Im here to ask the age old question for my boa, BCC, BCI, or cross? Unfortunately as a pet store purchase I have virtually zero information other than “Redtail” but looking at some others who have asked I have some good information.
He is 3 years old, 55 1/2 inches, 1400+ grams (never power fed, and at the pet store was kept on smaller prey items spaced out when already almost 2 years old and 41 inches was still getting hoppers and smalls every 3 weeks or so)
He has some gold and pink hue after a shed, bat wings and connected saddles, and 18 full saddles to the vent, 19 if you pretend the broken one didn’t break. I’m crossing my fingers that this next shed is one I cqn easily get a scale count on following a comment from someone who answered this question for another boa. Derp picture included for tax.
He’s beautiful! I’m far from an expert on identifying boas, but his head shape looks more BI than BC to me. So my guess would be either BI or a mix. Lots of pet stores sell BIs that they call “redtails,” and only rarely are those snakes actually true BC redtails (though it depends on the pet shop). I’ll tag some boa folks who are better educated than I am in these matters. @tommccarthy@lumpy@smite@mattcookreptiles
I would say he is a cross between a Colombian BCI X Colombian BCC.
Has the head shape of a BCC.
Most pet stores buy BCI boas as pure Colombian BCC are not cheap.
He is very nice looking he should make a very nice pet for you.
@tommccarthy You’re actually the person I was reffering to about the scale count list and such! So happy to see you’ve commented and appreciate your input, I misunderstood about the bat wings, from your description I thought you meant the markings on the sides of the saddles looking like this <) (> so thank you for the image clarification!
Thank you! He’s strictly a companion I have no intent to breed him or anything like that, but between myself and fellow boa owner friends theres always been that question in the back of our minds, but he’s gorgeous, sweet, and spicy which is perfect for me!
I can’t add anything other than my compliments on the beautiful boa, @kayliepiroli. The very last picture is really adorable, with his head tilt. And @tommccarthy ! Always love to see your beauties.
Most boas in the pet trade are a big mix of localities (and sometimes species). We used to think they were all one species, and for long time, people were breeding boas without really tracking where the parents and family lines originally came from.
There are breeders who specialize in specific localities and species, and they take pains to keep their bloodlines “pure,” but those snakes will usually be labeled and sold as such, and will have a higher price tag that reflects the extra care and effort and record-keeping by the breeder. Outside of a really nice reptile specialty shop, you’re unlikely to find a true BC or pure locality BI at a pet shop. And now that I’m thinking about it, I don’t really see morph boas in pet shops either, aside from maybe a hypo I saw once.
