Albino & Salmon pair - A few updated pics

The other photos i put up of these two were taken last Summer, so I took a few new ones recently.
I've posted these elsewhere, so many may have seen the pictures, but I thought I'd post a couple up here and share them with th EIE forum


The Salmon girl is starting to put on some good size, she is a great boa, and the most textbook boa I've kept, behaviour-wise, her eating, shedding and thermo-reg habits are like clockwork. She is showing good development which is nice to see!

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The male is also chomping down food regularly, and his future colours are starting to emerge more and more all the time, although the bright flash left him slighly washed out in these shots; he is much brighter now than he was when I got him.. He is progressing nicely, and although he is a champ feeder, I would imagine he will always be a bit on the small size, which I've heard is not uncommon with Sharp strain Alibnos..

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Cheers for looking, top forum by the way!

Two crackers Matt! I have to say although he is a stunner, she is just gorgeous, lovely looking animals you have there.

Is there a reason they know of that Sharp strain can be smaller?

Thats a nice pair of snakes, i love albino's, i'm hoping my het Kahls breed for me, if they prove out i'll keep an albino back. the sharps are nice too though, i think they hold their colours better than the kahls from what i've heard.

They're both looking gorgous Matt. They'll produce some incredible babies in time!

Thought you'd like to see pics I have from when they were itty bitty babies....

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That albino male was always on the small size, but hey - many breeders swear by having little males and big females. As long as he's healthy!

Lovely shots Lisa and loving the carpet

It's not!!!! We don't have carpet like that in our gaff! It's one of those silly mats that you buy on JML or whatever that channel is that is supposed to absorb dirt or something...Dave's mum bought it for us and it's just sitting at the front door. (she's bought us another colour since over the nasty black and white tiles she picked out for us, and that one is long in the bin! )

lol I just liked the colour

Euuughhhh it's nasty, I can't bear carpet! Tiles and timber throughout our house, apart from the most important part - the main hallway - where we've got a dumb white carpet I'm dying to rip up!

Cheers Tan, yeah the female is a great boa, she is in great shape, feeding well. She'll be feeding on small adult rats now this year, and she is growing steadily. I think the brief break off the food in the cooler time of the year seems to work wonders for the boa's appetites!

As for the smaller size, to be honest, I couldn't tell you, and it is something I've been meaning to look into.
Like most people into boas, I've read all about the origins of the Kahl strain, But I've not looked into the Sharp strain in much depth.
Its something I've just noticed from observing other Sharp albinos, and I've talked to others that have noticed the same.

I wouldn't imagine all of them stay smaller, I'm sure plenty of them attain your usual adult boa size, but a good few I've seen now have tended to be more this guy's size; he is pushing 2 years old soon enough, and is just under 2 and a half feet.
I've seen another male around the same age as this one that was even smaller than that again.

Cheers!
______

@ Marty, I'd be the same, if and when this pair eventually breed successfully, I would find it quite difficult to part with any of the standout boas! It is true, the Sharp's markings will hold more colour as they start to max out in size than the Kahls will, but the Kahls are cracking boas too. I know of a Kahl boa here in Dublin that is pushing full adult size and has kept its markings very well, and the tail markings are nearly red.
The nicest of Kahl albinos would rival the nicest of Sharps, they're just more scarce than the Kahls, and there has been a lot more work put into the Kahls as far as mixing with other traits for new morphs.

Some of the Sharps I've seen recently have been unbelievably colourful; Paul (i think he's pacman on here now) sent me a link to these Sharp babies for sale, and the colour of them is unreal ''
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As you can see in the link, the price is really leveling out on these too, compared to even a couple of years ago.


Cheers for the comments guys.

Just saw your post after I sent this one Lisa, cheers for the pictures!

A mate who still uses RC came across a thread on there a while back with these pics in them, and a couple of others, and I was amazed to see the growth they've gone through since then.

From what I hear, the female was one of those firecrackers of a neonate! when I got her she was still quite an edgy girl, but not too snappy at all, and now she is more chilled than ever.
I think she just saves all her rage for feeding time now, this one would spear through a brick wall to get at her feed, and always responds in an instant.
She goes into a frenzy at feeding time, and tries to go up through the ceiling of her hide rather than eagerly going out the out the front like most boas, so I just remove the hide now before offering the grub, nut bar altogether!!

