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My son wants a large boa, and he's on a budget.

T

theDregs

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My 14 year old son has been saving money for a large snake and would like to buy one. He says he likes BCI's/BCC's, Dumeril's, or really any large ground boa. He doesn't care about morphs at all, and probably can't afford one any way. Babies are fine, and so is wild type. I notice most of the ads here are for fancy morphs. Does anyone here have any lower priced boas for sale? He has experience with smaller snakes and ball pythons.
 
A certain amount of $ should be put aside for vet care. If you look through the classifieds, sometimes there are nice big enclosures for sale at a reasonable cost. The habitat should be purchased and set up prior to the snake's arrival.

I would then contact local rescue groups and shelters. Fancy morphs are still high dollar but often people will give up boas to shelters when they move. Craigslist has them for free or cheap sometimes.

Read about quarantine, snake health, mites, so you can be prepared. It would be wonderful if your son gave a good home to one of the boas given up by others.
 
Hi Jason,

Are you looking for something local, or are you open to shipping? I may have a critter available in a month or so.

I took in a rescue a couple weeks ago, from a neglect situation. It appears to be just a plain Columbian. He is a little underweight, and was dehydrated. I'd like to get a few more meals in him before subjecting him to the stress of shipping.

I don't want any money for it, but this is a huge boa, and I'm guessing that shipping will be around $100-$115.

Please let me know if this is something you two might be interested in.

Kathy
 
Lucille said:
A certain amount of $ should be put aside for vet care. If you look through the classifieds, sometimes there are nice big enclosures for sale at a reasonable cost. The habitat should be purchased and set up prior to the snake's arrival.
Click to expand...

Lucille and I posted st the same time!

Hers are good points, that I forgot to mention/inquire about. I believe that the boa I have is basically healthy, but just wasn't fed often enough. I have not taken it to my vet, because I don't believe that it's "sick", but rather, just needs to eat.

I have the snake in a quarantine set-up, which is a 48" x 24" x 20" clear acrylic enclosure that I built. It will need a 5'-6' cage in the future. A vet visit may be necessary at some point, which can be around $150 for exam and fecal float.
 
Kathleen that is an awesome offer!! It is so nice to see young people take an interest in reptiles, they are the future! Maybe we could have a boa shower and people who wanted to could contribute extra snake stuff they are not using or a few dollars toward a vet visit or habitat materials or a few frozen rats.
Jason let us know, so I can start shower arrangements (You know old ladies love to put on showers, I've never done a boa shower though).
 
I am willing to help him with enclosure and vet costs. He just has to pay for the animal. We have tried craigslist with little luck. It was mostly morphs that were out of his price range or ball pythons, which is the one snake he really, really doesn't want. The few leads we tried didn't pan out. We have enclosure ranging up 50 55 gallon, which I thought was sufficient (I figured the only thing he could afford would be a baby). I can help him build something larger.

I am not aware of any rescues in the Atlanta area, I will look into it.

We are planning on going to repticon this weekend, but I would rather get something like a rescue.
 
theDregs said:
but I would rather get something like a rescue.
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Kathleen has practically offered you one. While it would no doubt be fun to pick up a critter this weekend, there is so much to be said for adopting an animal like Kathleen's.


theDregs said:
My son has been doing lots of research on what lizard he wants as a pet and he really wants a crested gecko. I am actually pretty proud of the kid, he saved his chore money all summer and now has a terrarium set up and everything.

He also spent countless hours trying to catch a five lined skink in the yard but that never panned out...

He. doesn't, however, have enough money for a fancy morph. Nor does he particularly want one. I'd rather not go to Petco because I have heard (and seen) horror stories about how they treat their animals. There is a privately owned pet store around here, but they make Petco look like Shangri la.

So do you guys know of anyone who breeds or sells regular pet quality geckos on the side?
Click to expand...

It appears that your son has had reptiles for some years now so he must have a vet fund already taken care of.
 
Lucille said:
Kathleen has practically offered you one. While it would no doubt be fun to pick up a critter this weekend, there is so much to be said for adopting an animal like Kathleen's.




It appears that your son has had reptiles for some years now so he must have a vet fund already taken care of.
Click to expand...

He never did get that gecko, but I don't recall why. We have been keeping pet reptiles for years, as that post proves, and I have already said that I will take care of vet costs. Are you trying to insinuate something by digging up that old post? I find that super creepy.

As for her boa, I hadn't expected that we would have a chance at one so large so soon, and I was actually talking to him about setting up an enclosure for a snake that size before I got back to her. But now I am thoroughly creeped out by how you're behaving. I won't be posting here again. Thank you.
 
That is unfortunate as I had already reached out to a few people for help with the shower for your son's snake's benefit. Reaching back to look at the experience of others can be helpful in assessing what they might need in the way of things or advice. It is certainly not unusual here.
 
theDregs said:
As for her boa, I hadn't expected that we would have a chance at one so large so soon . . .
Click to expand...

If you want the boa, you would have plenty of time to buy/build a larger enclosure, as I'm not comfortable shipping until it's gained some weight.

theDregs said:
But now I am thoroughly creeped out by how you're behaving. I won't be posting here again. Thank you.
Click to expand...

As many years as I've know Lucille, I know she's only trying to help you make this happen for your son, as am I. She's offered to reach out to other keepers to see if your son can get the things he needs for the snake, without breaking the bank. I have no idea how that's "creepy".

My offer still stands. I would anticipate shipping somewhere around mid-September, as it's too hot to ship any sooner.
 
It's creepy because she passive-aggressively posted up an old post I made to make a snarky remark about vet expenses, when I had already plainly stated I would take care of them. There was absolutely no reason she needed to post that old post and say what she did unless she was insinuating that I wasn't being above board. Looking up old posts is one thing, but reposting them here, especially when they aren't at all suspicious, is crossing a line. I never asked for any supplies or any thing like that, and I certainly never insinuated that my son needed a 'boa shower". I simply wanted to help him get the most for his money, and not have to pay for anything he didn't expressly require.

That old post shows that A, my son and I have been in this hobby for years, and B, that he cares more about spending his money on regular type animals rather than paying more for morphs. That is IT.

As for your boa, thank you for the offer, and, as I said, we were considering it. The only reason I hadn't posted about it before my past posts were brought up was that we were still in the process of discussing it, and we were looking up local rescues, as you guys suggested. He acknowledged that it was a great opportunity, but as i said he is 14 years old, and a month to him seems a lot longer than it does to you or I.
 
I appreciate that you took the time to respond, but Lucille never intended any offense or disrespect to you.

In fact, she contacted me privately, and had already reached out to SYR (Ship Your Reptiles) to inquire about a rate reduction to get the boa shipped down to you.

It is entirely your choice to proceed as you wish, but seriously, we were only trying to help. You wanted a large boa, and I have a nice, docile critter that I think would be perfect. Unfortunately, it's too hot to ship, and being a newly rescued animal, it needs another month in my care.
 
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