How often to feed a Kenyan Sand Boa?

[acidonangles]

As the title says how often should one be feeding a baby KSB? Does the rate of feeding change as the grow?

[bigsnakegirl785]

I’d say 7 days is a good start. I’m not an expert on the species, but it takes snakes a minimum of 7-18 days to digest a meal. I personally don’t feed any snake eating mammals more often than 7 days. I normally feed baby boas every 7-14 days, but where I fall on the spectrum depends on the species’ metabolic/growth rate.

Average feeding for adult boids is every 2-3 weeks, so I’d assume that’s the same with KSBs. I might feed closer to 2 weeks since they’re small, but they’re also heavy bodied so 3 weeks may also work. Hopefully more experienced keepers will chime in if that seems agreeable. I’m a more conservative feeder than most.

[TRD]

Babies will take a meal every 7-10 days, but may still skip them from time to time. Their metabolism is very slow. Once adult every 14 days, but even then they sometimes skip a month without reason so I think even every 21-28 days would be sufficient for them. I have a table with all their feedings, I could average it out later on tonight to see how much food they have actually taken over the course of their live and give a better indication on what to expect... cheers

[Magdalen]

I've had this question too cause I get so many different answers from FB groups (-_-) Oy... anyway, they were saying every 5 days for a baby which seems insane to me. Yeah I get feeding colubrids that often but baby boas?

But yes 7 days is good. Adults will eat far less, especially the males.

[acidonangles]

Thank you for the answers! Wanted to make sure they were not like Hognoses.

[TRD]

So,
on average my babies (under 1 year) took a meal every 7 (actually just over 7) days
my adults took a meal every (almost) 18 days. I try feeding them every 14 days though, but they skipped some mainly in the months Jan to Apr.

The meal of the adults is about 6-8% of their weight, not 10-15% like some high metabolism colubrids get. Babies took 1 pinkie of about 3-4 gram every 7 days, I tried feeding multiple but they never took more as babies (did when crossing 1 year though). Neither has eaten for me when in shed, neither has eaten for me when outside the enclosure. I had only 1 or 2 strike feedings from adults (from beneath the substrate when I knew where the head was). They are very shy in general.

Hope this info helps you somehow in what to expect. Individual snakes may still differ, females will also eat more regular than males as Magdalen said above.

[CK SandBoas]

Ive been keeping and breeding Kenyan Sand Boas for the past 10 years, and for babies, they get fed every five days until they reach around 20 grams, then they move to every 7 days. Adults I feed every 7-10 days, never going past 2 weeks. Their metabolism is not like other boa species, I have found babies to be looking for their next meal 3-4 days after a meal. Adult males will go off feed during the winter months for breeding, that is the only time any of mine will skip a normal schedule..

[bigsnakegirl785]

So,
on average my babies (under 1 year) took a meal every 7 (actually just over 7) days
my adults took a meal every (almost) 18 days. I try feeding them every 14 days though, but they skipped some mainly in the months Jan to Apr.

The meal of the adults is about 6-8% of their weight, not 10-15% like some high metabolism colubrids get. Babies took 1 pinkie of about 3-4 gram every 7 days, I tried feeding multiple but they never took more as babies (did when crossing 1 year though). Neither has eaten for me when in shed, neither has eaten for me when outside the enclosure. I had only 1 or 2 strike feedings from adults (from beneath the substrate when I knew where the head was). They are very shy in general.

Hope this info helps you somehow in what to expect. Individual snakes may still differ, females will also eat more regular than males as Magdalen said above.

It seems in your experience it’s much like mine with my boas. My boas also get 6-8% as babies, but the frequency depends on species. My rainbows start at 7-10 days and my boa constrictors at 10-14 days. The KSBs are eating more often than either species as adults but that’s to be expected since they’re smaller. My rainbows get fed every 3-4 weeks as adults, and my boa constrictors every 4-6 weeks, and meals can be as small as only 2% of their weight.

I do feed more conservatively than most, though, I’ve noticed most people are not willing to feed their babies less than the largest meals they can get away with every 5-7 days, and it’s rare to find people feeding even adults less than weekly (2 weeks is also common but not as common). Slower growth sets off red flags and is usually interpreted as underfeeding or “starving” a snake, but it’s way easier to overfeed than people think and as long as they’re eating it’s nearly impossible to starve them. A slower growth is overall healthier and easier to keep snakes from becoming overweight, as you cannot reliably monitor a snake’s weight visibly. They store their fat in fatty deposits, and when those are full, it covers all of their organs, and then eventually it gets bad enough the snake becomes visibly overweight or obese. Obesity/lack of exercise is one of the most common ailments in captive reptiles.

From what I’ve seen, boas in general are slower growers and require a lot less food than pythons, but people still feed them like pythons as long as they’ll eat that way. (Then again I also feel pythons are overfed in general.)

[Magdalen]

OP I hope you don't mind me asking a feeding question.

To anyone - When have you found that they can be moved up in feeder size? Moving up to fuzzies. I hear a lot of people talk about feeding pinkies to their boas that look like they could take fuzzies or bigger. I have heard they prefer nesting prey, is that why people stick with smaller prey items?
My experience with my first sand boa he/she was a good size and easily took hoppers. My new guy is 4 months old and still small enough to take pinkies and gets them once a week (minus shedding). He has a good growth rate so far.

[Aaron_S]

Ive been keeping and breeding Kenyan Sand Boas for the past 10 years, and for babies, they get fed every five days until they reach around 20 grams, then they move to every 7 days. Adults I feed every 7-10 days, never going past 2 weeks. Their metabolism is not like other boa species, I have found babies to be looking for their next meal 3-4 days after a meal. Adult males will go off feed during the winter months for breeding, that is the only time any of mine will skip a normal schedule..

I followed this when I had my collection of sand boas and they did really well on them. Incredible little snakes.

[CK SandBoas]

OP I hope you don't mind me asking a feeding question.

To anyone - When have you found that they can be moved up in feeder size? Moving up to fuzzies. I hear a lot of people talk about feeding pinkies to their boas that look like they could take fuzzies or bigger. I have heard they prefer nesting prey, is that why people stick with smaller prey items?
My experience with my first sand boa he/she was a good size and easily took hoppers. My new guy is 4 months old and still small enough to take pinkies and gets them once a week (minus shedding). He has a good growth rate so far.

I have usually moved mine up to the next feeder size when they can take 2 of one particular prey item without leaving a noticeable lump....I actually have two 4 month olds that will take small hoppers with no issues whatsoever, a male albino and a female stripe dh snow....

[Magdalen]

Thank you CK. I think he's getting really close to taking fuzzies. My store's fuzzies tend to run on the bigger side.