A little confused

[Joelb922]

So i picked up a square tail boa, and I'm seeing saddles for both BCC and BCI, he has a super sporadic pattern and a really dark colored tail, it won't let me post pictures on here from my phone but any advice would be great, thank you

[Joelb922]

http://imgur.com/CfiqK1q

[bigsnakegirl785]

Try uploading the picture to an external image hosting site and copying the link here.

As far as the saddles, BI can have peaks and BC can have regular saddles. Plus, common boas have been heavily hybridized with BC, so most commons in the pet trade are mutts with heavily mixed backgrounds.

[jjhill001]

If your copying a link make sure it has the .jpg .png or whatever on it too.

[Joelb922]

It is a .jpg, it says the image is too large

[Joelb922]

Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet (http://imgur.com/RCpVrnF)

[Joelb922]

This was the only way u could get it to work

[Andy_G]

100% bci. Very nice boa. ;)

[Joelb922]

Thank you, i just figured he should be a little bigger for his age, and some of his saddles have peaks

[Joelb922]

I Know bci are supposed to grow a little quicker but dont really get any bigger than 7'

[dannybgoode]

As bsg has mentioned bci's and bcc's have been heavily crossed so it may have some bcc influence in it but you'll never know for sure.

Bci's don't get that big - particularly the males- and they're slow growing. Avoid the temptation to over feed in a bid to increase growth rate. A proper sized meal every 3 - 4 weeks or so is plenty and even longer between feeds when it's fully mature.

Nice snake. Boas rock :)

[richardhind]

very nice Bci, almost jungleish with the abhorrent pattern but with out the paperwork its just a nice healthy Bci.
my adult male 7 +8 are all under 7 ft

[Joelb922]

Ive done the research on power feeding and theres more negative consequences as a result so i have no intentions of doing that, i didnt expect him to get any bigger than 7', i honestly paid the price for his pattern and his personality, hes probably the most mellow snake ive handled, even more than any ball python, and ive handled a little bit of everything, overall, whatever his genetic makeup is, im very happy with him, hes truly an amazing animal

[dannybgoode]

Ive done the research on power feeding and theres more negative consequences as a result so i have no intentions of doing that, i didnt expect him to get any bigger than 7', i honestly paid the price for his pattern and his personality, hes probably the most mellow snake ive handled, even more than any ball python, and ive handled a little bit of everything, overall, whatever his genetic makeup is, im very happy with him, hes truly an amazing animal

Absolutely as it should be. And welcome to the boa club - I've found they are generally a pretty chilled species. Don't tell the others but my boa is I think my favourite :).

[Joelb922]

The guy i bought my boa from has a female squaretail, im thinking of picking her up too

[Joelb922]

And actually, quick question, my guy is about 4 1/2 feet long, the breeder i bought him from said he has eaten frozen jumbo rats before, i fed him on Monday, its now Thursday, he had a rather large bump from the meal and its gone down a little but not nearly as much as i had expected, his temps during the day are 90-91 hot side and 82-84 cold side, is this digestion normal for a young boa?

[Andy_G]

Jumbos are in my opinion too large for that boa. I'd be doing mediums. They have a slower metabolism and take longer to digest than some other species and as a result they don't need as much food. Your temps sound fine.

[Joelb922]

Okay, so just wait until he poops and then stick with medium rats? How long do you think itll take for his large bump to go away?

[bigsnakegirl785]

At 4.5' long I'd do a small rat every 3-4 weeks or a very small medium rat every 4 weeks at the very most. Jumbos are likely either the absolute largest meal he can physically swallow, or they're too large for him to swallow.

I made the same mistake with my boa Cloud when he was younger, he was eating large rats at 4.5'-5' and they were barely small enough for him to swallow. When I tried to get a jumbo down him, he couldn't swallow it and spat it out. After a few feedings he started to refuse to eat every week, opting to eat every 2 weeks and then every 3 weeks until I fixed his diet. The damage had already been done to his body, though. I know better now, and don't feed my boas as large of meals.

This is him at 4'9" eating a large rat.

http://i.imgur.com/3YmN1RR.jpg

(The bulge goes all the way from his neck down to where his tail goes over his back, and the rat's tail was sticking out of his mouth - not visible at this angle.)

http://i.imgur.com/HOGuWwz.jpg

This is him at just a few inches over 4' long after eating a medium rat. Still way too large of a meal, it left a sizeable lump in his belly.

http://i.imgur.com/ldkFS81.jpg

4'9" trying to eat a jumbo rat - he didn't even make it past the shoulders before he had to give up.

http://i.imgur.com/dRGMxgM.jpg

[Joelb922]

My guy just pooped last night, he was able to get the jumbo down but ill stick with medium rats every few weeks, i noticed his chin skin stretched a little, that should go away with time though right?

[Joelb922]

This is my first boa so i still have plenty to learn about them, as it goes for housing, i think hes pretty happy with the size of his house

[bigsnakegirl785]

My guy just pooped last night, he was able to get the jumbo down but ill stick with medium rats every few weeks, i noticed his chin skin stretched a little, that should go away with time though right?

I would go with a small rat every 3-4 weeks, not mediums.

Considering how much larger jumbos are than what he needs, give him at least 2-3 months off of food before you offer anything else. His body needs time to recover.

As far as the stretchy skin, I have seen boas retain that when fed oversized meals. If it's been more than a few days and it's still there, it may remain. Just give it time and see, it could go away.

[Joelb922]

Okay, it doesnt seem to bother him any, hes still behaving normally and all, thats a really pretty boa by the way.

[bigsnakegirl785]

Okay, it doesnt seem to bother him any, hes still behaving normally and all, thats a really pretty boa by the way.

Regardless of his behavior, his body has gone through extreme physiological changes, and will maintain that for a long time. When snakes eat, their heart and intestines can double or triple in size, and it takes time for them to shed off the excess tissue and everything return to normal. I would wait a minimum of 2-3 months, if not more.

Thanks! He was my first boa, I've got 6 now, these guys are by far my favorite species/group of snakes. :)

[Joelb922]

Like i said, i still have a lot to learn, the breeder i bought him from said it was good, and now from experience i can disagree, i actually caught him cruising around his tank last night, ive only had him for about a month so i think hes starting to get used to his new home

[Joelb922]

Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet (http://imgur.com/eg8JwQL)
This is his house as of now, its 4' long, 2' deep and 2' tall