- Let's take a look at ... Whoa!
Let's take a look at a non-boa
and this one is a hype little monkey here.
He's a Tiger Amazon Tree Boa
and he is always wanting to bite me.
Ooh, don't bite me, don't bite me.
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Hey, good morning everybody
and welcome to the vlog.
I hope the start to your day is absolutely incredible.
And I am going to do a vlog today
that is gonna circle around boas.
That's right.
People are forever asking me to show more boas.
Their like, Brian show more boas.
So I think I'm gonna go ahead
and dedicate a vlog to boas.
Talk about them a little bit.
Of course, starting with my girl Sunny here.
She is actually a Sharp Albino Boa Constrictor.
And this is what they would call a
Common Columbian Boa Constrictor.
A lot of people actually call these Red Tail Boas,
but in actuality they're actually Common Boas.
There are true Red Tail Boas
that I'll show you later in the vlog.
But the Columbian Boas are kind of a bigger snake.
Sunny here is about seven foot.
They can eventually get eight or nine
and sometimes even pushing 10 foot.
In a relatively heavy body animal.
This is again a Sharp Albino.
There's two strains of albino,
both sharp and call.
Ironically enough, they are not compatible.
So if you bread a call and a sharp together,
you would get a bunch of normal boa constrictors.
The sharp are typically considered to be slightly prettier
and they're definitely less common.
I think that they do have a little bit more color to them
but Sunny here is absolutely amazing.
And like I mentioned, boas can get pretty large.
This is one of the biggest
female boa constrictors that I have ever seen.
She is absolutely amazing.
She is pushing 10 foot and she is definitely a heavy monkey
and boas are pretty strong.
Now boas constrictors are usually kind of that snake
that people get when they want a big snake.
But something that's not too big.
Probably one of the most common big snakes for sure
when it comes to the pet trade.
And they can be extremely good pets.
As you can see, they're a placid animal.
They absolutely are great to handle
and they are certainly sizable.
Now don't freak out,
the majority of boa constrictors don't get this large.
So if you're looking for a six or seven foot animal,
in particular males will typically never get beyond that.
They are absolutely a good snake.
So say you have a Ball Python
or you have a Corn Snake,
and you're like, I wanna get into the big snakes,
what steps do I take?
Boas are definitely a great progression.
Now this is actually an adult male boa constrictor.
It's about seven years old.
So you can see it's probably not gonna get much bigger
and it is absolutely a gorgeous snake.
This is actually what they would call a Sharp Sun glow.
So like I talked about with Sunny,
this is a Sharp Strain Albino.
The reason they call it a Sun glow
is its also hypo.
So it's hypo and albino.
And I will say this, they hypos do stay a little smaller,
but I'll talk about that in a minute.
Regardless, if you want a snake
that doesn't get much larger than this little beauty here,
usually a male Common Boa is the perfect choice.
And again, they make incredibly good pets.
As a matter of fact,
you may or may not know this,
the second snake I ever owned,
right behind the Burmese Python,
was a boa constrictor named King.
That's right, my second snake ever,
that wasn't a garden snake that is,
was actually a boa constrictor.
And he was an amazing animal.
For over 20 years we had that snake.
And he was such an amazing snake.
So I love boa constrictors.
Now, like I was talking about earlier, the Hypo Boas.
This happens to be an extremely beautiful
reduced pattern Hypo Boa.
These guys are actually from a Central American bloodline.
They actually brought in by a guy named Jeff Chi.
And he called them Orange Tail Boas
because their tail was a little bit more orange
and didn't have the black pigment.
Later on they were retermed either salmon boas
or hypo boas or something on that sorts.
Regardless, they were a Central American stock.
Now the Central American Boas
are a little smaller species than the Columbian boas.
As a matter of fact,
some of the Central American boas
only get four and a half or five foot.
So again, if you want a smaller boa,
you can go with a hypo boa that was a central bred
into a Columbian,
or you can go with a Central American.
There's T positive Albinos,
there's motley's,
there's all kinds of really great animals.
So if boas are in your future,
but you don't want something that's gonna get
seven, eight, nine, ten foot,
hey there's options out there.
You certainly can get a Central American Boa.
But the Hypo Boas are absolutely incredible.
And of course every generation that goes by
that they're bred back into Columbian
means that they're gonna be a little bit larger.
So the original orange tails rarely got over
five, five and a half foot.
Now some of them can still get six, seven,
sometimes even eight foot.
Then there's the true red tail boas
like I mentioned earlier.
And just look at how red and beautiful this one's tail is.
This of course is a Suriname.
Now these guys will get slightly larger.
Not all of them,
but sometimes you can get nine and ten foot Surnames.
And there's even been some
that have been over ten foot believe it or not.
