Boa updates

[purplemuffin]

So those of you who remember me from so long ago might remember my lovely boa, Nagini? Well she now has a little baby friend who may end up being her future boyfriend!

Meet "Salazar"















He is a hypo het for albino male. For those of you who don't speak snake-talk, that means he is hypomelanistic--a gene that removes black from their coloration. And 'heterozygous' means that he carries one of the two genes necessary to produce an albino snake. So if he were to be bred with another het for albino--or a straight up albino, he could produce albino babies. Mix albino with hypo and you get sunglow boas..and those are gorgeous! You need sunglasses to look at them!


He's eaten twice since we got him and is doing great. He's totally high strung though so we don't handle him too much. He's just a baby after all! He thinks everything wants to eat him!

Meanwhile our darling Nagini is getting bigger and more gold! She's showing more signs of possibly being a jungle gene, despite being low expressive. We'll have to try to prove her out when she's old enough. She's a year and a half now and just hit 4'1"










Anyway, that's the update on my boas~ Can't wait to see them just get bigger and bigger! Surprised Nagini is already so long at this age. She's going to be a big girl!

[ChoclateBetta]

Snakes are awesome what are you feeding him I am just wondering do you really plan on breeding them.

[purplemuffin]

Both eat frozen thawed rodents from a local breeder who humanely euthanizes them. Nagini is currently eating two medium rats at a time, the baby boa is eating medium mice or rat pups.

Definitely plan on breeding Salazar. Nagini, maybe. I would like to prove her out to see if she really is a jungle or just a pretty normal. Both of them need two or so more years to grow up before anything like that happens though!

[mcneivra]

i love snakes and yours are beautiful!

[ChoclateBetta]

Sounds lovely even for the food.

[LadyVictorian]

Thank you for not feeding live rodents. I can not tell you how proud I am to see a snake owner who understands both the safety of their reptiles and the humane methods of feeding them. From a rodent lover, we appreciate it ^-^

And on that note people who have fed live honestly don't understand the risks. I have seen grown rats take out eyes and even kill smaller snakes. In the wild a grown rat will hunt and eat baby snakes because they do have high prey drives and those sold as feeders are often poorly bred and aggressive which is a high risk for feeding live. It's just not safe nor humane.

[purplemuffin]

I absolutely agree. I've had to treat snakes for injuries related to feeding. A live animal is going to fight for it's life, it will do damage. In the wild snakes eat live, but they are able to escape if things turn nasty--not possible in a small enclosure. Frozen is better all around.

I'm a rodent lover too. I had a sweet little mouse I rescued from a school science project that failed and she lived with us for several years! I just can't help but love all the animals, carnivores included, lol!

[ChoclateBetta]

Yeah I love all animals except parasites!

[LadyVictorian]

I use to have a little corn snake myself named Corny (how original) that I saved from petco. she was a baby and near death, ice cold and so skinny I could see her spine sticking out. Sadly though after she recovered my mother made me give her to my science teacher because she hates snakes. I know she got a got home though because he had like five corn snakes of his own with HUGE tanks built into the walls with their own internal environments (depending on their species. Had some Boas too even a green tree boa) Still miss her to pieces, she had such a CUTE face. Maybe one day I'll get another now that I have my own place.

[ChoclateBetta]

Originally Posted by LadyVictorian

I use to have a little corn snake myself named Corny (how original) that I saved from petco. she was a baby and near death, ice cold and so skinny I could see her spine sticking out. Sadly though after she recovered my mother made me give her to my science teacher because she hates snakes. I know she got a got home though because he had like five corn snakes of his own with HUGE tanks built into the walls with their own internal environments (depending on their species. Had some Boas too even a green tree boa) Still miss her to pieces, she had such a CUTE face. Maybe one day I'll get another now that I have my own place.

That was so nice and selfless.