dumerils boa

[drec91]

Hey, if anyone is familliar with dumerils boas, can u tell me how long a male will become? Mine is about a foot and a half and it is 7 months old.

[taz19772005]

I all depends on if it is a small breed or a normal breed a small breed gets about 4 to 5 feet and normal gets 6 to 7 feet.

[tonyj]

Dumerils boas are Dumerils boas.

There are not two types of Dumeril's boas and they are not to be confused with their bigger cousins, the Madagascar ground boa (Acrantophis madagascariensis).

Snakes are like people or any other living organism. Some just happen to grow bigger or remain smaller than others do, based on many factors including genetics and environment.

Dumeril's boas (Acrantophis dumerili) are a heavy bodied boa and can reach 6-7 feet in length but often max out at 5-6 feet.

They are also one of the sweetest tempered of all snakes.

By the way, !8 inches is not very big for a healthy seven month old Dumeril's. What are you feeding it and how often?

[drec91]

i feed it an adult mouse every 10 days thats what the problem is it is very thick but not long

[taz19772005]

I would feed it every 7 days just because it is still a baby and need the food to grow.

[tonyj]

I agree, one adult mouse every seven days is better than one every ten days.

Be prepared to increase his food intake in the near future. You may soon want to feed your Dumeril's on rats or rabbits, of an appropriate size of course.

As the snake grows you can then increase the size of his meal and the time between meals. Eventually his meals can be ten days or even two weeks apart as it will be taking longer to digest the larger rodents.

Just one point however, some Dumeril's can be extremely fussy eaters and have a stubborn preference for one food over another. One of my adult Dumeril's will not take the rabbits that my others eat. She steadfastly refuses to eat anything other than rats.

[drec91]

thanx for the reply he seems to readily take anything i give him. He can easily eat adult mice, so when do you sujest i move him to rats.

[tonyj]

A rule of thumb is to feed a rodent to your snake that has a girth of up to approximately 1.5x the girth of your snake. No more or you may risk regurgitation.

[gonesnakee]

I'd try right away & hopefully he will accept them. As stated by Tony some can be pretty chosey & it is best to keep them feeding even if it requires catering to them. If it won't take rats I'd go for 2-3 mice at a time if feeding every 10 days, enough to make a nice lump in his belly. It is a Boa afterall. Does seem a little small for its age, but could have been a slow starter & maybe some bigger meals will give it a growth spurt right away. It is quite likely that it will go into a shed cycle after its first bigger meal. Mark
P.S. Tony when are you gonna have baby Dums happening?

[tonyj]

Hey Mark,

I didn't really go through the proper cooling procedures last season, as I initially wanted to wait one more year, but I did put my two biggest Dum's together for a few days, for a 'see what happens' scenario.

They definitely had lots of fun, locking up regularly, but nothing happened as a result I'm afraid.

This fall I will apply all the techniques I know of, and hopefully will have better results - but no prophesies from this corner!

I may even try a different pair as well, so who knows?

I have been told that Dumeril's will often take a year or so longer to become sexually mature than Bcs, so only time and patience will tell.