They are definitely a bigger,
kind of wider bodied animal normally,
although that big Columbian is one big, big snake I have.
The fact is is that the red tail boas
are a different subspecies
and they're very, very beautiful.
And there's a bunch of different subspecies of that.
This happens to be Suriname,
there's Peruvian,
there's a whole bunch of other ones.
And there's even Bolivian's that stay small,
again that have even a different pattern.
So there's a lot to offer when it comes to boas,
whether you want a Common Boa,
a Red Tail Boa,
or a Central American Boa,
whatever it is there's definitely something
that could probably suite your need.
And one of my absolute
personal favorites are these guys here,
which are the Guyana Red Tail Boas.
Again, going back to my early days,
I think I was 16 years old when I got my first Guyana Boa.
It was a wild caught female that was just
a hyper, crazy, lit you up type of animal.
Every time I would open the cage she would bite me.
But she was absolutely incredible.
And now I've got captive red ones
that are raising up that are absolutely incredible.
Just like the Surinames,
they have that really nice beautiful red tail,
but these guys typically have a little bit more of a
kind of purplish, mauve type hue to their body.
So that's why I like the Guyanas.
And they typically stay a little bit smaller
than the Surinames too.
So they're really a beautiful snake.
We're raising up a pair,
so hopefully sometime in the future
maybe we'll have our own baby Guyana Red Tails
because I've never produced them in the past.
Let's take a look at ... woo.
Let's take a look at a non-boa.
This one is a hyper little monkey here.
This one is actually that female
Kenyan Sand Boa that had 20 babies
about a week and a half or two weeks ago,
so she is absolutely incredible.
And again, if you don't want a boa constrictor,
but you still want a boa,
you can certainly look at sand boas.
And usually they're pretty good.
This one's a little bit cantankerous,
if you know what I mean.
But the truth is it's because she just had babies
and she's like a little bit of a mad mama.
The truth is they're really cool
and there's a bunch of different types of Sand Boas.
And this is an adult female here.
So they don't get very big,
and males even are much smaller,
rarely exceeding 12 or 14 inches or so.
And females typically max out about here,
about two foot.
Sometimes a really big one might be 30 or 36 inches.
But nevertheless Sand Boas are a great option,
and they come in a bunch of really beautiful paint jobs too.
So hey, you don't have to have a huge boa if you want a boa.
And for a sand boa, these Indian Smooth Scaled Sand Boas
are certainly really bizarre.
They're one of the biggest species of Sand Boas.
I mean look at how big and chunky this is.
Now this is a seven or eight year old female,
so she is not gonna get any larger than this.
But I think they're really cool
and they're born like orange with black bands.
And as they get bigger
they turn kind of this all brown color.
But we actually produce something that's called
a Sunset smooth Scale
that actually stays orange with black bands as well.
So this is a cool option for a sand boa,
something you don't see very often.
That's why hey I'm gonna go ahead and highlight it
'cause I think it's cool.
And one of the things I think is really neat
is look at that head right there,
and look at the tail right there,
they almost look exactly the same.
Let's say that you're up for a little bit of a challenge,
you're like Brian, I want something
that's a little bit crazy,
a little bit feisty,
and really, really awesome.
Certainly the Amazon Tree Boas
can be something that can be a little exciting for sure.
I mean I absolutely love this guy right here.
Of course, his name is Lucky.
He's a Tiger Amazon Tree Boa
and he is always wanting to bite me.
But listen, I'm not all about
getting bit by this guy per se,
he's really a cool display animal.
And most Tree Boas are just that,
they're beautiful animals to set up in a display
and just kind of admire them
because yeah I've seen a few tame Tree Boas,
but it's not very common, that's for sure.
And oooh, oooh, it's okay, it's okay Lucky.
All right, back up, back up, back up.
Definitely don't wanna get tagged ...
Oooh geez that was a close one.
So regardless, this is a full grown adult here,
this is how big they get.
And they come in all kinds of different colors and flavors.
Come on, come on, no, no, no, no, no.
They come in a lot of flavors and colors,
so they can be really cool.
If you want a yellow one like Lucky you can get one.
If you want a red one, an orange one,
there's even been a couple baby black ones
that do change as they get older.
But nevertheless,
Lucky here is definitely giving me a run for my money.
It is definitely a very cool snake.
Now on the other hand,
you have this absolutely gorgeous Emerald Tree Boa.
They're not nearly as feisty when it comes to striking out
as Lucky, the Amazon Tree Boa,
but they're still really a display animal.
They're not really all about the handling.
Now don't get me wrong,
you can handle them if you kind of become the tree, right?
So basically, you're the branch,
they're completely fine.
My buddy, Forest, handles them
and he showed us that you can certainly
handle these guys if you're very, very careful.
But I'm one of those people that feels
that this animal deserves to just kind of sit up here
in this display, look absolutely beautiful.
