Quote:
Originally Posted by SherriX2
okay............I'm lost.Someone please teach me what you all are talking about. "colombian/nic cross " , "central american/mexico "????
How do I know what my snake is?
I am serious, I want to learn
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mpgt
Sorry but the only real way to know, is to collect it from the wild yourself. Anything else is an educated guess. It helps to buy from a reputable breeder. There are many visual clues that lead us to attribute a snake to a certain type, subspecies or locale.
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----PLEASE NOTE THAT ALL PICS WERE PULLED OFF OF A GOOGLE IMAGE SEARCH. I AM NOT CLAIMING TO OWN ANY OF THESE SNAKES (NOR DO I). IF I POSTED A PIC OF YOUR SNAKE IT WAS SIMPLY USED AS AN EXAMPLE. I TOOK NONE OF THESE PICTURES.-----
Mpgt is pretty much right. They only way to know for sure is to collect from the wild. However, there are very good indicators as to where a boa can come from.
Let's say you start with a completely foreign snake. You have no idea where it came from or how old it is. The first thing to do is to determine whether or not it is a
BCI or a
BCC. Most of the time it is easy enough to look at it and tell. However the only way to know for sure is a ventral scale count, midbody scale count, and a saddle count.
BCC's have a ventral scale count of about 234 to 250, a midbody scale count of 89-95, and less than 20 saddles.
BCI's have a normally around 250+ ventral scales, 55-79 midbody scales, and normally 21 or more saddles.
Now, due to crossbreeding between
bci's and
bcc's it a mix some times. You'll get a good scale count and an unmatching saddle count, etc.
That is the only true way to tell and be sure. Easier ways are just by learning what physical characteristics come along with
bcis and
bccs, such as 'peaks' on the saddles of many
bcc's, or a deeper red tail on
bcc's. Also most
bcc's have a very clean (or more clean) appearance than a
bci.
BCI's are almost always smaller than
bcc's.
BCI's will get 7-9 ft, while
bcc's will get anywhere from 8 or 9-11 ft.
After you've figured out if you've got a
bci or a
bcc, you've cut the possibilities in half. If you've got a
bci, it came from central america, possibily the caribbean islands or the Sonoran desert of Mexico just to name a few places.
If you got a
bcc, chances are it came from south america. Whether it be from peru, argentina, guyana, suriname, ... or pretty much the amazon basin. These boas are going to have a much more intense color than
BCI's.
Now, moving into specific areas of
BCI's and
BCC's. This is not an exact science by any means, however, there are differences from
bci to
bci, and
bcc to
bcc.
For example Hogg Island boas and Nicaraguan boas are both
BCI's. But look at the difference.
The Hogg Island
The Nicaraguan
And here is your common
bci...
Now, here is a common
BCI X Hogg Island
This is how we can guess. There are traits from both locales in the snake.
Onto
BCC's...
You can look at an argentine and a suriname and see the difference plain as day.
Here is the argentine....
Here is the
Suri...
Now compare the
Suri to the guyana...
See anything different?
Now compare the Guyanan to the Peruvian...
There are no exact methods to doing this accurately other than collecting from the wild. But visual characteristics are sometimes hints to guessing where a snake came from.
As for snakes like this one, which happens to be 25% argentine (bcc), 25% Hogg (bci), and 50% columbian (bci), no one would have guessed had we not known its dams and sires.
Anyway,
I hope a few noob's find this an learn a thing or two. Anyone out there have anything to add (or correct) feel free to throw up a post.
