Breeding Redtail Boas

hi, i was wondering if you could breed different types of red tail boas together. like a peruvian and a columbian.

thanks jeff

Yes, BCC, BCI, and BCO they all crossbreed.

We should steer away from crossbreeding. In the future, you will never have a pure animal. Just a bunch of mutts with no real locality.

Carlos,

That's why I applaud the efforts of Rio Bravo Reptiles (Gus Renfro). They just work with specific locales. While in the Tinley Park show in Chicago there was a vendor selling what he as advertising as a huge ball python. Upon close inspection it was clear it was a cross bred between a blood (P. curtus) and a ball. Not so long ago I bought a boa over the internet that was advertised as a salmon BCI. Upon close inspection there is no doubt in my mind she is an intergrade. We should stay away from those crosses for the reasons you just mentioned.

Regards.

Originally Posted by The BoidSmith

Carlos,

That's why I applaud the efforts of Rio Bravo Reptiles (Gus Renfro). They just work with specific locales. While in the Tinley Park show in Chicago there was a vendor selling what he as advertising as a huge ball python. Upon close inspection it was clear it was a cross bred between a blood (P. curtus) and a ball. Not so long ago I bought a boa over the internet that was advertised as a salmon BCI. Upon close inspection there is no doubt in my mind she is an intergrade. We should stay away from those crosses for the reasons you just mentioned.

Regards.

Glad to see that there are people who share the same views as me. I am also a fan of Rio Bravo.

The problem is that there are a lot of people that want to do this as a business or at least breed their animals and get some money from the offspring to sustain their hobby. Breeding normal boa constrictors (beautiful animals in their own right) takes the same time, space, and maintenance costs than breeding morphs. The initial investiment is higher, true, but it can be spread over several clutches and at the end you make more money. Oftentimes the intergrades produce a different colored animal that appeal to the general public or to those that are relatively new to keeping herps. It is probably the thrill of showing something unique no one else has. With time they eventually grow out of that fase and learn to appreciate the beauty of the feral type.

Regards.

Originally Posted by CARLiTO_

We should steer away from crossbreeding. In the future, you will never have a pure animal. Just a bunch of mutts with no real locality.

Agreed

Originally Posted by CARLiTO_

We should steer away from crossbreeding. In the future, you will never have a pure animal. Just a bunch of mutts with no real locality.

Correct. Just look at what has been done with Hogg Island Boas.

Correct. Just look at what has been done with Hogg Island Boas.

Amen to that, you don't know what I went through finding an adult female hog that I was sure was 100% pure. I am lucky I was able to find one at all. I keep morphs too, but I really love the locality BCI. It infuriates me to see people breeding Hogs into their hypos just to get nice hypos more easily. To me, it sort of degrades the work of people like Rich Ihle and Jeff Gee who worked for so many years to produce beautiful hypos out of nearly pure colombians (some central american influence). It also dilutes the bloodlines of pure Hogs, it is not so bad now that there are still pure breeder Hogs out there, but in 10-15 yrs there will be a big problem with being able to determine whether these boas are "real" hogs or not. Anyway, there is my rant for the night, I feel better now atleast.LOL

Chris Canada-Smith

CCS Constrictors

how do you tell locality. i bought five redtails quite a while ago with the intent of making albinos, sunglows, dh hets, ghosts, and anerys. is there visual markers to tell what is what?