Becka's new baby BCC, Damien

[toddnbecka]

We went to the Hamburg show last Saturday, and Becka fell in love with this 2 month old baby red tail boa. He's 66% double het albino/leopard, which don't mean beans to me, not a red tail breeder or expecting to become one. The seller told us the contrast between the pattern and background colors would become more defined as he grows rather than blending together or "graying out" like the common red tail colors tend to. He seems to have a great disposition in any case, and you gotta love the pink stripe and rosy cheeks. I'm just hoping this baby won't be too difficult to switch from live to f/t.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/toddnbecka/Snakes/P1060491_zps50bba4bc.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/toddnbecka/media/Snakes/P1060491_zps50bba4bc.jpg.html)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/toddnbecka/Snakes/P1060487_zpsec23ea0a.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/toddnbecka/media/Snakes/P1060487_zpsec23ea0a.jpg.html)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v628/toddnbecka/Snakes/P1060495_zps6291467f.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/toddnbecka/media/Snakes/P1060495_zps6291467f.jpg.html)

[David VB]

That's a very special looking red tail. Although i think it's not that good that true red tails are being bred with other localities or Bci morphs tbh.

[sharthun]

Congrats! Nice looking boa!

[Ddub]

Very cute boa but not a bcc.

[toddnbecka]

Very cute boa but not a bcc.

If not a BCC then what is it? I thought it was just a selectively bred morph of the common red tail.

[Aaron_S]

If not a BCC then what is it? I thought it was just a selectively bred morph of the common red tail.

It's a mix of a few different locales.

leopard comes from the central american region. (I can't recall the country). Albino comes from the more common Colombian boa.

BCC generally refers to Guyana and the Suriname's. They usually have a very different shaped head and other markings.

It's still a pretty boy. He'll also switch to frozen quite easily I presume. The babies I bought of pure leopard origin did.

[toddnbecka]

Ah, I thought most of the red tails were Boa constrictor constrictor, while the dwarf species (like Hog Island) were Boa constrictor imperator. We did pick up a decent book on boas from Amazon though, so I'll do a bit of reading and hopefully gain a better understanding of the different morphs and such.
Switching to f/t wasn't a problem at all. He took a rat pinky yesterday, turned away from the second one, then took a quail chick today. He needed a few minutes to figure out what to do with the quail chick, kept looking all around it then coming back to it several times before he settled down and swallowed it.

[Aaron_S]

Ah, I thought most of the red tails were Boa constrictor constrictor, while the dwarf species (like Hog Island) were Boa constrictor imperator. We did pick up a decent book on boas from Amazon though, so I'll do a bit of reading and hopefully gain a better understanding of the different morphs and such.
Switching to f/t wasn't a problem at all. He took a rat pinky yesterday, turned away from the second one, then took a quail chick today. He needed a few minutes to figure out what to do with the quail chick, kept looking all around it then coming back to it several times before he settled down and swallowed it.

You don't need to feed daily. In fact you probably shouldn't. Once a week is sufficient.

[bigsnakegirl785]

You don't need to feed daily. In fact you probably shouldn't. Once a week is sufficient.

They definitely shouldn't. Babies feed on a 7-10 day schedule.

But you've got a very gorgeous boa, toddnbecka! It looks like a perfect mix of all three boas put into it. You can see characteristics of BCC, Colombian BCI, and Central American.

[toddnbecka]

He won't be fed like that normally. I just thought the rat pinky was a bit small, and the quail chick was one that the DRMB's hadn't eaten overnight, so I figured I'd offer it to the boa before flushing it. The seller said he was eating small adult mice.

[bigsnakegirl785]

He won't be fed like that normally. I just thought the rat pinky was a bit small, and the quail chick was one that the DRMB's hadn't eaten overnight, so I figured I'd offer it to the boa before flushing it. The seller said he was eating small adult mice.

Even if it's small, it won't hurt him to wait until the next week for his regular-sized meal. They can deal with a smaller amount of food for a short while, you just don't want it to be a regular thing. I understand not wanting to waste the quail, though. Feeding him so soon won't hurt anything as long as you know not to do it regularly. If he's eating adult mice, you could probably switch him to a fuzzy rat or pup (next size up from fuzzy). It's rare, but sometimes it can be difficult to switch boas, and you don't want to be feeding mice to an adult. He won't be on much longer anyways if he's already eating adults.

Have you fed him an adult mouse yet? It's hard to tell scale, but he looks a bit small to be on adult mice. Whatever you feed should leave a barely noticeable or not noticeable at all bulge.

[toddnbecka]

The rat pink didn't even show as a bulge after it went down. I don't have any mice on hand, and haven't bought any because all the local shop had were relatively huge adult mice. The seller said he was eating live mice, I was just happy he took f/t so easily.
I'm getting a bit concerned about the baby carpet python, it's been here for 2 weeks now and won't take rat pinks or quail. It's definitely large enough for a rat pink or hopper mouse, but finding a live hopper is another issue. May have to take a drive tomorrow if I can locate some. May have to start breeding/raising some for a while.

[Aaron_S]

The rat pink didn't even show as a bulge after it went down....

A bulge isn't everything when feeding snakes. I rarely see a bulge in my animals and they have great and steady growth.

I am feeding my hypos het leopards rat pups about 20 grams per meal. They don't leave much of a bulge and they are growing like crazy!