I made one of the best decisions ever and got a 5 year old Argentine boa a few months ago. She is my second snake ever and I had open expectations but she really surprised me. She is so different from my first snake (ball python) and also seems different from what people say a boa should be. She is very active, communicative, curious and weirdly smart. She waits at a specific spot by her door every evening for me to let her out. We let her roam the house basically whenever we are home and not asleep. She never stops moving and is fast and wiggly (I thought boas are slow and chill?). She’s always climbing everything from floor to ceiling - shelves, pantry, racks, curtain rods, our floor to ceiling furniture, can open drawers, doors etc. One time she really wanted to investigate the bathroom so we shut the door and I guess she saw us using the door knob so instead of trying to squeeze under or wedge the door open like I think a snake would do, she just reached straight for the doorknob and tried to wrap it and turn it Whenever I bring home something new or groceries she always has to come and stick her head in it to check it out. It’s the cutest thing lol. Because of her personality I took the risk and decided not to hook train her and she has never mistakenly struck at us. When I got her I was told she was only fed f/t rats. I gave her quail for variety and now she’s decided she ONLY wants to eat BIRDS and definitely would eat a quail every day if you let her. Now I have a freezer full of rats that she refuses to eat (I thought boas are supposed to be garbage disposals?!) I just want to know if all of this is normal with a boa?
Anyway obviously I have a lot to say about her but not many snake people to share it with! I’m obsessed with her haha. I would love to have some friends who also have Argentines as pets so we can share day to day developments and stuff about our snakes and learn from each other. On top of that they don’t seem to be common so there’s not a lot of specific information about them on the internet aside from breeders, and I feel a lot of stuff about common boas gets generalized to them which I’m not sure is 100% accurate. I get the feeling that they’re different from BI and BCC.
Anyway let me know if you want to be friends, I would love to chat with you and hear about yours!
Hahaha Thank you!! I think she is kinda getting spoiled bc lately when we take her back to her cage for bed time, she’ll go in then make a big U-turn and want to come back out. Like “No I’m not done exploring!” Lol even though she’s been out for like hours. I feel bad we sleep earlier than her. We are waiting on her custom 8x3x4’ Toad Ranch so hopefully when that arrives she can at least climb around when we are asleep. Their lead time is soooo long right now.
Did you have an injury? Yeah there was definitely a learning curve to handle her. I had to figure out how to pick her up without her furiously wiggling. I sling her neck over my shoulder then hold her like a baby with her whole body against my chest and supporting her butt with my arms. That has worked so far. But for sure it takes some flexibility and back strength to bend over and deadlift like 20 lbs lol
Not an Argentine Boa keeper but I do really like their appearance and pattern
I have a 17 y/o BCC though and she’s probably the only large Boa I’ll have until her time comes, not that I don’t want to have more its just the fact that she’s huge (~7ish feet? 20+lbs), needs lots of housing space and I have to have someone with me whenever she’s outside of her enclosure for safety so I’d rather just have my focus on large species going towards her
The only other Boa species I keep is an Amazon Tree Boa but he’s a jerk
Sorry to hear about your Amazon tree boa Sometimes the youngest child is bratty hahah
Whats your BCC’s personality like? Have you had her since she was a baby?
The argentine will likely be our only big snake for now. She seems manageable so far at 6.5ft but I barely convinced the significant other on her and her huge cage. I do have a lot of other animals that he puts up with. But it was the big snake that broke him Whenever I bring up any more animals now he’s like “ABSOLUTELY NOT” lol. I do hope she gets huge though, like 8-9ft would be awesome.
She’s gorgeous, and I love the way you’re writing about her! You’ve come to the right place for a community who totally gets being snake-obsessed. My personal obsession is corns but I always enjoy reading about others’ animals. Welcome, and keep it coming!
She’s been with me her whole life we practically grew up together! I got her as a tiny little baby when I was 7 years old.
She has her ups and downs throughout the years but for a good majority of the time she’s super tame. I’ve only ever been bitten by her 4 times, which is the least amount of bites I’ve ever gotten from a single snake outside of Ball Pythons lol. Handling goes well, she mostly likes to get up on my shoulders and then just sit around, probably just soaking up my body heat- when she was younger she was definitely more of a handful being a lot more explorative and enjoying getting herself wrapped up in things that were difficult to get her out of Not that she is weaker by any means- she is still incredibly strong, she just likes to relax more now
Ever since she grew past 15 years she has been prone to upper RIs so she has to be closely monitored for that and kept on the drier side. Which means she gets to see the vet for that 2x a year just to make sure everything is going well, otherwise I don’t have any issues in her care. She eats small rabbits every 2 or so months depending on the time of year- she goes a bit longer without during the colder months.
