Advice on weight gain for underweight snake

[Dandelion]

Hello, I'm new to the forum. I did some poking around but I haven't been able to find an answer to my question. So here I am hoping someone can help. A little history. I've been keeping colubrids for a few years now and have really enjoyed them. I decided to take the plunge and get a boa. I live in a bit of a remote area but I watched craigslist for a few months and a young one came up. I went to check it out and the people keeping him were not doing a very good job. He had mites and is underweight. I talked them down to half the price and brought him home realizing that it was more of a rescue situation than a healthy adoption. There isn't a reptile vet within 200 miles of me but I talked my local vet into checking for parasites aside from the mites and he was cleared. Obviously he's still in quarantine but I believe I have destroyed the mite situation by following the anapsid websites advice on killing mites. I used ivermec as mr snake was and is bright eyed and active. But still, I am sure he is underweight as there is a lot of loose skin. I don't know for sure how old he is but my guess is not over six months. So, two things: is there a chart for length and weight guidlines for boas and what would you all recommended for a feeding schedule to regain weight? Feed as normal? He's taken two meals of hopper mice now in the last two weeks. The people that had him were feeding him large adult live mice but I felt like that was an awful lot for the little guy. Thanks so much for any input!

[Tsubaki]

Hello Dandelion, first of all great that you offer this guy a new home! Mites can be a pain, make sure you keep an eye out for months because the pesky buggers tend to come back but i'm sure you knew that. I have some questions before we will be able to help you more accurately. You said you have only kept colubrids so far, are you aware that boa's naturally have a lot more ' loose' skin than any colubrids would have? You can roll and pinch a healthy boas skin between your fingers without it being underweight. I am not saying he is not underweight, as i would need more information for that. A healthy boa is rounded square shape with almost flat sides, if it is a very young animal it is fairly normal to see his ribs a tiny bit. But at 6 months not any-more. Since every boa grows differently, and there are too many different sizes of boas.. A growth schedule would not be effective. And since you don't know exactly how old he is, a picture + length & weight information would allow us to be more helpful in assessing his body-tone. I would recommend feeding him something that is about as thick or slightly thicker as the thickest part of his body is, boas are better off being fed a bit less than being overfed so i would just feed him on a normal schedule even if he is skinny. The best thing is that he already eats! :D So he will probably be fine.

Tried to find a picture that shows the body tone of a healthy boa at what i think is around the same size/age, had to dig through my archive but found something. This little guy was eating adult mice.. This is an Occidentalis boa (BCO), but the body tone should look the same as a BCI or BCC.

[bigsnakegirl785]

As Tsubaki said, boas are a lot thinner than most people think they are. Those big bulky, girthy snakes you see are immensely overweight (unless you're looking at a gravid female).

At 6 months, he should be eating something that leaves either no bulge or a very small bulge with no scale separation every 10-14 days. If he's underweight, he'll gain any weight he needs back at a healthy pace just eating like normal.

If you post a picture of him, we could better gauge the boa's weight! Full body including the tail stretched out on the ground is preferable. If they were feeding him large adult mice and that seems like a large meal, unless they were feeding it very infrequently, it's doubtful he's underweight.

Here are my boas at 6 months.

He's a little over 6 months here, and a tad chubby around the middle, but this is my oldest at ~6 months (he's 5 now).

https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1483/25283839520_cd24dec1b0_b.jpg

This is my sunglow at ~6 months, she's 15 months old now.

https://c2.staticflickr.com/2/1548/25460973012_1e2d0e3c1a_b.jpg

And my anery motley at ~6 months.

https://c2.staticflickr.com/8/7700/28153684786_3081d619c6_b.jpg

As you can see the two males are a bit thinner in girth, and the female has had the most conservative diet! The first one was fed rats (fuzzies I think it was) every 5 days at that age (way overfeeding but didn't know at the time), the female got hoppers every 14 days at that age, and the last one is being fed hoppers every 10 days. Males are going to be a bit thinner in general than a female.

As Tsubaki also said, you can move the skin around on a healthy boa. Snakes store their fat internally around their organs and in structures called fatty deposits. Flabby skin is more of a sign of dehydration, but they can also be underweight at the same time. As long as it hugs the body unless being moved around, you're a-ok.

[Dandelion]

Wow! First off thank you for your wonderful replies!

Well, after reading your posts I don't think he's very underweight. I should have taken a picture of him when I first brought him home. I suspect now that he was much more dehydrated than anything. I post a picture I took today. He was fed yesterday. He's 23" long. I seem to have misplaced my scale but what I'm hearing makes me think he's gonna be just fine. :)

[dannybgoode]

He looks very healthy. Nice squared off shape to him. As others have said boas are very easy to overfeed as they rarely refuse a meal whether they need one or not.

Here's my Central American Boa imperator for reference-she's around 16 mo and weighs around 285g. She's just been moved up to 2x20g mice (I only feed multiple pretty when she's going up a size-personally I think it's easier on her at first to eat 2x smaller mouse than 1x 40g weaner rat and I'll do the same with the weaners when she's being moved up to adult rats).

Nice looking boa you have. They are supreme snakes-my favourite...

[sattva]

You want him to gain weight? Feed him ice cream; Worked on me!

[bigsnakegirl785]

Wow! First off thank you for your wonderful replies!

Well, after reading your posts I don't think he's very underweight. I should have taken a picture of him when I first brought him home. I suspect now that he was much more dehydrated than anything. I post a picture I took today. He was fed yesterday. He's 23" long. I seem to have misplaced my scale but what I'm hearing makes me think he's gonna be just fine. :)

Looks good to me! Can definitely tell he's been eating adult mice. haha At 23", hopper mice are probably the best sized meal for him atm. I'd feed one every 10-14 days.

He looks very healthy. Nice squared off shape to him. As others have said boas are very easy to overfeed as they rarely refuse a meal whether they need one or not.

Here's my Central American Boa imperator for reference-she's around 16 mo and weighs around 285g. She's just been moved up to 2x20g mice (I only feed multiple pretty when she's going up a size-personally I think it's easier on her at first to eat 2x smaller mouse than 1x 40g weaner rat and I'll do the same with the weaners when she's being moved up to adult rats).

Nice looking boa you have. They are supreme snakes-my favourite...

I would only feed one smaller meal, doubling up the mice is actually worse than feeding a larger meal. There's a higher fur and and fat ratio between two mice vs a single rat. At 285 grams she should only need a single medium adult or jumbo adult mouse, she could probably even take a weaned rat just fine, if not now then really soon. She's about the same weight as my sunglow was when I started her on jumbos. Always feed a single prey item, even if it's a bit small they'll grow just fine.

[dannybgoode]

Looks good to me! Can definitely tell he's been eating adult mice. haha At 23", hopper mice are probably the best sized meal for him atm. I'd feed one every 10-14 days.



I would only feed one smaller meal, doubling up the mice is actually worse than feeding a larger meal. There's a higher fur and and fat ratio between two mice vs a single rat. At 285 grams she should only need a single medium adult or jumbo adult mouse, she could probably even take a weaned rat just fine, if not now then really soon. She's about the same weight as my sunglow was when I started her on jumbos. Always feed a single prey item, even if it's a bit small they'll grow just fine.

Thanks BSG. I'll bear that in mind...

[Dandelion]

Awesome! Thank you everyone!