Reptile & Amphibian Forums

For some reason I wan't more. I'm thinking about getting 2 boaphiles AND a rhino rax. I still want to get a hog island, peruvian, argentine and a female bolivian to try to breed to my male. Before I jump off the deep end, does anyone have any warnings or advice?

What is too much for you?
Trust me, I know your feelings. I think most of us share it. LOL!
It really is a hard line to find. I guess you'll feel you've crossed it when you can really care for your animals like they should be.
Take me for example. Right now I have 23 boas. I plan on slimming the collection down to 18 for now. 11 of the 23 are larger animals. The rest are yearlings. I have all my animals seperated. I use to believe in keeping animals together. Now, I just won't do it. So, for me, all my animals need to have a seperate cage. Will I be able to keep 18 adult boas? I personally don't think so. Sure, physically I can tend to all their needs. But, for me keeping boas has always been a passion with each animal. With 23 boas, I just can't give each one the time I would like to give it. Do I want a few more morphs? HELL YA! I lust daily after some of them!
So, for me, it really comes down to what will make me and my animals happy. For me, it is a slightly smaller collection so I can spend a lot of time with each animal. On average I have each boa out 1-2 times a week. Personally , I would like to have them out 3-4 times. So, I will have some hard choices to make in the future.
What's also tough is the fun pairings that can be made. It is endless! Which is a lot of fun. But, I have come to the conclusion that I really need to focus my desires and realize I can keep them all.
So, again, you need to do some soul searching and find out what your desired outcome is. Do you want to be a keeper? A breeder? A mixture of both? With the crazyness of life......When will things get to be too much and the animals begin to suffer? Are you married? Kids? Girlfriend? Going to school? Working? Etc. Life is a complicted thing. It never does any of us any good when we add to that with more responsibilities. (Meaning more snakes than we have the time for.)
My feeling is that none of us can answer this question for you. Only you can.
Hope this helps,
John
-----
"To be the best..........You must lose your mind."

>>What is too much for you?
>>Trust me, I know your feelings. I think most of us share it. LOL!
>>It really is a hard line to find. I guess you'll feel you've crossed it when you can really care for your animals like they should be.
>>Take me for example. Right now I have 23 boas. I plan on slimming the collection down to 18 for now. 11 of the 23 are larger animals. The rest are yearlings. I have all my animals seperated. I use to believe in keeping animals together. Now, I just won't do it. So, for me, all my animals need to have a seperate cage. Will I be able to keep 18 adult boas? I personally don't think so. Sure, physically I can tend to all their needs. But, for me keeping boas has always been a passion with each animal. With 23 boas, I just can't give each one the time I would like to give it. Do I want a few more morphs? HELL YA! I lust daily after some of them!
>>So, for me, it really comes down to what will make me and my animals happy. For me, it is a slightly smaller collection so I can spend a lot of time with each animal. On average I have each boa out 1-2 times a week. Personally , I would like to have them out 3-4 times. So, I will have some hard choices to make in the future.
>>What's also tough is the fun pairings that can be made. It is endless! Which is a lot of fun. But, I have come to the conclusion that I really need to focus my desires and realize I can keep them all.
>>So, again, you need to do some soul searching and find out what your desired outcome is. Do you want to be a keeper? A breeder? A mixture of both? With the crazyness of life......When will things get to be too much and the animals begin to suffer? Are you married? Kids? Girlfriend? Going to school? Working? Etc. Life is a complicted thing. It never does any of us any good when we add to that with more responsibilities. (Meaning more snakes than we have the time for.)
>>My feeling is that none of us can answer this question for you. Only you can.
>>Hope this helps,
>>John
>>-----
>>"To be the best..........You must lose your mind."
-----
Joe Lydon
Got Boids?

