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I visited the DFW Reptarium while I was on my way home yesterday and was super impressed by the enclosures they housed a lot of their herps in.

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Can you show pictures of what a healthy/under weight/over weight Colombian red tail boa body-to-tail ratio looks like?

Colombian common boas (boa constrictor imperator - BCI) and true Red Tail boas (boa constrictor constrictor - BCC) are two different subspecies, but the weight sits on them the same. 

Photos are pulled from various FB groups.

Overweight - the boa is rounded, not square, with fat build up on the hips and/or fat rings - especially on the tail. Fatty deposits can also be seen and felt down the sides along the lateral line.

Obese

Obese + latter stages of fatty liver disease

Chunky monkey 

Healthy - Boa is square-shaped (like a loaf of bread), lean, and has great muscle tone on its back and sides. The body tapers nicely into the tail, no fat deposits are present.

~8′ adult in prime coniditon

Adult BCC with great loaf-of-bread shaped bodies

Underweight -  Boa loses its square shape and becomes more triangular. The spine becomes more prominent, as do the ribs, and there is a distinct lack of muscle tone. The skin may sag in places. 

Underweight

Severely underweight (his one is gravid/potentially underweight because of being gravid)

Underweight animal that was a rescue

Hope that helps!

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I love how the marking on her nose is the symbol for Omega 🖤 Ω 💛

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Hey! I was wondering if it would be cool to give a snake like an olfactory playground using like fruit juices on a cloth or something. I just feel bad for my snake because she loves to smell and one time I was using varnish in the room and she really wanted to smell it. I didn't let her, but maybe there's some things she can smell that are interesting and safe

Wow, what a fantastic ask! Thank you for this!

The answer is yes, this is very cool and very safe. You can use all sorts of stuff as olfactory enrichment for your snakey pal! Some possibilities include:

fruit juice on a cloth or paper towel

pesticide-free grass or other reptile-safe plants from your yard 

small amounts of mild kitchen herbs like basil, parsley, and sweet mint 

a bit of a shed from another healthy, parasite-free snake 

an old sock or tee shirt that you’ve worn 

rodent bedding (if you ask nicely your local pet store will give you a pinch or two in a baggie for FREE)

beach sand, sea shells, or a rock from outside

You can hide a single new smell in a paper bag or cardboard tube in her enclosure or you can set up a whole playground of stinky (but not too stinky!) things for her to explore during out-of-the-cage adventures time.

I hope you both have a lot of fun exploring new scents!

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He looks just like a betta sticker I bought on Etsy lol

This pretty boy (who is currently growing his tail back after biting it off) is about to get a tank upgrade!

(Also excuse the algae covered fake plant. I cleaned it as best as I could!)

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Tank glowup of Madesi’s tank over the year I’ve had him. Picture on the left is from the first few months I had him, picture on the right is from yesterday 💜🐍

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seapiggies said to crispysnakes:

Hi, I’m sorry to bother you (and I’m sorry if it’s something you’ve already answered in your, I’ve looked but couldn’t quite find it), but I work at a reptile rescue and I have been doing some research about boa constrictors and dwarf boas (we receive quite a few). And basically I have trouble finding good info on what the difference is between the Boa Constrictor Imperator and the Boa Constrictor Constrictor besides just classification. Some species we receive we call dwarf boas and they usually remain shorter (like under 2m) and I’ve read that Imperators usually stay smaller? I think? than the “bigger"constrictor constrictor? But the more I read about it the more confused I am, honestly. Because then there are more subspecies and people start talking about red-tailed boa and fake red-tailed boa and common boa and… Basically, I was wondering, do BI in general stay smaller and are often called "dwarf” species? Or am I getting it all wrong? 

