first post and a pic :)

[HetForHuman]

hello everyone i just thought id post a pic of my 2 1/2 year old female bci.
she just shed yesterday and thought id take a pic. it is kind of a crappy pic because of the camera.
well here ya go.



http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/508/1834mvc-010f-med.jpg

[LdyDrgn]

Questions: How big is she? How often, how many and what do you feed her?

I ask these questions because she has quite a pin-headed look to her. Otherwise she is beautiful.

[HetForHuman]

yes i do agree she has a small head.
she is 4 1/2 feet long
i feed her 2 large to jumbo rats a week depending on what the store has when i go . i think the reason for the smaller head is that when i first got her i wasnt sure what she was capable of eating. i used to only feed her 1 prey item about every 5 days when she was young but learned to realize she is a major garbage can...

i now can feed her and feed her and she wont stop, but i do draw a limit.

[Zoe]

Wow, 2 jumbos a week? That's a lot. Lovely snake tho!

My baby is a year old and 3ft long, and she eats large small rats... maybe it's time I step up to meds.
And yeah, if I let her, she'd eat 5 large rats a sitting! Pig, she'll eat a rat sideways if that's how she grabs it.

[Linds]

Very pretty little girl you have there :)... and welcome to the site!

[boa]

very nice she looks great.

[LdyDrgn]

Yikes! Too much food! Yes, they will keep eating non-stop, but that does not mean it is healthy for her. Hiking her metabolism up like that is causing her body to outgrow her head as well as her internal organs. Her skeletal structure is growing to keep up with the prey you are providing, but her organs will stay small. She will have a much shortened life span and possibly health problems. Your original feeding plan was correct, or at least close to it. 1 prey item per week the same size of the thickest part of the snakes body. When they reach about 3 feet, it is 1 appropriately sized prey item every 2 weeks. You need to slow down on her food and let the rest of her body catch up to her skin and bones. I suspect that she is also retaining quite a bit of fat. This too is unhealthy. Diet and exercise is what she really needs.

I hope I don't come off as harsh or anything. My only concern is for the health of the bci. What you are doing is called powerfeeding and it will KILL your snake. Please, for her sake, drop it down to 1 item every 2 weeks. :(

[hip]

I agree a good big rat (or whatever food item) every 10 to 14 days is so much better Bci are well known to be pigs when it comes to feeding and will eat until it kills them.(or at least screws the proper growth rate up)I would only feed a full grown female who is getting ready to be bred on a weekly shedule and then only for a month and one half or so up to breeding time.



Hip

[Blackwidow69]

:cool: Shes a real nice looking BCI, and i would have to agree cut her feed intake down.. My argentine X colombian is just over 3ft and he eats like a pig to.. hes getting one medium rat every 12 days..

[Clownfishie]

Lovely looking girl you've got there :) Definitely a little on the plump side! LOL...

[Burmies]

If this picture was taken in the last week, I think you female is ready for a male to breed with. I think this due to the thickness of the tail. The thickness does not start at the stomach.

Burmies

[Mr. Maggot]

I have a question about this whole feeding thing. Boas seem to have no limit to their feeding wants. So my question is, in the wild, what keeps them from consuming as much as they want. I know they have to hunt for it, but if they found nests or something.... well if they had a large food source...
Also all that slithering around would burn calories, but I just dont see how feeding them a lot could be THAT bad, yes I know it is bad, but are there any scientifical studies to prove this, like x rays CT scans or the like done scientifically. I have looked but i've only found people giving the advice that feeding a ton is bad. IM not trying to insult or slam or anyhting, I'm just curious.
Burmies, the thickness of the tail could be due to a large fecal retention, as Boas like to do. Especially after consuming large meals, they like to hold it in. Dont ask me why, but they do.

[LdyDrgn]

In the wild if they chose to clear a burrow, they would probably sleep there for a month after consuming the rodent family that lived there. More often than not, though, bc are ambush hunters. They lie in wait, in the dark, watching for their prey to amble by.

This problem has been around for a very long time. <Most> petsores STILL tell their customers to feed live and as much as possible to get the snake bigger at a faster rate. Naturally... because that means the more mice/rats the petstore gets to sell and more profit to be made. <Most> petstores also recommend hotrocks. :eek: If studies have not been made and necropsies not done, we would not know today the effects powerfeeding has on these beautiful creatures. YES, they are going to take in as much food as possible in one sitting. They don't know when or where they are getting their next meal, so they stockpile. If you really want to feed a lot of prey in one sitting, fine, but do it once a month, not once a week. Just because they can eat that much it doesn't mean they should.