Quick ? About feeding

[Brently]

Just curious what you guys think of feeding frequency. I have been feeding Athena every 5 days. I am playing with the idea of changing it up to a more varied schedule of some larger feedings with a longer time between mixed with normal feedings with normal times in between (normal 5 days and large 7 days). But I have been reading a guide on red tails and it says to feed young boas 2-3 days. Athena is about 8 months old and approx. 26 inches. What do you (the experts) recommend?

[KORBIN5895]

I am no expert but I feed my approximately one year old boa a small rat every week.

[Trent]

I am not an expert either.Feeding every 2 or 3 day is alot.Would not have time to digest the first meal.Snake would probley puke the food back feeding that often.Once every week to ten days is a good idea.Food item same size as the thickest part of the snake.

[alessia55]

For an 8mos old boa I'd say feeding every 7 days is the norm ...? But I'm sure boa people on here will come on and confirm whether that's right or not

[SnakeyJay]

Don't true bcc retails have a slower metabolism than bci ?

[Jenn_06]

for a young boa feed every 7 days, 2-3 days is just too much

[CDN_Blood]

I'm a strong supporter of larger meals with more time between them - been doing that for 24 years and have nothing but good results and healthy snakes that never mistake me for food :)

[Brently]

I thought that 2-3 days was too much, just wanted to confirm. After all I am not published. I am going to stick with my newly adopted schedule. 5 days will be the minimum time that I will go between feedings. She has been a very good eater at that interval and I see no reason to think that it is in any way bad. Thanks for the input folks.

[PureLine Exotics]

i go with 7 days for my babies (1-3 yrs old) and for adults a larger meal every 2 weeks. except when i am planning to breed, then the girls get lots once a week, and the boys once a week. feeding every 5 days is ok but it will likely make your boa overweight within 6 months (learnt this the hard way) when they r overweight their scales move farther apart and you begin to see small spaces between their scales. In the wild, most boas will only eat their own body weight within a year. In captivity they don't get nearly as much exercise and therefore do not excrete as frequently. Overfeeding your boa can quickly cause heart disease and organ failure (which is incurable in reptiles). just be cautious and if she begins to get overweight slow it down, or feed a smaller amount each feeding.

Remember knowledge is power!

Amber

[Terranaut]

I find with mine my male likes a large rat once a week but my female eats a jumbo every 2 weeks. My snakes are adult so they eat less often. But the reason I am mentioning this is because the larger the prey the less often you need to feed. Also mine tend to have a big crap and then start hunting the next day. Not all boas do this and some will not poop for months at a time but letting them fully digest one meal before stuffing in the next is a healthy practice. 2-3 days is nuts. What prey size do you use?