# Pics of boas! and a skink!



## artgecko (Nov 26, 2013)

Here are some pics for the reptile folks out there. 

Although I keep several species, I think boas are my favorites. I also have Kenyan sand boas and a Brazilian Rainbow Boa, but I don't have recent pics of them at the moment. Below I'll post some pics of my BCA, and BCI boas. IMO boas make some of the best pet snakes out there.. Almost always curious and ready to climb around. Most of them also have very laid back temperaments and I can say that none of mine have ever hissed or struck at me. Like all reptiles though, they require specific temp and humidity and the right size enclosure to be happy animals, so require a bit of a commitment. They can also live 20+ years, so once you own one, you're in for the long haul, but I'd have it no other way. 

The first is a pic of my male motley Central American boa, Gambit. He looks a little dark in this pic, but you can see his pattern pretty well. Gambit is roughly 2 feet long at this point. 

 

Next up is Jax, my Boa Constrictor Amarali (south Brazil, Miller line). He is just over 4 feet long. These pics were taken with flash, so he is a little darker than he looks normally (normally his background color is caramel). He is on a bar-height chair for size reference. The flash in the pic does show off how shiny his skin is... He had just shed a few days before this pic, so his scales were in good condition. 



I can't remember if I've posted a pic of Kirby here before, and I don't have a recent one, so I will post one taken Easter last year. This is him outside in natural light. Kirby is a hypo (less black coloration) boa constrictor imperator (the most common sub species kept as pets). He is about 3 feet long. 

 

And, just for good measure, here's a pic of my Meruke blue tongue skink, Quincy. We don't know his / her gender as it is virtually impossible to sex them. BTS make great pets and have quite the personalities. They aren't "cuddly" per say, but do like to investigate and roam around. For an idea of size, Quincy is about 2' long and has a 4' x 2' x 14" tall enclosure with a heat lamp and LED light.


----------



## mnyablonski (Nov 18, 2015)

Your boas are absolutely beautiful! and of course Quincy is adorable! ;D


----------



## artgecko (Nov 26, 2013)

Thanks! I'm hoping to get a nice DSLR soon, so the pics should get better in quality lol... That and trying to get them to hold still is a problem


----------



## Zanie (Dec 30, 2015)

I had a python when I were younger  Snakes are pretty nice, more interesting than you might think at first glance. And quite beautiful. A nice inspiration for fantasy art as well.
I do prefer mammals though.


----------



## DVirginiana (Jan 6, 2016)

Beautiful! That hypo BCI is stunning. 

The long lifespans are certainly a plus when it comes to reptiles. Love my rodents, but the short lifespans are... depressing to say the least. lol I rescued/rehabbed a box turtle a few years back, but it took so long for her to recover she couldn't be released. Talk about commitment lol. She's going to outlive me.


----------



## artgecko (Nov 26, 2013)

Lol. Yeah. I like the fact that they will be around for a long time. It does make you think before buying though. I've just invested about $800 to provide caging for two of the boas above and they may need to upgrade if they get over 6' long.. It is pretty expensive to house them correctly, but if you consider that the cage will be their home for possibly 20 years, it's not that bad of a deal. Boas are especially easy to keep, given that they eat very well and you only have to feed them every 2-4 weeks because of their slow metabolism. I'd love to get more locality animals.. especially BCL (longicauda). The anery BCLs are stunning and not that many people are working with them, making them a good locality to breed. That said, I'm not purchasing any more reptiles until I have adult caging for my whole collection.


----------



## MomOfTheMischeif (Jan 10, 2016)

I have a Mexican King Snake named Ekans, and hope to have a sand boa in the future.


----------



## DVirginiana (Jan 6, 2016)

I think anery anything is usually pretty awesome looking. lol I like my animals in grey-scale. Caging is one of the things I like about my invertebrates. It's just so simple to keep their habitat parameters the way they should be in very small containers.


----------



## artgecko (Nov 26, 2013)

Momofthemischief- Mexican kings are nice snakes. I have 2 Kenyan sand boas myself. I have an anery and a nuclear female. They are neat snakes, but stay hidden most of the time.

DVirginiana- The anery BCL look almost as black as the new line of "IMG" boas. There are some hypermelanistic BCLs too any people are breeding the two mutations together to get hypermelanistic anery BCL that turn almost jet black as they age. They are awesome animals and stay smaller for a boa, which is another reason I'd like to have them in the future. There are so few people breeding them at this point though, that the people who are have wait lists for 2017 litters. Some of the anery, hypo, and T+ Nicaraguan boas look stunning too and stay small / lean for boas as well. I'm a pretty small / short person, so the idea of a female that maxes out at the size of your average adult male BCI is appealing to me. The regular BCI Colombian females is a little larger than I want to handle lol


----------

