Boas & pythons

My Suriname adults include a female produced by Florida Redtails (which is arguably one of the best bloodlines of red-tails in the nation) and an extremely beautiful silver-colored male with a high number of connected saddles.  Our male was produced from 2 unrelated imported Suriname Boas, so he is an F1 unrelated to our female.  In other words, I've managed to combine the traits of a great looking new bloodline with the awesome looks of a well respected, currently established, bloodline to develop something that has the best of both parents while producing genetically diverse offspring. 

Our albino boas are selected for an eye-pleasing, yellow-colored boa constrictor with low distracting white patches.  To our eyes, nothing is prettier than this color scheme on a boa!  Arabesque is a dominant pattern mutation (possibly a true co-dominant trait as some people claim), and arabesque boas typically have intense dorsal speckling, strongly marked bellies, and a ventral pattern with narrow, connected saddles.   We were lucky enough to obtain a superiorly colored "golden" arabesque male to breed into our other bloodlines of boa constrictors.  Obviously, nothing but improvements can come from this line as it is crossed into many of our upcoming female boas.  Salmon, Salmon Hypo, and Hypo Boas are all different names for the same dominant trait (possibly a true co-dominant trait as some people claim).  Salmon hypos, on average, do tend to darken up some with age, but our breeders are chosen based on beautiful, light, adult coloration with intense red colorations over most of the body. 

Regardless of their exact maximum size, there is no doubt that these are a diminutive race of reticulated pythons.  This opens up the door for many more people to be able to keep reticulated pythons as pets.  In addition to a smaller maximum size, they tend to grow more slowly than typical retics, and they are much less likely to bite.  When frightened, they tend to try and escape from your hands before attempting to bite.  They are active snakes, always watching their surroundings, and are commonly seen exploring their cages.  All of these factors combine to make them an excellent choice for someone wanting a very unique pet that doesn't get too large.

Kenyan sand boas make one of the best pets since you can easily set them up in a sand-like substrate that looks natural while making you think about some sandworm scene from the Dune series.  They can develop a very awesome feeding response, but they still almost never try to bite when handled correctly.  These are one of the most docile snakes we have ever owned.  That might be because we are always sifting through their substrate to take them out to handle.  Their habit of sitting under their substrate with just their noses sticking out makes one think of the cages containing nothing but "pet noses."  We recommend always moving them to a new cage, or bagging them, at feeding time to prevent accidental ingestion of their substrate.  Water, a humidity box, and supplemental heat should be provided at all times.  Of all of the snakes we have EVER kept, these have to be the least demanding on the owner.  While barely exceeding 2' in length (for the females) and eating mice their entire lives, these are just about the perfect pet snake for anyone.  Males are much smaller than females with many of them looking like 2 Sharpie pens laid down end to end - they are that small.  My adult males eat fuzzy mice with a noticeable bump resulting!  This means you can decide on the SIZE Kenyan you want, and purchase a male or female accordingly!  There aren't many snakes you can do this with.  They can usually be communally housed with only a minimal amount of risk.  Hatchling Kenyan sand boas are extremely voracious feeders on pink mice (ones that won't accept pink mice are relatively rare for us), but they do usually prefer live over thawed prey items.  Regardless, all of our Kenyan sand boas, unless sold wholesale, will be guaranteed to be eating unscented pink mice (normally live ones) before we ship them out!

Kenyan sand boas are more accurately known as East African sand boas.  They were once separated from the Egyptian sand boa (Eryx c. colubrinus), but this division is no longer considered taxonomically valid. Except for the paradox albino Kenyan sand boa, albino E. colubrinus are the result of crossing a "loveridgei" phase (Kenyan Sand Boa) with a "colubrinus" phase (Egyptian sand boa).  Care should be taken when purchasing sand boas marketed as het for Dodoma, flame, etc - or even "albino Dodoma," "snow flame," etc.  These traits are actually localities (as in the case of Dodoma) or color phases that are not inherited as a recessive trait.  Don't be confused.