Out of curiosity , how can you tell if a boa is pure hoggie?
There are many ways, in saying that if you're unlucky you might end up buying one that isn't, but looks almost identical to pure hogg. But in this case, you haven't done too bad, because it means most people would find hard to tell.
Before I bought mine I researched a lot on the web, been to several websites to see pictures (specially WC specimens), read about their main characteristics, etc.
The best ways to tell are:
1) Origin: mine are pure, because I know their origin. They were bred from parents from a zoo. And the more I look at them the more I convince myself that they are pure, because they have all the visual patterns and colours of a pure hogg island boa
2) Colours: they have this milky sort of colour, with a lot of light pink to their bellies and the markings on the tail instead of being brown / red, are bright orange
Those who have hoggs will probably tell you that they are very hard to tell when they are about to shed. Because of this milky colouration, sometimes you only notice they are about to shed because of their behaviour, rather than for them getting more opaque, etc.
Also, they are smallers than other BCI's and BCC's (I know it doesn't help much if you're buying a very young one).
I've seen many pictures of hogg x common boa crosses, and normally the way you tell they are a cross is because of the colouration of the tail. I've never seen a cross which kept the very orange tails.