John, you REALLY seem like a VERY good person who cares about their animals... I've only been into boas for about a year now and I want every morph out there, and plan to expand into ball pythons in the future (although I prefer boas, balls DO have some cool things out there)... I bought my first boa about a year ago, he was a normal adult male... When I was at the Chicago Reptile House I was looking at snakes.. I owned an albino burmese python a few years back and I loved it, but understood that I didn't have the time or space to care for it (12')... Anyways, last year I went back to get a smaller species, I found my adult male... I was at the petstore, picked him out, held him, he was tame as a puppy... I was so amazed with his pattern.. I didn't know SQUAT about locality, BCI-BCC... I was like, "Holy cow, he's a colombian?"... I probly looked like a dumbass in front of the employees... Anywho, I kept him.. Davey Giltner got me interested in morphs.. I was on the computer 24/7 reading up on genetics and such, to the point where it jeopordized my 5yr relationship.. I remember searching the classifieds and breezing through, not knowing what the hell everything meant.. Salmontine this, DH Sunglow that... Davey REALLY helped me out a lot, I racked his brain.. I slowed down for a bit after I tried breeding 2 snakes.. I thought the litter messed up, so I put snakes on the back burner and I was only going to keep the ones I already had... I ended up dropping a litter on April 4th, it was a SalmontineXNormal litter... You couldn't imagine the amazement I had.. Ya know how EVERYONE thinks their babies are "Special", it's true.. You could have a "Normal" and think there is no other boa like it, because it was something you created.. I'm rambling on now, sorry.. Anyways, I just bought a few (what you would call "high end" snakes) and I plan on expanding... John's statement really hit home, when I bought my first boa, there was so much mysteriousness (if that's a word) to snakes.. To be honest, I don't take every snake out all the time, and after hearing John's post, I actually feel bad about it... There are so many base and designer morphs out there and I like so many of them... Is it BAD that I don't give each one the amount of attention they SHOULD have??? I REALLY do miss the feeling I had when I was at the pet store purchasing my first colombian boa... So to answer your question... "How many snakes are enough?".... It depends on your PASSION... I know snakes and reptiles in general will be a PERMENANT aspect of my life, FOREVER...
-----
Joe Lydon
Got Boids?

Time.
Trying to balance everything......Relationships, kids, work, etc...etc...
Take care,
John
-----
"To be the best..........You must lose your mind."

one key thing to remember, this is (or at least should be) a long term commitment. These guys can and do live for 20 years and more. My oldest is a "normal" from 1989. While there is a demand for babies and morph adults, older boas even morphs might not be easy to find a new home for. From your other posts you are starting college soon and still living at home. What do you plan to do when you get a "real" job, married, buy a house, have kids etc. All those things can and will fill your waking hours (especially the newborn baby). Will you still have and commit time to your snakes?

All this from a guy with 20 snakes. I enjoy my collection and of course spend time every day (some days a fair amount) taking care of them.
-----
Thanks,

Dave "Rainbows-R-Us"

0.1 Wife
0.2 kids
4.12 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
1.1 Ball python
0.1 BCI "Elvira" normal from 1989
1.0 BCI albino / het-anery
0.1 BCI Hypo / het-albino
0.1 BCI Anery / het-albino
0.1 BCI Hypo (possible super)

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

That is a good question and John Lokken gave you some good insight and hit it on the money when he said; " Only you can really answer that question. " When I got my first boa 17yrs ago, I never really thought that I would ever want anymore of them. I soon come to realize that; " It is a sick addiction in alot of ways and more was never enough. " Alot of Ego, also came into play for me years ago, I would see an animal that someone else would have that was really nice and hell or high water, I wanted to have one like his, so I could show it off and boast.I had a flavor for all for a while, burms and boas of all different localities and monitors and tree boas and it started to get insane. I slowly started seeing health problems come up here and there in the collection and realized finally; " I do not have to have every piece of candy in the bag! " If you want to be a breeder and try to make a living at this, you will have a whole different strategy verses a Hobbyist who breeds for fun and to make a little extra money, that usually winds up being put right back into the collection anyway.In todays market " depending on what you are breeding " quantity is how most are making their money " the 99 cent hamburger theory, " selling more for less. The fact is; " When you look at all the people that are breeding, very few are actually doing it for a living. " Now, back to your main question. For me, I have found " like Lokken " it is much better to maintain a small collection and give them larger enclosures and more quality time and a overall better quality life.When you look in the cage and dread having to clean turds, you either have to many or you do not need any at all. As far as being successfull, you can be VERY successfull with a small collection. Brian Abrahamson " Florida Redtails " is one of the most respected and successfull Suriname Boa breeders that is out there and he did it with less than a dozen breeders! Good Luck........Johnson Herp

After reading all of that I think I am going to stick with "just" 3. The main reason I want to get more is because I love boas so much and want to expierence the different localities and morphs first hand. I want to see for myself what the difference in behavior and attitude is between say an argentine and suri. I do remember when I got my first boa, I loved him but had no desire to have more. Now its like, got to collect them all. You guys are right, instead of spreading myself thin through a ton of animals, I should focus on giving the absolute best care and attention to the ones I already have.

I'm the same way. I love seeing different behaviors of different animals. I love owning different localities! I still want a Madagasgar boa and a ball python! It will be a while before I do that though.
OH, and just to fuel the your fire (LOL!).............Argentines are really awesome animals. I would recommend them to anyone. Seeing a baby grow and change color is REALLY cool. The one I own is sweet as pie. (She wasn't that way in the beginning.) Probably one of my favorite snakes. (Don't tell the others) So, you should get one of those.
Take care,
John
-----
"To be the best..........You must lose your mind."