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Okay, so I'm a frustrated ball python owner who just got my two pastel boas. Why are boas so much simpler to feed? I started off with ball pythons because I wanted a small boid. Now that I'm learning more about smaller and dwarf boas, I'm leaning towards staying with them and only keeping a small amount of BP's. Am I the only frustrated BP owner here? Can anyone give me the pros and cons of owning either or both? Thanks.
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Paul aka "PuppyChulo"

That would make two of us man. I am a Hog Island guy myself. Ball Pythons just dont do it for me. And though I have had a couple, I much prefer my carpets and Hogs. Balls IMO now are being over bred, and bred back many times over now just for looks leaving genetically inferior animals.
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"Victory is reserved for those willing to pay its price"

I am also Hogg Island Girl.. I love the boas... They just seem so much simpler and much less demanding... Although I love my balls.. which i do, they are more my boyfriends thing that mine, i love the idea of a huge big snake... I want a Blood so much but Steve and I agree that our collection is at a stopping point until we are settled in with school finished and we have a house sooo.....I guess no blood for a while atleast.. I also have been looking seriously at Eyelash Vipers but im not sure how ready i am for a venomous which means of coarse that im not ready at all.... anyways just my .02 cents....

Sincerely,
Rose

I have owned and bred animals from Rainbow boas, Hogg Island Boas, GTP's, Amazon Tree Boas and now Ball Pythons. I sold my entire collection with the exception of my 9 yr. old Hogg Island trio a couple of years ago and got into high end Ball Pythons. My Hogg Islands very rarely refuse meals, except when gravid or during mating season, but sometimes even in mating season they eat. My Ball Pythons are the same way, you must feed them when they eat, and know when in the year they will go off of feed. I think the people who "try" Ball Pythons and do not succeed, have not educated themselves, or buy WC adults. If you buy a nice CB pair of het Albino Balls, you should have no trouble with them, just as you should have no trouble with a CB pair of het Albino Boas. This being said, I have one finicky eater Ball, but that is out of 30 animals. I would have to say that is better odds than most boa keepers. Hoggs are awesome, but a nice hypo/orange ghost ball, WOW! Do not be a cheap @ss with Ball Pythons, and you will have a good experience, but buy a lousy looking wc animal, and you will be back to Boas in a second!

Dave

Well I must admit that my first Boid was a Ball Python, and I still think they are great snakes. The problems with Bps are these…..
1) you can still get fresh imported baby Ball pythons for about $5.00 each, these $5.00 snakes are then given morph names and sold for $200.00 , so breeding them is not finically sound.
2) The true breeding of the top end Morphs of Bps is still very young in development. Bps have not been bred for the same amount of time as Boas have so they are still very expensive for a true Morph and not just a renamed import.
3) BP are not very prolific breeders 5-8 eggs being a good size clutch where as boas will produce 20-30 live babies in a season. It will always be hard to produce a suitable amount of BP to combat the import trade on them (at least until the imports are banned)
4) BP will naturally go through fasting stages in their lives and this will frustrate the heck out of a BP owner who wants his snake to feed on a regular basis. I had a BP not feed for almost 13 months and then just start up again like he never stopped. He did not lose any weight to speak of and I never really knew what stopped him, but he started on his own, after almost a year of pulling my hair out!
Now the pros of the BP…..
1) A great looking exotic snake for a reasonable price.]
2) Stays small and easy to keep
3)Good temperament (mostly) and is forgiving in care errors

The reasons that I don’t work with them anymore is simple, the imports of them ruin the market. A person wants documentation that your BP that your selling for $25.00 is not an import? If I write it down on a piece of paper and send it to someone does that make it more true? Even at $25.00 per baby CB BP it is about one quarter of their true value. I also like morphs, I like to work with the genetics and breed out pet quality snakes, this is why I work with Corns and Boas, BP morphs are just too high priced for the return, what ever anyone says, if I can’t support my own Hobby by the money that my babies bring in, then I can’t afford the hobby. I spend thousands of dollars a year on my collections upkeep and the money made from the babies is what is used to pay for it.
I like Ball Pythons and would recommend them to anyone one looking for a Starter snake for a child old enough to keep a snake 10 years plus in my opinion, But I personally lost interest in them.
Thanks and welcome to the World Of Boas….
Jim Hopkins

I will grant that most boas are better feeders than ball pythons, though I do have one Solomon Island ground boa that puts that theory to the test. Ball pythons are known for going on fasting periods, much to the dismay of their owners, while 'most' boas do not - never a guaranty with wild caught or some neonate animals. My bp has gone for fasts lasting several months. At first it was completely nerve wracking and I thought I'd lose it. Eventually I got used to the somewhat annual phenomenon and just go with the tide. All in all, I love my ball python as much as any of the boas in my collection. They are great pets IMO, generally with good dispositions and they don't get terribly large. A great boid all around. As Hoppy mentioned, you'll need to be careful of the many bp 'morphs' out there as many are not legitimate and the return isn't immediate due to the low clutch size.

There are a number of snakes in my collection (listed below) and all of them have been great pets and I've learned a good deal from each type. For small boas, my obvious first choice is one of the Candoia (Solomon Island/Santa Isabel ground boas or Viper boas). The different rainbow boas are also great. My Colombian rainbow was a rescue and, despite horrid treatment from his previous owner, is a gentle docile snake that turned into quite a beauty. There are a few insular forms of the Bci (Hog Islands probably being the most widely known) as well as a number of other smaller boas (Bannana boas, rosy boas, rubber boas, to name a few just off the top of my head). I am partial to the Colombian redtails (aka common boas) even though they reach lengths up to and exceeding 7 feet - most of my collection of Bci is in the 7' range with the exception of 3 juveniles. There are also some great smaller pythons. The childrens and spotted pythons are two of the first small pythons that come to mind, both great snakes (don't know if they interest you or not though). Basically there's something in this hobby for everyone.

Raven

5.3 Bci - Colombian Redtails
1.1 Dumerils boas
1.1 Solomon Island ground boa (Candoia carinata paulsoni)
0.1 Santa Isabel ground boa (Candoia carinata paulsoni - white phase)
1.0 Colombian Rainbow boa
0.1 Albino Burmese Python
1.0 Ball Python
0.1 Queensland (coastal) carpet python
1.0 Jungle X Coastal Carpet python
0.1 Jungle Carpet X Diamond python
1.1 Normal Phase Corn Snakes
1.0 Snow Corn

I suppose that I am basically like you guys, only I didn't start with a BP. My first baby is a normal phase cornsnake from a while back now. My second is a boa - columbian red-tail, fondly called "Big Red" and that is when I fell in love with boas. My BP's did go on the occassional fasting spell, but now that I have quite a few more snakes the BP's are eating with alarming frequency. I use the word 'alarming' loosely - I am thrilled that they are eating so often, but I think that being in the same room with boas has warped them. They are pigs! I have a theory that the less you mess with the BP's, the more they eat. However, I prefer my boas over my two BP's. I guess that's why I have 11 of them. I seem to be rambling: So, I can't say that I am a 'frustrated' BP owner, but the fasting issue does make me want to pull my hair out sometimes!

My ball python attacks the prey about 3 seconds after i put it into the tank.