Best boa for beginner?

What would you reccomend be a good first time boa?? thanks, Grant

grant hard to say... normally i would say common bci but they can attain rather large sizes 7+ feet sometimes. however their husbandry requirments are much less that alot of other species of boa... so the size part can be a drawback.rainbow boas attain a smaller size and generally are a bit nippy as babies and require a much more humid enclosure,especially as neonates and juviniles. i have never kept sand boas or rosey boas but i have heard they are rather easy to keep but i do not know any specific info or any drawbacks. maybe we can someone with sme experience with them to comment
but one thing i suggest is to do your homework on the species you chose and have it enclosure set up before you buy... take your time in choosing the animal that is right for you, take into consideration adult size,enclosure size, special requirments and longevity, boas like pythons can live in excess of 20 years,if taken care of properly

Do you mean a beginner as this will be your first snake or as it will be your first boa and you have kept other snakes before?

If it is a first snake, I would not recommend any type of Boa. If you have kept snakes before, then a good choice to get into Boas would be either a Rosy Boa or a Rubber Boa. While even a person with no snake experience might keep these successfully, they do not make excellent snakes for the person who has no snake experience; there are just too many better choices.

Best regards,
Glenn B

If this is your first snake then dont even bother, dont even think about getting a boa. But i have an idea that you may like. Next to the Kenyan Sand Boa the rough scaled sand boa is the best known and one of the calmest pet trade erycines. Against the tan buff ground color are three rows of dark spots, and they are very broad. This savanna dweller is common to areas of Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and other adjacent countries.

This species requires considerable cooling to breed succesfully. This species has fairly small clutches (3-9). They are gifted burrowers and females of this very heavy bodied sand boa may attain length of a 2 foot body length. Males are noticeably smaller. I hope i was of some help. This boa is definitely the best choice as of the boa species for a pet.

personally i see NO reptile or amphibian as a "pet", they are not domesticated animals, they are wild type animals captive bred or not, "tame" or not and even like our "pet" domesticated dogs and cats can and will bite, under certain circumstances (some more than others heh)


that being said
isnt this just a big bundle of love?





7 foot five year old male common bci

(for size reference my husband is 6"3 and 260)

really, i would suggest getting a simple corn snake or Garter snake, i wouldn't even think about getting a BCI, or BCC for a first.

Roughscale sand boas are hardy yes. And they're quite lovely and acheive a nice but managable adult size. But, and maybe I'm just basing this on my 4 unrelated adults, but they tend to bite me a lot. I wear gloves when I handle them because I'm sick of going to work and typing all day with bitten up fingertips. And you know I'm being honest, because I've currently got 2 litters I want to sell. But I just haven't found them to be as docile as Kenyans. On the other end of the stick, my Hogg Island boa is tame and a great eater.
I'd agree that it is best to start with a rat or kingsnake, though. But if someone reeeeally wants that boa, I think it can work if they're willing to put in the work educating themselves.

Erin B.

Personally I think that you should get a kingsnake. They are easy to handle and lovable. My first snake was a cornsnake and I still have him. He is the sweetest thing. On the other hand I have a 10ft Burmese python that could swallow me whole if she wanted to, but she hasnt and I find burmeses a good snake if you get enough experience with them but not as 1st time snakes.

Originally posted by Hognose_311
really, i would suggest getting a simple corn snake or Garter snake, i wouldn't even think about getting a BCI, or BCC for a first.

I disagree with this statement. Garter snakes have specialized diets that can be hard for a newbie to fulfill. Corns, yes...Garters, no.

I also disagree that Boas make good first snakes.....they (Colombians & BCI) do not reach giant sizes and are extremely easy to care for. A male Cololmbian rarely gets over 7 feet. There are many other dwarf locales of Boas also, such as Hog Island, Nicaraguan, and the Mexican Boas.

There is an importance difference between "First boa" and "First snake" that some people seem to be overlooking... the original poster said nothing to indicate one way or the other if he had owned and cared for other snakes before and was looking at Boidae with interest or if this was going to be their first snake or first reptile... While the suggestions for hardier colubrids are nifty, why not ASK if that is the appropriate response before assuming he has never kept a snake before?

With that being said... Rosy boas are nifty, sand boas are great if it's an extablished feeder, neonates can be a bit tricky unless you've worked with them before, rubber boas are nifty as well but have problems with higher temperatures, Boa constrictor ssp (or more likely boa constrictor mutts) are fine as long as you're prepped for a larger adult animal.

The initial poster's loginhandle was crestedgeckosomethingorother, so if they have experience manipulating the humidity and temps for a crested, I'd wager they could probably have a fair degree of success with the more common rainbows.

Things to avoid... Candoia species, anything arboreal, anacondas and anything that cost more than my van ($150). Hardy animals that breed easily and don't have difficult care requirements are more readily avaliable in most cases... meaning anything over a couple hundred dollars is probably rarer, more delicate or both (like some obscure island species of Epicrates).