Herpetoculture
Rosy Boa Projects
Rosy Boa Projects
This is a list of some of my rosy boa breeding projects along with some photos. Some of the projects are locality specific animals. I am a big fan of keeping rosy boa breeding projects locality pure. I used to be a stinker about it. However, I had some opportunities come my way that were very interesting and I found myself having to make some compromises here. Randy Wright offered me his purple albino (triv abino) project years ago. Over the years I become involved in other interesting projects that are not locality specific. You might say I have been corrupted. Essentially I live in two worlds here, I am carful with all my locality rosy boas and enjoy maintaining them in the hobby; however, I am involved is some mad scientist stuff too.
Amelanistic Whitewater Rosy Boa
Super Vivid Whitewater Rosy Boa
Amelanistic Rosy Boa
Whitewater Rosy Boa
Whitewater Albino Rosy Boa: The Whitewater rosy boa is a T+ albino boa that I think looks amazing as an adult. They have some variation in color and pattern which is typical of the boas found in Whitewater canyon. The variation in these boas is part of the fun of breeding and keeping them. If you handle them regularly and provide them with a great habitat, then they become super tame and easy to handle. The original male albino was found in Whitewater canyon on April 3,1993 by Craig Harper. It was later sold to Scott Selstad and Keith Carlson and they were able to breed it with a group of females to produce hets. Later a second albino female was found and bred with some of the hets by my friend and mentor Randy Wright.
The photos above show the variation in these boas. For comparison sake I included a normal looking Whitewater boa in the photos. In the past this locality of boa was thought of as an intergrade between two subspecies. However, with the new taxonomy, what were formally called Lichanura trivirgata gracia and Lichanura trivirgata roseofusca are now lumped into a single species orcutti.
Hypocabazaxanthic Rosy Boa: I am very excited about the future of this project. This is a boa that is both hypomelanistic and axanthic. The hypo gene is from the Cabazon locality boa and the axanthic gene is from Pioneer Town. This is not a locality pure boa but each localities bred together here are not too far from each other. This boa would typically be called a ghost rosy boa; however, I would like to get the name hypocabaxanthic to catch on.
The first two photos are of two different hypocabazaxanthics. The third photo is a shot of a hypo that is possibly het axanthic and a axanthic that is possibly het hypo. These four snake will be the founding stock of the project. The forth photo is to contrast the different phenotypes. I may get more in the coming 2023 breeding season. I will be breeding 1.3 double hets. I hope I get lucky again.
Picasso and Het Picasso: This is one of the stranger rosy boa morphs in the hobby. The Picasso was first produced by the patience and hard work of Michael Goldbarg. I was able to pick up two het females and one male Picasso from Michael Goldbarg and Nick Smith. I should produce one or two more Picassos in the 2023 breeding season.
The recipe for this morph is a secret. I know because I purchased some and Michael was nice enough to let me know how they were created. My lips are sealed for now.
Catavina and El Rosario: I put these two localities together since they are very similar in color and locality. The main difference in these two localities is eye color. Catavinas have very rich orange colored eyes. The orange eyes are a product of the captive breeding efforts of Gary Keasler. These are amazing boas to work with.
Both localities have a dark maroon/brown striping with a gray background color. Based on the description I gave, try to figure out which photos are Catavinas and which are El Rosario. I think that these are some of most visually attractive rosy boas in the hobby.
Limberg Albino and Limberg Snow: These boas were first produced by Randy Limberg. He acquired an amelanistic male boa that was crossed with a group of females to produced boas heterozygous for the amel mutation. When the babies were bred together He was able to produce amelanistic boas. These boas have a red eye which hints that this amel is a different mutation than the Whitewater amel.
Randy went a step further and was able to cross an amelanistic boa with a anerythristic boa to make a boa that carries both mutations in it's genotype. When these double hets are crossed you have a one in sixteen chance of producing a boa with both mutations. These boas are typically called the Limberg Snow rosy boa.
Harquahala Rosy Boa: Harquahala rosy boas are from a mountain range in Arizona that is located roughly between Prescott and the 10 freeway. These boa are robust and easy to keep. They are probably the largest of the Arizona rosy boas. Much of my breeding stock was produced by Gary Keasler. Additionally, I have an amelanistic group that I acquired from Gary. I actually bought the entire litter from him one particular season.
Additionally I have purchased boas from other sources to add some genetic diversity to my group. I have a big group of them so I should be producing these every season from here on. The last photo above is of a group of baby amelanistic Harquahala rosy boas.
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Click this text to start editing. This simple title and text block is great for welcome or explanatory text. When writing, try to keep things down to a few lines at a time. Break up your content into different blocks to keep your page interesting.