Definitely an animal I’d reccomend keeping for anyone interested in the larger species, but thats just my bias because its the only large species I keep lol.
Thank you!! I’m so happy I may have found my people haha. I would love to hear about your corns too. Once my significant other recovers from this snake I would love to get a colubrid
Welcome to MM and I like the pattern of your Argentine. I know baby yodo has a very nice female high pink Argentine boa.
I have never owned a Argentine boa but I do like them. Don’t know why I have never owned one. I love big boas and I know they do get 8 + feet long. Maybe in the future I will get one.
I have owned boas for 50 years now and I own 34 right now. In my opinion boas make the best pet snake. Sounds like you spoil your boa and he or she looks healthy by your pictures. Looking forward to seeing more pictures of yours. Looks like you may own a cat. How does the cat and boa get along? Most of my boas are fine with being around my dogs.
No I just got old! One of my boas that my friend has is now 10 feet long, which may not seem too large to some but she is way too large for this old lady! They all have a great life with my friend! So that makes me feel better about having to let them go.
Yes i do have an Argentine Boa!! She’s a Maxx Pink and her name is Dratini. I got her almost two years ago and she’s around 4.5-5 years old.
Here’s some photos of her from over the years:
I actually just finished paying off a little one I placed a deposit on earlier this year - a pretty little 2025 OS black line girl that I cannot wait to see in person! I’ll have to share some pics when she gets here!
Yes Tom, join in on the BCO love! Not at much going on morph-wise maybe, but those high blacks are incredible, and the tpos albinos are STUNNING!
Wow! She sounds like an awesome girl. I was heavily considering BCC before pulling the trigger on my argentine since I heard about their impressive size but loved the argentine pattern. Side note but warms my heart to hear she was there with you through all your eras of life until now. Don’t hear that often, it seems like with reptiles most of the time they get passed around repeatedly every few years. I wasn’t allowed to have animals as a kid and always regretted not having the chance to grow up with one, so just a tiny bit jealous lol. But now I can look forward to getting old with the ones I have as an adult!
I am glad your girl is enjoying her upper years being well cared for and wishing her many more years of health and relaxing basking sessions in the sun
I guess now I’m just waiting for my turn to get bitten never been bitten by any snake
For most snakes its not a huge deal, but definitely not the case for my BCC… I’m very very careful about watching her body language because I’d hate to be bitten by her at the size she’s at now. The last time she bit me was when she was less than 4 feet totally an error on my part though because I stupidly reached for her f/t rat with my bare hand when it seemed like she wasn’t interested in taking it. I’m not always worrying about it though because outside of food she isn’t aggressive or defensive at all.
Funnily enough though I’m more afraid of getting bit by my Hognose Snake than my BCC
That little Hoggie has the appetite that should belong to my BCC, she’ll go after anything. My BCC only ever shows any signs of a bite when she smells food and I feed her with those super long tongs you see venomous handlers using to carry snakes.
She’s beautiful!!! The black is super strong in her the contrast with the pink is insane. My girl’s name is Katerina we just call her Kat. Kat would never sit still for a flower on the head photo haha she’s nuts. Whats your girls personality like?
You came to the right place for reptile conversation and more snakes in the future! Especially boas and colubrids! They’re just like lays potato chips, you can’t have just one!!! Or in your case, 2!!!
Whenever I bring home something new or groceries she always has to come and stick her head in it to check it out. It’s the cutest thing lol. Because of her personality I took the risk and decided not to hook train her and she has never mistakenly struck at us. When I got her I was told she was only fed f/t rats. I gave her quail for variety and now she’s decided she ONLY wants to eat BIRDS and definitely would eat a quail every day if you let her. Now I have a freezer full of rats that she refuses to eat (I thought boas are supposed to be garbage disposals?!) I just want to know if all of this is normal with a boa?
I love big boas and I know they do get 8 + feet long. Maybe in the future I will get one.
One of my boas that my friend has is now 10 feet long, which may not seem too large to some but she is way too large for this old lady! They all have a great life with my friend! So that makes me feel better about having to let them go.
never been bitten by any snake
the contrast with the pink is insane. My girl’s name is Katerina we just call her Kat. Kat would never sit still for a flower on the head photo haha she’s nuts. Whats your girls personality like?