Hello and welcome to Gilbert Boas. My name is Shawn Gilbert. I am 46 years old, and along with my wonderful wife Helga, have three great children. Ian is the youngest followed by his sister Ashley and, of course, Christopher who is the oldest and my partner in this collaboration.
Let me start off by saying make no mistake about it, Christopher is the expert in this group. He is also the networker of the pair as I'm sure you recognize him from the various forums. While I read and follow most of what goes on, I very rarely contribute to posts. I graduated high school in 1980 and left immediately for The United States Military Academy at West Point. I served on active duty with the 1st Bn 504th Parachute Infantry regiment of the 82nd Airborne Division, then later in the National Guard with the 19th Special Forces Group. I am currently a Trooper with the Pennsylvania State Police and plan to retire in January 2010. My plans are to have our breeding groups established by that time and have things going full swing.
I have always been fascinated by reptiles but knew I would never have garnered parental support for any endeavor such as this. When Christopher started showing interest, I put my full support behind him, which eventually grew into what you now see as Gilbert Boas.
While the focus of our collection will revolve around Boa Constrictors, we hope to add other Boa species in the future. I cannot get away from a fascination with the growing and seemingly endless combination of Ball Python Morphs. I am currently raising a group of females, with the oldest just beginning to reach breeding size and weight. While I did start with a few CH Ghana imports, the majority are now captive born and bred. Even though almost all of them are normals, I do have a few Het Albinos, most recently 2 Pastels produced here, and have already started selecting by color and pattern the types of males to which they will be bred. Our goal will be to help refine even the most common Co-Dominant morphs by selecting the most appropriate mate. I think there has been too little emphasis on selective breeding with BP's as some have simply chosen to mass produce for the quickest and largest return for their money. I have begun to add morph males, a Graziani line Pastel (sired first clutch '07), as well as 100% het Clown and Orange Ghost both from Ian G. of Outback Reptiles, this year I have added a Spider, Black Pastel, and Genetic Stripe. Once the Ball Pythons become reproductive, we will be adding a link to this page for Gilbert Pythons, which I will focus on while Christopher continues with his Boas. The near term goal is to add Womas, Black-heads, and Angolan Pythons to the group.
I am also responsible for the full time colony of domestically raised rodents that are used to feed all of our animals. While there are many reputable companies available (The Mouse Factory is highly recommended) to supply the needs of the herpetoculturist, we feel more comfortable knowing for certain what goes into our animals.
We hope you enjoy the various links and information sections associated with the Gilbert Boas website. Christopher has worked very hard to make this an informative site for anyone who needs a visual reference for the ever increasing list of Boa mutations. While every effort is made to be accurate and complete, this is still a part time venture for a full time college student and corrections and comments are always welcome. Please use the contact link for Christopher if you can help with information or quality photos of the various Boa morphs listed in the outline and thank you for visiting Gilbert Boas.