Koda the Mini Boa

I got this little guy a year ago at a Repticon, where his breeder told me that his mother had been tiny and although he ate like a horse, this little boa just refused to grow. He's a 2012 model, and he currently weighs in at 519g. He's slowed down a lot in his shedding, so I'm not sure how much bigger he will get. He keeps getting more and more pink, even though the pictures don't show it so well.

Koda's the sweetest snake. He will actually beg to come out of his cage and be held. As his breeder said, he does indeed eat like a horse, and he eats everything. At one point he even tried to eat my roommate's hand, although if a snake is capable of looking sorry he sure looked sorry after he let go.

A note on the tongue shot--Koda cracks me up. He can sit totally still, but flail his tongue in 18 different directions. I don't know if this is a boa thing, but it just amuses me endlessly.

He is very pretty snake. I do see a lot of pink in him. Love the story about the room mate. Is that what he is called...a mini boa?

I'm not sure of his exact pedigree. It appears he has some kind of genetic dwarfism, but the extent of it is a little uncertain. I do know he is Arabesque het Albino, and that his mother was also small. I'm calling him a mini boa to differentiate him from the island dwarf boa subspecies.

Oh yes, and I abbreviated the story of Koda biting my roommate. Here is how it went.

We'd hatched some quail, and we had one of the chicks die on us at about 3 days old. The chick was freshly dead, and Koda had already proven he loved quail chicks. We decided to feed him the chick. Well, my roommate wanted to feed him.

I said, "Let me go get the tongs." My roommate said, "It'll be fine." I said, "Okay, if you say so...."

My roommate reached in the cage, still holding the quail chick. I said, "Put it down and he'll come get it." My roommate said, "No, no, it'll be fine." I said, "Okay, if you say so..."

Then he started wiggling the chick. I said, "I wouldn't do that if I were you..." He said, "No, no, it'll be fine."

Well, you know what happened. BAM, boa to the hand! Koda realized mid-strike he was going for the wrong target and tried to change, but he was committed. He let go immediately, or at least he tried--those backward-curving needle teeth made it so he had to unhook one part of his mouth at a time before he was free of my roommate.

I somehow managed to avoid saying, "I told you so."

Hahaha bet your room mate won't be doing that again anytime soon. Lovely snake though

Mini boa = Max cool