E = stand for Excellent Eating Emeralds.

[BOAS_N_PYTHONS]

Hello everyone:

The photo shoot continues and these photos are of CB Emerald Tree Boa babies. I love Emeralds, they are my favorite natural boa species in my collection. These girls are great, very alert and great feeders on frozen thawed. Also these girls are almost 1 year old and ripping into hopper mice.

Everyone meet JUNO.

http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/2330juno_emerald_tree_boa_037-med.jpg

Everyone meet PROSERPINE.

http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/2330proserpine_emerald_tree_boa_038-med.jpg

Thank you for viewing, questions and comments welcome.

Cya...

Tony

[Kimo]

grrrrrrr...enough is enough Tony!!!

damn guy has gotta come on here, and post pics to make us all jealous!!

with each new post man, i contemplate our discussion on msn, more and more!

Josh

[Shad0w]

How often do you feed them?

[BOAS_N_PYTHONS]

SHADOW:

These guys eat once a week, but so does all my collection.

Cya...

Tony

[TheRedDragon]

Tony, you're TRYING to torture me, aren't you? *SOB* They're all gorgeous. :)

[Invictus]

Freakin' incredible.

[Tim_Cranwill]

Almost makes me want one... Almost. ;) :D

[bistrobob85]

What?!?! You feed your animals once a week??? Isn't it unsafe? ( thats what i've always been told about emeralds... )? Tony, you have experience with them, what do you think about ETB feeding schedules?!? I feed mine once every 12 days...

phil.

[bistrobob85]

What kind of feeding schedules would you guys ( question for every ETB owners ) have for a neo-juvenile??? I've always read about 10-14 days, so i chose to feed every 12 days, but if it's safe to do it every 7 days... then i think ill move on to feeding more often!!!

phil.

[BOAS_N_PYTHONS]

PHIL:

As you see in my post mine are June 2004 babies, and eating hopper mice. I think my hoppers are rather small compared to other people' s definition. But in the photos you can see these are not much of a struggle for the ETBs to take down and do not create a lump in the belly. So my schedule on a week feeding is fine. I actually feel a larger hopper to adult would be to much for these guys to eat, So in the next few months we will try 2 - 3 hoppers much later and once I see that does not show any sign of discomfort then it will be adult mice and so on.

I actually did an early post on whewn I got these guys and in the 2nd day 1 actually on a test grabbed an adult mouse and it ate it. I was surprized and was told otherwise to avoid it. And I understand the reasons as well. It was only a test to see feeding reaction and I was more surprized it even worked cause I was looking for was a strike at least. But 2 weeks later she deficated and was ready for her hoppers anyways.

When it comes to ETBs the information you hear and read about less and longer periods is the safe route, these are not BCC and BCI boas so things are very different when coming to feeding.

Less and small is better than more and repetition.

If you can send me or post a photo of yours and them eating we can better determine if your system is on schedule or needs tweaking.

Cya...

Tony

[bistrobob85]

Well i don't have any feeding pics yet, i guess i'll take some on the next feeding day, which is scheduled on september 13, right after the expo! My snake is 7 months old and feeding on 1 day old rats each 12 days... I guess you're right and i could feed a LITTLE more often, like every 9-11 days depending on the size of the rat... I'll post one of my feeding pics next week, i hope it'll be a good one! We'll talk about that again then!

phil.

[Rob McRobbie]

Another little tidbit of info that I have taken to heart is that from an article written by Stan Chiras where he makes the comment that sometimes even skipping or forgetting to feed these snakes is actually a blessing in disguise and keepers that just can't wait to put the next meal into their animals should definitely avoid keeping emeralds...


I think it's been about 3 weeks since my babies have fed... Maybe I'll get on that tonight!!!


Rob

[bistrobob85]

I'm not trying to get her ( its a little she ) to eat all the time, i'm just getting worried of how i should do things the best for the health and normal growth of my animal. I remember Stan Chiras too, thats also why i felt so lost when i read of a 7 day feeding schedule... Keep different opinions comming in!!!

phil.

[Richard Welter]

I feed my babies to yealing one good sized mouse once a week. After they become a yealing I go with around every 12 days to 2 weeks. The other thing you have to look at is that some emeralds are able to take large orders of food and hold them down. But the rule of thumb is three meals within a month and a half and if the emerald has not went to the bathroom then stop feeding and wait it out. Stan also said "These are not Burms" you will not get any closer to breeding an animal if you power feed. You still have to give them time to grow a mature. So keep it easy feed once every second friday and leave it at that. Thanks Richard Welter

[bistrobob85]

Well for the moment, i can't really use smaller rats than 1 day old pups, so i'll keep it at a rat pup every 10 days, which is theorically still pretty safe...

phil.