And I tell you what,
if you want an absolutely incredible display Tree Boa,
Emerald Tree Boas are certainly an awesome animal.
Let's say you want a kind of mid range boa,
maybe you're saying I'm not sure I'm ready for
a Columbian and Sand Boas just aren't your thing,
and maybe the Central American boas
don't suite your fancy too,
you want something a little bit different,
a Rainbow Boa is a great option.
Of course this is a Brazilian Rainbow Boa
and she's a full grown adult,
so they don't get very big,
but they're still big enough
to be a pretty impressive snake.
I mean they will get sometimes up to six foot in length
but they don't get much fatter than this,
so it's certainly handleable if you have kids
or something like that where you don't wanna have
a 20 or 25 or 30 pound snake, I totally get it.
And wow are these things absolutely gorgeous.
Again, they are a Boidae
so they have live young
and are absolutely incredible,
and there are several mutations
of Brazilians,
as well as we showed you
we produced the Leucistic Columbians,
they're a great option if you want
that big snake, but not too big.
Another cool little boa here is a Viper Boa.
Just take a look at how weird these animals are.
They stay relatively small.
I mean a big viper boa's about three foot or so.
Most of them stay about 24 inches,
but you can just see ... whew ...
It's a feisty little monkey.
Look at those little things.
And of course these guys are from Indonesia.
There's also the Solomon Island Boas as well,
which are a Candoia Carinata.
These are Candoia Aspera,
they're a little livebearer snake
and they can come in this color here,
which is like ...
Ugh, don't bite me, don't bite me.
This color here, which is yellow.
They can be red, sometimes almost black.
I mean they're really polymorphic
and they're super, super cool.
So this is definitely one of my favorite little boa species.
I absolutely love 'em.
I only have a handful of these raising now,
but I am definitely getting more.
I wanna take a quick break from boas
and just admire Jade, the Parson's Chameleon.
What an absolutely gorgeous animal that is.
And she is doing so well.
She loves the new misting system
that mists like 12 or 15 minutes
two or three times a day.
She is absolutely doing fantastic.
I cannot wait until she's 20 or 24 inches long,
it's gonna be an absolute beast.
But I just needed to take a break
because I walked by her cage
and was like oh my god,
she's looking beautiful today.
I'll tell you another non-boa constrictor boa
that I think is so under rated is this right here,
a Dumerils Boa.
That's right, these guys are incredible,
they're from Madagascar.
They do get about the same size as a Common Boa.
A male will get maybe five to seven foot.
A female typically will get seven to nine foot.
Sometimes males will get a little larger,
sometimes females stay a little smaller,
sometimes they get larger,
but they're about the same body weight.
But they're absolutely placid
and super, super handleable.
I think these are some of
the coolest boas out there in my opinion.
I've been working with 'em since I was a kid
and I have always been in love with them.
Just take a look at that crypted pattern
that they have right there.
They are unbelievable.
So, again, if you don't want a boa for some reason,
these guys are a great option as well,
they're livebearers just like boas.
And everything I've shown you today is a livebearer.
These guys will typically have in between
10 and 15 babies,
with rare occasions of litters that are over 20.
Nevertheless, Dumerils Boas are incredible.
A couple other really cool considerations
when it comes to boas are Rosy Boas
and Rubber Boas.
We don't work with them anymore.
We used to breed Rosy Boas for years.
There's a whole bunch of different localities of them
so they're really cool,
they stay really small,
and then Rubber Boas are really cool as well,
but unfortunately you need to keep them kind of cool,
they don't like it over like the mid 70s or so,
that's why we haven't kept them,
just 'cause most of our stuff is in the 80s
and they really don't do well unless you keep them cooler.
But again, a couple little types
of boas that are pretty awesome.
So as you can see there's a lot of options with boas
and boas are truly amazing animals.
And I hope that you guys enjoyed the vlog
that kind of a lot of people have been asking for,
for me to kind of highlight a bunch of boas.
Now I don't work with near the amount of boas
as some people do, so it's not like
I can show you a hundred different morph
because there are unbelievable color phases.
I'll have to visit a really cool boa collection soon.
As a matter of fact,
I do have something in the works that I will do
and I think you guys are gonna absolutely love it,
but that's a couple weeks from now
and I'll tell you all about it.
In the meantime, go ahead and comment down below,
let me know if you liked this,
if you'd like me to do another vlog
on another type of snake, I'm happy to do that.
And I am going to wish you guys an amazing day,
evening or whenever you happen to be watching this.
Can you do me a couple of favors before we get out of here?
Can you smash that like button?
Turn those post notifications on
if you wanna know when I upload a video.
Again, make a comment
so I can read about your beautiful faces.
Be kind to someone
and I promise I will see you guys tomorrow.
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