Some great info there, thank you Matt. Good link too. I couldn't help think some lovely Royals there also. So your uses a hide. My boy only hides out when he's shedding but I like to read about ones who were snappy and are now calm. At what age did she start to calm down roughly.

Gorgeous colours on the Albino but isn't the 100% Het Sunset strange and beautiful.

Lisa, I love reds and blacks (wines, pinks etc...so thought oh I like that) although most of my flooring is wood and tiles too lol

This pair look like they are comming along great Matt,im looking forward to seeing some sunglows in the future.

Imagine a carpet like that all the way through your living room though Tan! :O

Yes indeed Matt, she was a little brat when we had her! I have a video of her somewhere doing her thing, sitting on a chair. She just hissed constantly with her mouth open and hopped off my hand. The amount of teeth I had to pull out of my skin thanks to her! Glad to hear she's calmed down and it was only a phase. She was a right bad tempered thing, didn't like people at all!

She was always a fantastic feeder though, and that's the most important thing! Her colour has changed so much...fascinating how the salmons develop...

Yeah they're coming along well Phil which is great to see.
I think having boas from a young age is the way to go, you know where you stand with them so much more then!

As much as the female is progressing size-wise, I don't think I'll rush into breeding too early.
I would honestly say late 2012 would be too early to attempt to breed from these, but I think I remember you saying that Salmons sometimes breed a little younger, so I'll see how she comes along. As I said though, no rush, a little longer of a wait is worth it, if the end result is a healthy and breed-able female.

Cheers!

Matt,salmon females tend to stay smaller than commons,6ft seems to be an average size for them.Female boas seem to mature at 3-4 years old,maybe longer.As long as i am happy with the size and build of my females and they are at least 3 years old and will try breeding them.

Nice update pic's on the pair Matt
2012/13 is a long way off, but well worth the wait to produce your own Sharp sunglows :)

OK cheers for that bit of info Phil, and I think it sounds good. I'll have a look at how she has come on by Summer next year. By the looks of things she'll be more or less on course.
Cheers for the link too, Rio Bravo is a great site for info, Rentfro seems to be very open when it comes to sharing breeding tips and the like. Very good site.

Thanks Tommy, yeah I said I'm going to take some pics of the boas, some at the start of the year, and again in the Summer.
This is a nice way to get some idea of the growth rate they have been through, and who doesn't like to see other keeper's update pics? I know I do! At a guess,I'd say those photos that Lisa put up were taken roughly 18 months ago, so you can see the growth clearly.

Hope that Buddha is striving for you too, he was always a sure-fire feeder when I had him, although he had some strange eating habits! I watched him take over an hour to "Kill" his meal once or twice! A calm natured boa most of the time, but I got the full brunt of his teeth before, fast when he wants to be!

Tan wrote: At what age did she start to calm down roughly.

She has been pretty calm since I've had her, I picked her up last April or so. It was probably just a phase she went through, like a lot of neonates tend to.

Cheers

Thank you for the info. My boy can be so good and then all of a sudden just swing round and strike for no reason (well not one I can figure out), then go back to being really good. He still has the odd open mouth hiss like theres no tomorrow demonic moment but sure he's still a baby lol

There looking great Matt fair play..

Nice one mate

Hope that Buddha is striving for you too, he was always a sure-fire feeder when I had him, although he had some strange eating habits! I watched him take over an hour to "Kill" his meal once or twice! A calm natured boa most of the time, but I got the full brunt of his teeth before, fast when he wants to be!

Aye he's doing great Matt thanks, just through a shed yesterday
Ain't been tagged by him "yet!" lol

not a big fan of albinos, but man that salmon is class..................

Cheers Trunx. I saw you have to move your Patterdale on, thats a real shame, hopefully something works out where you don't have to, a cracker of a dog so she is.

I checked in on this girl this morning and found a rolled up shed, so I lifted up the hide to find a much lighter boa; I said I'd take a snap of her post-shed


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Cheers for the comments, she is fast becoming my favourite boa. Still, I gotta say, that Hypo Sonoran you got yourself is a great boa, best of luck finding something to pair it to. It'd be nice to see more of them available in Ireland.