hogg island boas

da_illest · 06-11-04, 03:44 AM

hi, i was just reading up on them as i'm interested in obtaining one and let me tell you, i'm MAD! first off, they take so many of them from the wild that it is said they're extinct, THEN, to TOP things off, DUMBASS breeders out there are crossing them with red-tails to achieve better colors ruining the damn bloodline and slowly making them permenantly extinct... this is wrong! i'm afraid to buy one now and pay good money for it because the snake might be a cross... in which case, it'll grow larger them 5-6 feet and probably won't be as tame and all..

sorry but i had to vent and this is probably the only place where i can... we are ruining a beautiful species of snake with greed!

that said, i want to get a breeding pair of real hogg islands and they MUST be real, pure blood, hogg islands.. i won't contribute to this madness.. how can i tell if they're pure? i want to get them small to raise them.. should i get dark not so bright tailed ones in hopes they are true hoggs? can some1 please help me?

thanks!

mark129er · 06-11-04, 03:54 AM

short of dna testing you can't guarantee purity. the next best thing is to buy from a reputable breeder.

Linds · 06-11-04, 09:59 AM

The only way to guarantee your Hog is pure is to obtain it from a reputable source that has WC stock, or decendants of. If the lineage can be traced there is no reason that you won't have a pure Hog.

As for your remark about crossed Hogs being unhandlable, large, etc. The impression that pure Hogs are small snakes is false. Although many are, this is by no means a rule. I forget who, but a breeder down in the states has a WC male that tops out at over 7 feet. There are many recorded WC Hogs being recorded at such lengths. Also, temperament has nothing to do with it. Many pure Hogs are quite fiesty, while some are very calm. Mostly they have an amazing feeding response. I'm not sure who in Canada is working with guaranteed pure stock however. Jeff Ronne and a few others down in the states are though...

Also, there is only one "g" in Hog

Invictus · 06-11-04, 11:09 AM

Big Dan in Calgary is working with Sears line Hog Isles that are among the best I've ever seen. I have every confidence that they are as pure a bloodline as you can get in Canada.

Da Illest, I share your sentiment about people crossing Hogs with Colombians. This is utterly disgusting in my opinion, especially when you consider that there are rumored to be none left on Hog Island. Key word there is rumored - there is actually no confirmation of this, and it is also rumored that this is a false claim that was made to keep prices high.

da_illest · 06-11-04, 01:13 PM

thanks for the replies... it is disgusting that people are crossing a species that may be extinct in the wild over greed... shouldn't this species be endangered? i swear if i was bill gates i'd get a bunch of guarenteed pure blood ones, start up a huge breeding facility and release them into the wild... in their habitat.. although it's only rumored and people haven't seen any since the mid 80's, either these snakes are doing a really good job at hiding or there really isn't many left... the last one being the probable case... i want one because i think they're buetiful snakes and they stay small.. even a 7 foot one is small to me... at least it's not like my red-tail who'll get 10-12 feet...

i think they're may still be a few in the wild but they're chances of them surviving as a race thru breeding are slim since they probably don't have many mates or they're hard to find...

da_illest · 06-11-04, 01:14 PM

also, somebody is offering me a pair at a decent price and i'm not sure i want them now...

Invictus · 06-11-04, 01:16 PM

Don't count on your redtail getting 10-12 feet, dude. Anything over 9 is exceptionally rare, and about 80% of all redtails will top out at even less than that.

BoidKeeper · 06-11-04, 08:25 PM

I have four hogs in all. Two came from Mike Vince the other two are wild caught. Before you all start saying how can they be wild caught let me explain. They came from Reptile Headquaters who got them from Boamania who imported them from Ben Siegel as "San Andres Island Boas". The story goes that 33 were imported from San Andres Island and they were the only 33 in captivity. Of that 33, 10 were purchased by boamania. He posted them last year. As a matter of fact, Boamania's post with pics of some of the San Andres" can still be found in the boa forum. Of the two that I own one of them is in boamanias original post.
Here is the female of the two, She is in the pic boamania posted.

