my male hog island

gorgeous boa !

Thanks v much Joe.

Lovely looking hogg island mate

Are you planning to try and produce het sunsets with this guy?

Marty

very nice,some nice pinks on that guy.

Thanks v much guys. If i got a nice salmon to go with this guy i would Marty. Some breeders like to keep the blood lines pure tho. i think there is some nice pastel crosses being breed.

Very nice Chris. He's rather pretty.

There's no problem crossing a salmon with a Hog Island, as long as you sell on the babies as what they are, crosses as opposed to selling them as pure hogs. If you can get a nice clean salmon, i'd go for it

pitviper wrote: Some breeders like to keep the blood lines pure tho.

i am all for pure localities,but as ive said i have nothing against crosses aslong as they are labled correctly.Infact i'm actually looking forward to seeing some yet undone crosses to she what they may look like.

locality animals are becomming more and more popular,which i think is a good thing,but it is also causing some problems as unscrupulous dealers are adding locality lables to animals to add the extra few £££ to the price.(did i say this somwhere else? if im going on somone tell me to shut up ).BEWARE THE UNSCRUPULOUS DEALERS.Unscrupulous dealers,you know who you are

Animals are also being miss labled due to lack of knowlege.I have went to great lengths to purchase locality animals with linage that can be traced back to wild caught animals.You could cross say a hog island to a common and you will get common looking boas and hog island looking boas and any variation inbetween.It is very easy for these hog island looking crosses to have the pure hog island lable applied to them at some point or another.

It is IMPOSSIBLE to identify a boas locality(or at least the purity of its locality) on looks,or even scale counts.You must have reliable linage information otherwise you are just pursuming/guessing.

Sunsets and het sunsets.There is a bit of controversy as to what actually a sunset or het sunset actually is.The original sunsets did originate from hog island to salmon hypo crosses,but it took many years of line breeding to produce the true sunsets and they are still extremely rare.It is becomming more popular to call hypo to hog crosses exactally what they are,hypo to hog crosses.It is unlikly that super hypo hog crosses will look as good as true sunsets.

there are 2 books that i personally think anyone serious about boas and localities must have.Vin Russos book THE COMPLETE BOA CONSTRICTOR is invaulable,specially for those who plan on breeding boas,but for the understanding of locality animals and what exactally locality means and stands for I would highly recomend Herman Stoeckls book THE TRUE BOA CONSTRICTOR.

Nice looking boa mate.

i wouldnt mind a nice wee hog but waiting to come across the right one, no more buying the first i see, a wee cross id like to get from hogs is motley pattern i think it would be cool, motley hog....

Nice Hog Island there mate.

Just reading trough Phil's post there, that would have been my understanding on the Sunset boas too.

A Hog X Salmon pairing would give you hypo hogs, and Sunsets were produced through lengthy selective breeding of these hypo hogs.

As already mentioned, the Sunsets are rare from what I know of them, but what i know of them is limited in fairness.
From what I've seen of them, they are beautiful looking boas in their own right, as are a lot of the hypo Hogs you see, and as the lads said, if you are thinking of breeding them, you'd need to clearly label them.
And not only that, you'd really have to stress what they are to each and every person you sell one to, and even give it to them in writing, then hopefully they won't be mistaken as just Hog Island boas; in a lot of cases, the first person you sell a reptile to is rarely the final owner, and thats why I think even efforts to label these crosses are possibly flawed from the start.

Personally, I don't see why any boa enthusiast would want to go messing with a locality that is all but extinct in the wild, when they could make efforts to preserve its unique and distinctive characteristics in captivity, but thats just me, each to their own.


EDIT! forgot to say, Vin Russo's book is a must have for a boa keeper's guide, brilliant book, and totally relevant too, not like a lot of other books out there, I'd also recommend it.. Definitely well worth the money!

sunsets sounds like a fun project but i agree it is a must to preserve hog islands boas. Would it be hard to sell the normal crosses that are not hypo hogs? il have to a copy of Vin Russo's book, a signed one sounds good Marty. again thanks for your import guys, hog island boas i find is a very interesting and special locality with very limited numbers in the wild.

No I doubt they would be hard to sell to be honest.
I think they do get written off by people into boas, I'd be reluctant to buy one myself, but if you put any ethics aside and look at the boas, some of the crosses are really nice looking boas.

I read on another U.S forum recently that the Hog crosses can grow into stunning looking adults, I don't think I've ever seen an adult one though, but I'd like to!

I think the problem is, when people get stung and were expecting a Hog Island boa, but they get what turns out to be a cross.

There were a couple doing the rounds in the south last year, and some of them looked the business I have to say. They were quite popular at the time as far as I remember.
What Marty and Phil were saying sounds good though; if there are crosses being bred, then letting the buyer know what they are getting from the get go, then it takes a bit of the stigma off them

i bred some hog common crosses a couple of years ago,some really nice looking little boas,sold no problem for £40 each.