Customer Reviews

Complete Boa Constrictor: A Comprehensive Guide to the Care, Breeding, and Geographic Races

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This is not the book a person would buy at the pet shop along with his or her first boa, and that's a shame, because this book should be mandatory prior reading for anyone who thinks they might want to own a Boa Constrictor.

Vin Russo has generated exactly what the subtitle claims, "A Comprehensive Guide to Care, Breeding, and the Geographic Races" of boa constrictors. This is in the truest sense a reference book, one to which you will return again and again to answer questions on genetics, breeding, geographic distributions, identification and that all important question; what locale must next be represented in my collection?

The first thing I noticed when I received my copy was it's heavy weight for a book of its size. This book is beautifully bound and contains 280 high gloss pages that are riddled with hundreds of great color photos (many of which are contributed by prominent figures in the herpetological community).

As soon as I began to read chapter one, I realized that this book was going to provide its readers with an education. Beginning with taxonomy and nomenclature, Vin Russo explains the history and importance of understanding how these snakes have been classified and provides a great explanation of scale counting; both how to, and the value of counting for identifying subspecies.

The chapter on genetics is worth the purchase price of the book. He explains the terms and their significance in such a way that he leaves no reader behind, yet writes with a sophistication that will end anyone's days of Punnet square shame on their favorite boa forum. If you are interested in morphs and breeding, this is a must read.

The section on basic care is a sound exposition on all the information a newer keeper needs to know to provide adequate care for a boa. Similarly, the sections on breeding and illnesses and injuries, are very good, yet plow little new ground (perhaps because there is little new ground to plow).

Russo firmly cements his place as a go-to resource for serious keepers with the second section of the book, in which he describes (in detail) "all the recognized subspecies, geographic races, and localities of the boa constrictor, including color and pattern morphs and anomalies."

He begins with Boa Constrictor Imperator and moves through its range, country by country, from north to south, describing the habitats and habits of each locality, paying special attention to variations in size and appearance, breeding peculiarities, and threats to a particular locale. A helpful item is the inclusion of known importation data on some of the more rare locales. Russo includes the actual Cites documents in several cases, showing the limited shipments from certain places, helping to understand why the "Panamanians" at the pet store are almost certainly farmed Nicaraguans, etc.

In this section, the localities as the points of origin of many of the popular morphs are detailed, and the section on Colombians is sure to be a morph lover's favorite.

Vin treats B. C. Constrictor in a separate section, where his love of true red-tails and his years of experience with them are evidenced. His treatment of transitional forms in areas of probable inter-graded breeding is very helpful (both with BCI and BCC) in understanding why some boas are simply inter-grades where territories over lap, and other insular forms are separate subspecies.

Along with the factual data conveyed, Russo passionately pleads for responsibility among keepers and breeders, especially in regard to maintaining purity among Boas of known localities. As someone who has visited much of the range of these snakes, Russo has concluded that deforestation and other types of habitat encroachment could very well result in the herpetological hobby becoming a De facto Noah's Ark for some localities, and there may come a day when captive born boas from your locality-based collection are reintroduced to their native lands to repopulate them. Of course, this is only possible if the documented purity of the locale can be maintained.

In conclusion, this is not a book, it is an education. It is a resource. It is a reference. It is the culmination of the passion and experiences of Vincent Russo and many giants of herpetology who have gone before.

If you are only interested in a care sheet to keep a boa alive in captivity, or a guide to cranking out the best money-making morph of the moment, you won't enjoy this book.
But for those who are passionate about these magnificent animals, this book is a gift; it is a purchase you will never regret.

This book was recommended to me by a few other boa keepers. They swore by it as the must have bible for hobbyists and breeders. After receiving my copy 3 weeks ago I have to agree. This book lives up to the hype and truly is the "complete" boa constrictor book to have. If you keep boas you should own this book.

This book is absolutly great for beginner snake keepers or even the advanced hobbiest. The author goes into full detail. This line of books are great. If you are interested in this book also check out "The Complete Ball Python" and "The More Complete Chondro". Hugh props to the author.

Awesome book full of knowledge about the boa constrictor. Anyone who has snakes needs this book. If you want to learn more about boas this is the one. It focuses more on natural snakes and not designer morphs so if you are looking for this type of book it is for you.

This book has information that I have not found available anywhere else, and that's after really looking through many websites and forums.
It's not so much "hidden secrets" but a compendium of allot of information that is all centered into a single book rather than thousands of posts all over the interweb.

Things like reasons why a breeding pair landed only slugs, exact dosage of Antibiotics for Boas and so forth.

The book itself is beautiful and hardy.

I recommend it to anyone who is serious about his Boas.

Want to no as much as you can about Boa-constrictors this is the best out ther must have .

I am someone who got into caring and keeping snakes because a friend needed to find a new home for his Colombian "red tail" boa constrictor. Two more friends and 3 boas later, I was hooked on these gentle yet wild, powerful yet humble reptiles who clearly enjoyed living together, being handled and munching down on rats, albeit separately. But none of those friends knew for certain what sex they were and certainly nothing about their genetics. Shortly after, it became a moot point as they bred and two of them gave birth to many beautiful babies.

Still, I had always wondered what the true red tail boa looked like, where its native habitat was and whether any of my starter boas were red tails or not. Listening to stories or reading internet info only confused and convinced me that everyone believed they had the true original red tail boa. Well then I guessed, so did I and in my frequent interactions with my boas and the public, I did and still refer to them by their commonly known name of Colombian "red tail" boa constrictors. To my mind, the public is more likely to remember other facts about serpents such as their tongues smelling, that they are deaf, etc as they enjoy their brief snake encounter. In general, explanatory facts without comprehensive visuals and contrasts is not successful in retaining education.

But I have always yearned to know more, especially as my snakes have aged well into their late twenties and early thirties with me. They are family to me, around almost as long as my marriage. Their children may be mutts, but are they BC Constrictor mutts or BC Imperator mutts? So what if my snakes could give a rat's a$$ about their lineage! I need to know. This is where Vincent Russo's excellent book has created the perfect access to facts such as scale counting and visual info such as specifics in coloration and markings that is allowing me to reconstruct their family tree.

The Complete Boa Constrictor: A Comprehensive Guide to the Care, Breeding, and Geographic Races is a must have book for all of us that have boa constrictor snakes (genetics known or not), for those that enjoy educating ourselves on this "complex group of snakes [that] has the largest geographic range of any reptile on earth, spanning two continents," for those of us for whom the pictures tell as much of the story as the words, for those of us who have woken to spontaneous boa litters as well as the serious breeder, herpetologist or herpetoculturist.

I've learned that my boas are not BCC the true red tail boas, but BCI. I am still determining what locale they may have been from originally. I'm leaning towards the Sonora Desert as well as Colombia now, but it will take more enjoyable studying. And when I figure it out, I'll know what picture to put on the invitation cards for their family tree coming out party!

Serpentessa, creator of the dvd, Belly Dance With Snakes: Embody Your Inner Serpent with Serpentessa