My wife and I are new breeders of ball pythons, but we also keep a few other snake species. We picked up this amazing female boa as a rescue, but we haven’t the slightest clue on boa type or morph. We have been told she looks like certain morphs, so I am looking for some expert opinions; if she has interesting genes, we may branch out our breeding operations.
She is just north of eight feet long and weighs in the ballpark of twenty pounds. We suspect she was overfed before we got her, so we have helped her to slowly lose some of the extra weight. The flash in the photos I have doesn’t quite do her dark coloration justice, and in the third pic she is the larger of the two snakes.
If more or clearer photos are needed for identification, I will be happy to supply them. Thanks all, and have a great day!
I am not a boa expert, to me it looks like probably a bci I couldn’t guess on local type. With all that dark coloration, especially in the last pic I wonder if she could be a img morph? These are just my educated guess’s, could be completely off but I will tag a couple people who can help more then me. Just wanted to say welcome to the community and that is a very beautiful big boa you have! @tommccarthy@lumpy
Beautiful sides on that boa. I would think of IMG the head would be much darker, at least in some areas, but that’s just from what I’ve seen in pictures. Lack of all reds in the tail could point to anerythristic of some type. Hard to say, some boas are just dark when they age.
Welcome to the family forum! She is a magnificent boa girl! You will absolutely fall in love with her the more you are around her! Boas are generally very chilled out let’s snuggle and watch tv snakes!
And you will love this family. Don’t hesitate to ask any and all questions you might have about your new girl because there is no dumb question here!
God bless you for taking her in and all the very merry best to you guys and her! Caron.
I appreciate the insight and kind words from everyone! She really is a sweetheart.
I saw someone mention shed testing; I have only seen genetic testing for morphs available for ball pythons, at least with RGI. Am I mistaken on this, or is there maybe another company that provides testing?
I would say a big normal BCI. Could be anerythristic hard to tell from the pictures. If there is any brown or red color’s in the saddles or tail saddles, it’s not an anerythristic boa.
As for IMG, the first two pictures, I don’t see it. But the last picture makes the side look like it could be. I think it’s just the lighting and flash making the pictures look off.
If you can get some good outdoor pictures. Full top view of the whole body. Good side view of mid body and some good tail pictures.
She is it’s not an anerythristic boa. I see some brown color in her tail saddles. Still undecided on IMG. Can you get a few belly pictures of her under side?
Your boa is just a normal bark BCI. It’s not a IMG boa. However there are a lot of het albino boas out there that people don’t even know they have. So if you do breed her i would suggest getting an albino or sunglow to breed her to. This way you can prove her out for albino. If she has no albino’s then she is not het for albino. But at least all the babies she had will be 100% het albino. I don’t like making or selling possible het babies. They are hard to sell and not worthy much money.
-scales Upscaleds wife -
