Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i was looking through the listings at lll reptile and saw amazon tree boas for 40 bucks so i looked at the picture and now i really want one.

is there any caresheets i could look at?
recomended place i could buy from?(wont be buying until warmer weather)
can somebody tell me how docile they are?
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jake

my addiction:
2 normal ball pythons (lazlo and izzy)
1 amelenistic corn snake (mazy)
0.1 blizzard corn (blizz)

Not in any traditional sense of the words "good pet": they bite! They are beautiful and come in a stunning diversity of color and patterns. As with most if not all herps, captive bred is the best choice. There are a number of folks who post here that are breeding some real beauties! Their care requirements are not dissimilar to other aboreal boas and pythons. For a primer, I suggest you look up thecarnivorousorchid.com (sorry, I don't do hyper-links). There are many others, but I love that site. Do your homework and be certain of your commitment before you buy. They simply are not suitable for the average hobbist.

If you are wanting somthing to hold and cuddle then they are not for you. In my experience cb seem to be more calm than wc..not by much though.

how aggressive are they, and can they be tamed?
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jake

my addiction:
2 normal ball pythons (lazlo and izzy)
1 amelenistic corn snake (mazy)
0.1 blizzard corn (blizz)

I dont think i have ever seen a tamed one. They will bite you...mine all try to bite me as soon as i start getting into there cages.
I have one that is pretty good once its out and hanging on my hand..still goes for my face though but doesnt seem to be interested in my hand or arm as much

because ive heard they have really long teeth.

are they an easy snake to take care of? because i dont want to have a snake thats mean and hard to care for.
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jake

my addiction:
2 normal ball pythons (lazlo and izzy)
1 amelenistic corn snake (mazy)
0.1 blizzard corn (blizz)

You can wear gloves if your not into getting bit. They arent that difficult to take care of imo. Just need to keep the temps and humidity correct.

i was just wondering if they were out of my league
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jake

my addiction:
2 normal ball pythons (lazlo and izzy)
1 amelenistic corn snake (mazy)
0.1 blizzard corn (blizz)

Go for it then. I doubt you'd be disapointed, they are awesome snakes

and what size enclosure would i need for an adult?
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jake

my addiction:
2 normal ball pythons (lazlo and izzy)
1 amelenistic corn snake (mazy)
0.1 blizzard corn (blizz)

I am going to build one thats 3Lx2Dx3T but i think you could get away with somthing 2x2x2 for just one snake. I am just going bigger because i am going to hopefully be breeding them and i have the space for a bigger enclosure. Let us know if you end up getting one. They are great snakes.

but i probably wont until summer
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jake

my addiction:
2 normal ball pythons (lazlo and izzy)
1 amelenistic corn snake (mazy)
0.1 blizzard corn (blizz)

Well for a different opinion. I have a pair that I got as CB babies that have only bit twice outside of 2 other feeding mistakes by me. I have found them very tractable as long as you get the feel for how they want to be handled. I got bit much less than most with fresh w/c so there is something in how you handle them. I am with the others here that say do your homework but i would insist on cb. I have been to too many importers shops Yeah the price is sometimes twice as high but you get 5 times the animal.

If you really want to work with them buy CB next season and spend the mean time getting read up on them and setting up a cage with the right humidity and heat and all that. There should be some babies being imported that will be labeled as CB but they are cb in another country like the ball pythons and are not really clean. Buy CB in the US from somebody off here preferably and you should be ok

Good Luck

Jason

Hey Jason-
I meant to accknowledge your post sooner. I appreciate your imput: you clearly have more expertise than I. My intial response was to urge caution to a neo that enamored with ATBs, a challenging choice in captives, I think you would agree. I didn't want to discourage either.
But what I really wanted to react to is your observation about some cbb's more predictable attitude. I think we have seen a similar "softening" of 'tude with other notorious specie; ETB's, GTP's, Retic's and Blood's. I have been looking for some appearence of the phenomenom in ATB's as they become increasingly bred more frequently in captivity.
Thanks for the observation.
Bill

P.S. I also note and agree that part of the phenomonom is familiarity; a handler's savoir faire and myth debunking generally.

LOL I don't know if I have more expertise than you or whatever you said but I was a jobber scum bag for awhile. I say scum bag because I dealt with guys and help keep guys in business, by buying from them, that probably should not have been allowed to deal with animals. Thing is in Florida there are a ton of licensed importers who bring these little beauties in to make a buck and I visited lots of them.

I have always loved ATB's but I always thought them too nasty to deal with. I did buy and sell them a lot though and finally I got some CBB babies that I was just going to resell like all the ones before but man oh man I couldn't sell them. I had them posted for awhile but I just kept saying no to everybody who wanted them and then I would repost them Sorry if any of you tried to buy them from me... yeah I am a jerk for wasting your time. Anyway i have really enjoyed them since and i can't wait to actually produce a 2nd or 3rd generation ATB.

One thing that kills me is I never got the breeders info. Wholesaler wouldn't tell me. The guy was from the Fort Pierce area of Florida I think. If anybody knows somebody in that area of Florida I would love to know who produced my babies.

Anyway I would hate to see somebody get scared off of keeping these amazing animals just because everybody said not to. In reality they are just a snake and except for the humidity they are as easy as corn snakes in my opinion.

Later Jason

.

I have a friend who has a really awesome orange male, and having being around it I've really come to appreciate atbs. Yes, they can be nippy, but they usually aren't too bad and you get used to it. They just aren't a snake you can handle often in most cases. They do however, have great personalities and have such color variations naturally, that you'll be hard pressed to find anything better than them in the color department. They're very easy to care for if you do it right, and stay relatively small. Hope you end up getting one, I know I'll be getting some in the near future.
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Cycling: Trio Black Rat Snakes

Together: Poss Het Axanthic male Ball x Normal-no mating witnessed yet.

Chris LaViola
CMLReptiles
Website under construction
CMLReptiles@aol.com