No bother at all! I would ignore the red tail term entirely. Back in the day, both imperator and constrictor were sold simply as red tails and no distinction was made between the two. To combat that, locality purists eventually designated constrictor as the ‘true red tails’ and imperator were simply red tails. Now many people are calling imperator common boas and constrictor red tails, and others are using red tail and true red tail, and still others are calling everything a red tail because they’re stubborn and hate change. At this point, I always urge anyone and everyone to become acquainted with and to stick to Latin names, they exist to prevent confusion (although, a fair number of people are still throwing fits about imperator being elevated to full species status and calling everything constrictor despite the genotype being distinct enough from constrictor to warrant it, so). 

I have a page on taxonomy that lists all the species, subspecies, and localities in the boa genus here. Imperator shows up in Mexico, Central America, and a few northern parts of South America. Different locality animals will obtain different sizes: most of the imperators in the hobby today are of mixed locale, and it’s usually those animals that end up in rescues. You can expect your average wild type/normal/common BI to get 6-8′, depending on sex. Those with more Mexican/CA blood may be smaller. Those hybridized with constrictor may get a little larger, though some imperator bloodlines will get just as large because it’s in their genes. For an animal with no lineage history, there’s no way to tell for sure what you’re going to get, it’s more or less a grab bag. 

Pure locality Mexican boas (Tarahumara, Sonoran, Tamaulipas, Cancun), and some of the CA/island locales will typically sit in the 4-6′ range. If I remember right the Tarahumara are one (of 2?) of the only real dwarf locales, but they are difficult to find as very few people are reproducing them. So I wouldn’t use the term dwarf, personally, unless it’s one of those locales that max out around 4′ as adults.   

Constrictor exists in South America, and also has a similar size variation depending on ssp. and locality. Argentines and Peruvians can be expected to hit 9′. Suriname average 7-9′ while Brazilians, longicauda, and Bolivians, all are typically in the 4-6′ range. Most of the constrictor stuff is also not as common, so I’d be surprised to see it come into a rescue. In short there’s a huge amount of variation in the genus, if you want to dig into it I’d suggest Vin Russo’s The Complete Boa Constrictor. 

Anywho, to follow up with your first question before this gets too long - what the hobby recognizes as normal/common boa imperators typically have higher saddle counts (24-27) and lower scale counts. The saddles are typically bar-shaped instead of peaked, the colors not as rich and deep as constrictor. But that’s not always the case - some have peaked saddles, and less saddles, reduced or aberrant patterns. They may be any shade of tan, brown, yellow, pink, or orange, be clean or heavily speckled, and usually look like so:

In contrast, constrictor often has a smaller saddle count (21 or less), the saddles are typically peaked, and they have a higher scale count (so they feel smoother). BUT, and this is a huge but, that also depends on ssp. and locality. They can also have bar saddles, reduced and aberrant patterns, be all of the same colors, and not all of them have the rich colors most locality folks seem to prefer. Here’s my Suriname girl for contrast. 

I hope that helps somewhat! I promise distinguishing between the two gets much easier after staring at lots and lots of both. 

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Had to move the fish tank this weekend so while I had it drained I went ahead and rescaped it. Trimmed the plants back and stripped the bark off of the wood. Overall I’m pretty happy with it right now 😊

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Lol my son is such a dope

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Vekka 4 weeks (left) vs 4 months (right). She’s getting so yellow so quickly 😍

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She is a literal poop princess 🖤💛🖤

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Me: baby Vekka you’re so cute! :)

Vekka: /both pees and poops on me/

Me: ... :,)

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DAS PEACH

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Will any reptile vet perform the blood tests? Regardless of where I buy my boa from I'll be asking the breeder/seller if their animals have been tested because I have other reptiles and I take this very seriously. I hope all your scaly sweethearts come back A-Ok!

If you’re in the US, any exotic vet can handle the blood draws, but the clinic will have to overnight ship the samples on ice to the vet med lab at the University of FL. There are two tests available: the standard PCR, which should detect all strains of arena, and the qPCR, which is a more sensitive test that measures viral load but is specific to the most common strain of arenavirus in the US. 

I’m glad you’re taking it seriously, more people in the hobby need to. And thanks! 

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Python under the sunshine

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Such a vibrant boy

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betta comic