The Puffer Forum

after wanting one for years i gave in when the super pet expo came into reading, pa. a columbian red tail boa, not sure of sex, probably about 2 ft in length. after working in a pet store and seeing/handling these guys i fell in love. the thing i like most is how the color pattern in these snakes goes straight throught their eyes so the upper part of the eye could be greyish, a black line going through and a little darker grey or brown underneath. i have always thought that to be one of the neatest characteristics of these guys. hes very friendly and calm. hes in a 20 gallon long right now, i am getting a new dresser/bedroom set so my current dresser(about 4 1/2 ft high, 3 ft long and 3 ft deep) is going to become my snake cage after i take the hardware out, reinforce it and paint it

Very pretty, I love snakes.

Nice looking boa. They get a decent size too. The only snake I have had the privelage of owning was a ball python. Very fun creatures though, I liked handeling him in public and watching all the people freak out over a 4 1/2 foot snake.

Very nice. They are indeed one of the more beautiful constrictors.

Beautiful snake, bud!

He's got nice colors.

He is a very pretty snake. I could never understand why people are afraid of snakes. I know people who will not come into my house knowing I have a snake, which is funny seeing as it's upstairs in a viv!

My husband has a Rat snake and it's weird because it went AWOL about 4 months ago and we looked all over the house, couldn't find it, and I thought surely it must be dead after that cold winter we had and with it not having anything to eat in all that time. But about 2 weeks ago he found it. It came out from under a box and he caught it again. It's now back in it's viv, but we are going to sell because my husband doesn't dedicate enough time to it. We think it must have went into hibernation and that's why it survived. We also suspect that it might have gone into a suitcase that was in that room.

A friend of mine had a pet boa, he used to take it out to the park and handle it all the time, till it bit him in the face. "ouch"

How does his belly look? Nice pink and rosey or is it cream colored? I miss my snakes...Maybe once the kids get older I'll get another Boa..or a Argentine Boa...or a Black Russian Rat...or another Blackhead Python....ok gotta stop before I get in trouble.

Columbian Boas are great snakes - when I worked in a pet shop, we had one particularly friendly, tiny one that was my buddy. He'd wrap his tail around my glasses by the ear, and then wander all over my head/shoulders, never letting go with his tail as I went about my work. When he got tired he'd ball up on the top center of my head where all the body heat bleeds off, and rest, after a bit of that I'd put him back in his tank.

thanks everyone! hes awesome! my puffer likes him too, but would probably like to take a bite to see what he tasted like lol.

dadof4- the belly on it seems to be all white. but along the sides where his patterns meet the belly, there are little pink blotches. i asked the guy if he knew the sex, he said "hold on i can find out" walked away for a minute and came back with the container for the snake without mentioning sex. he didnt even take the snake with him whereever he went for the minute or two he was gone.

pufferpuggirl- thats crazy he went MIA for that long, probably just found a nice moist dark area to hang out in while the colder weather was around. but its cool you found him, better than randomly wondering what happened to him when he disappeared.

nick- pretty much the same way i started really liking these snakes. if i have kids, they will NEVER work in a pet store haha, its made me want so many animals at one time. this was like 7 years ago, but i have never lost interest in keeping one of these and very glad i finally got one. should have saw everyone when i went into walmart with him to get a container to keep him in overnight until i could get to a pet store the next day. he was a spur the moment purchase because at the expo they were $45 as opposed to the $150-200 they go for in pet stores, so i didnt have a tank for him yet. dont know if they were that cheap because i got him an hour or two before the end of the expo on the last day.

Yea, 179 to 199 in our store, depending if they were captive born or not, sometimes another 20 over "base" if the snake had red particularly high up from the tail. The trouble with them was they were shipped as newborns that had never fed, so the ones that never took to food would waste away in-store. I have no idea the rate of that in any given litter, but over the years two that came in just never took food, or took it and vomited it back up shortly afterwards. It was quite a process getting them to start, especially since getting them onto frozen foods was such a priority, and is SO much easier if they've never had live. Fortunately my little buddy ate quite well and was really personable, a snake that will sit on an employees face friendly as can be sells fast even at 200$.

Nice looking Boa. I used to have an Argentine (nasty thing, she was!) Also had a couple of Ball Pythons, kingsnakes, corn snakes, sand boas, etc etc etc... I like snakes.

Now u jus need a tv stand. Jk

haha yeah just moved so i dont have all my bedroom furniture yet, plus i need a new tv and get up with current times. i would have everything already but got screwed over by a roommate and lost my bedroom furniture, tv, baseball trophies from growing up, some clothes, a lutino cockatiel and a scorpion. other misc stuff too