of the blotches from the vent to the head does not look like saddle pattern at all but as a matter of fact they are.

This is the only way to get the count uniform.
Boa constrictor

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The #1 Boa constrictor site in the world wide web

np.

I would say the tail pattern is all the rounded circle about 8 of them from the tail way past the vent. Or am I seeing things?
What would you say?

No matter how they look like, the patter past the vent are tail pattern, the other saddle pattern.

This is a useful regulation, because otherwise there would be quarrel with intermediary markings. The ones would say it is a saddle pattern and the others would claim it is a tail pattern.
Boa constrictor

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The #1 Boa constrictor site in the world wide web

The tail ends at the vent....

I know what you are referring to, the way that some markings up the body above the vent have the color and shape more like the markings on the tail than those on the fore-body but this is simple semantics.. only markings on the tail are tail markings..

Say you have several nice tats on your posterior, and a similar one on your right pec.. are the butt tats then pec-tats or vice-versa?

More seriously the total number of dorsal saddles (excluding the tail) is an important tool (recognised in taxonomy) for identifying boa subspecies and even locality.. the practice of saying a saddle up the body is a tail marking if it looks kinda like one is confusing and wrong.. The people interested in that trait and buying animals with that trait or breeding for it need to come up with some other, more clear, way of describing it.. it is not something I'm making up.. the animal has a tail and that portion of the body is past the vent.. pretty much the same way it is in most all animals.
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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

that the patterning of the tail circles that hijgh up past the vent are to give an illusion to a predator that they are bigger than they appear, an animal with a longer tail may seem larger all together, but I do agree the actual tail is from the vent to end but the tail appearance may be the patterns that are the same color as the tail spots, you can clearly see where they end from red to brownish and a saddle seems more like a block.

Just my opinion but 90% of people probably refer to the tail as the red circles before they change to the squarish saddles

Not saying I'm right and your wrong just my input.

Now thats a tail.!!!!(if you count the all RED tail blotches.If you count from the vent to the tip then it would be NORMAL.I think the latter sucks.JUST MY OPPINION.

Jeff Ronne's MONSTER TAIL isn't really monster if you count from the vent.If you count from the vent ,then most snakes are preety much created equal.So if I say killer tail,I can't count the red blotches past the vent towards the head even let's say they're really red and about an extra 8 blotches.If that's how most people count tail blotches that sucks.JUST MY OPPINION.Has anyone thought of creating a BOA REGISTRY and maybe shows,like dog shows??I think that would legitamize the industry,and creat rules in wich boa's can be judged and the law wouldn't mess with us so much.JUST MY OPPINION.Thank you.

There are way too many cross breedings and no way to purely identify anything without knowing its exact orrigin and proof of breeding. I think however imported animals can be placed in a registry but that would have to be the responsability of the exporters to identify each snake and its exact locality in which is was collected.

Scale counts would be almost imposible especially with cross breedings , it seems to be way past any controlled environment breeding programs, unless the exporters and importers work on this we cannot 100% say we know the exact locallity of any snake and prove it was not some sort of cross breeding.

Yes,I can see the difficulty in that.Too bad.Thank you for the reply.