Even before I perchased my new Hogs from Reptile Headquarters I knew that they were Hogs. Once I received them I started a corespondence with Vin Russo who works with dwarf boas in the US and recently wrote an article on dwarf boas for reptiles magazine. He was familiar with my new snakes because Ben had offered to sell them to him as San Andres boas. He told me he passed on them because he knew that they were Hogs. I asked him about the eyes on these guys because they are slightly larger then on a Hog. He told me that all the Hogs that were imported back in the 70's had large eyes. What he believes is that yes Hogs may be extintc on the large main island, however these snakes were probably collected from one of the smaller islands.
I have all my email correspondence between him and I and between Ben and I. All Ben would say about them was that yes he sold them to boamania. Vin on the other hand believes that I have a pair of wild caught Hog Island Boas. The blood doesn't get any more pure then that.
Cheers,
Trevor

still_matic · 06-11-04, 11:09 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Invictus
Don't count on your redtail getting 10-12 feet, dude. Anything over 9 is exceptionally rare, and about 80% of all redtails will top out at even less than that.

really? thank god... i knew it could get up to 10-12 feet and i accepted full responsibilty for it before i bought it.. i had done TOO much research on their husbandry and have a custom cage plan and everything.. i'm kinda happy cause i've never owned a snake at even 8 feet! that seems like a lot but no wear near 10 or 12... thanks.. this is nothing like my KSB i owned (which sadly died of impaction and regurgitated every meal i gave it.. damn aspen!) in the sense that my KSB would have gotten no wear near this size... i actually have a breeding pair of suriname red-tails... nothing wrong with pure blood CBB pets i say, it's a matter of ethics to me...

still_matic · 06-11-04, 11:20 PM

..........................

da_illest · 06-11-04, 11:24 PM

Trevor, although i had to read your story a few times over before i got dizzy and somewhat understood what you said

, lol, i figured out in the end that you have pure hoggs and that you went thru a HOLE lot a' trouble to get them.. congrats though, beautiful snakes man...

now, about them still being on the surrounding islands... it's not the same in my opinion... maybe the ones from surrounding islands had differences in them that the main island ones didn't, like bigger eyes or something... i still think it's bs and i think that any breeder who hybridizes them is not even a herper but a greedy motha'.. what's the deal with that? i'm against hybrid pets in the hobby mainly because if somebody sells a hybrid of, lets say for example, a hogg island boa and a suriname red-tail boa.. ok, so they sell it as A GORGEOUS SUPER ALBINO OR WHATEVER HOGG ISLAND BOA! 2000 BUCKS ONLY!! then some poor fools like me go and purchase them and breed them and in the future we end up with animals that aren't even what we think they are... you know what i mean? or we end up with nothing but god damn hybrids, which may look nice, but aren't pure blooded kinda ruining the true collectors such as myself... also, to top it off, the snakes are said to be extinct!! shiiiiiid man... that's pure bs

thanks for the replies though

Leviathan · 06-11-04, 11:31 PM

Da illest

I have a small collection of Hogs and would DEFINATLEY reccommend Dans stock! I have one female from him and she is by far the most beautiful snake in my collection! If you saw her mother she is nothing in comparisson but my little girl is still very pretty. Here is a pic of her in her light phase.[img]http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/4639misspinkie-med.JPG[img]

I also have another pair that are very nice hogs that I might be putting up for sale this month but I am undecided at this time. I will keep you in mind though.

Alecia

Leviathan · 06-11-04, 11:34 PM

sorry didn't get the pic there

Jeff_Favelle · 06-12-04, 04:07 AM

Annette (Wrapped Up in Reptiles) and Jon K. (Niagra Reptiles) both have TREMENDOUS Hog Island Boas.

BoidKeeper · 06-12-04, 07:42 AM

da illest,

Well I went looking for the original post from Boamania about the San Andres Boa but it seem to have vanished. So have the pics in his gallery.
Anyway long story short the snakes I have were imported off an island, not bred in captivity. They were called San Andres boas but just looking at them and after consulting some knowlegable keepers in the US it is obviouse they are Hogs. So if they are imports and look like Hogs then that can only mean one thing right?
Trevor