Very often when looking for information about boas on the Internet, or when looking at stocklists for snake breeders you’ll see these codes. They can be quite confusing for the beginner so here is a quick breakdown of what they mean:

• CB - Captive Bred.  This means that the animal as been bred in captivity, either by a prefessional breeder or privately.  These tend to be healthy snakes, free from disease and parasites, and are often quite docile and easy to handle.
• CF - Captive Farmed.  This means that a wild female snake is captured (while pregnant) and this is the offspring.
• WC - Wild Caught.  The name says is all, this is a snake which was once wild and has been captured and imported to be sold.
• LTC - Long Term Captive.  This is simply a WC snake which has been kept in captivity for some time and has adjusted to captive life.

You will often see a number after these code, such as 07 or 08.  This is simply the year of birth so CB08 means a captive bred snake from the 2008 season.