My Boa Feeding Regimens - TL;DR Warning

[bigsnakegirl785]

So I went ahead and measured the 3 growing boas.

Nymeria was 43". Her last measurement was last January at 37", so that's half a foot in a couple months over a year. Not bad, considering the time she fell behind in feeding. The year before that saw 11" of growth with normal feeding.

Crona came out at 35". His last measurement was Nov 2016 at 26.5" or so, which is 8.5" of growth. Again, not bad, considering Nymeria grew only 6" with a month less of growth time, and being male I wouldn't necessarily expect the same 11" of growth, though it seems if he did have those 4 months of steady feeding he may have reached that same growth.

Tirel came out at 50". Her last measurement was also last November, and she was 45" at the time. That's only 5" of growth, but she went a few months longer without food vs the other 2.

I'm hoping with the gentle increase in feedings, they'll somewhat make up that lost growth over the following year. I'll probably continue in this way for another 2-3 months before feeding them normally again.

When I feed Crona (should be tomorrow), I can post his visual portion with feeding pics included.

[BallBuster7653]

Who’s wait! What kind of boa are these and how old. Big snake girl. Sexed too. List each one again for me please. But include their age and sex and if you use forbhreeding it now

[bigsnakegirl785]

Originally Posted by BallBuster7653

Who’s wait! What kind of boa are these and how old. Big snake girl. Sexed too. List each one again for me please. But include their age and sex and if you use forbhreeding it now

Nymeria is a 2015 female sunglow 66% het anery. I do not plan on breeding her for another 2-3 years, at which point she'll be 5-6 years old.

Crona is a 2016 male anery motley 66% het Kahl. If I breed him, it will be next year at the earliest, if he's producing sperm or at least shows interest. Might take longer, as it depends on when he's willing.

Tirel is a 2015 female ghost (poss super) 66% het Kahl. I do not plan on breeding her for another 2-3 years, either.

Howl is a 2010 male ghost, that's all I know. He's ready to breed whenever.

Dominika is a 2008 PROVEN female jungle boa, she's also ready to breed whenever. Her very first (and so far only) litter was at ~7 years old. 19 babies, no stills and no slugs. She was 9.2 lbs before becoming gravid.

Cloud is a 2011 male wild type Boa imperator. I do not ever plan on breeding him, despite his...enthusiasm...

At the moment, I do not plan on breeding due to space restrictions, but I'm hoping to make this breeding season if I can find a new place in time.

[bigsnakegirl785]

Here's Crona's post. Sorry it took so long, but I've been pretty bogged down at work.

The day he arrived, at 4 months old. He was 82 grams, unknown length, but most likely 18"-21" or so, considering Nymeria's length/weight ratio. He started out eating hopper mice every 10-14 days at this time.



This is him at 1 year old. Being male, he has grown slightly slower than Nymeria, but he isn't too far behind. Plus, at 4 months old he was the same size Nymeria was at 1 month, so that's already a headstart for Nymeria.

At this point, he had graduated up to medium adult mice, eating every 2 weeks. I don't have any length or weight records at this time, but 4 months earlier he was 27" and the month before he weighed 148 grams. So a rough guesstimate of 30-31"+ and 150-155 grams seems reasonable.

These photos were taken right after a shed.





With Crona, I opted to skip the jumbo mice, and instead kept him on large adult mice until he could comfortably take weaned rats. This is because Nymeria grew less than one inch during the 4 months I had her on jumbos, but did nearly double her weight.

He just celebrated his 2nd birthday in February. He's been on weaned rats since January, so that's what he was eating when he turned 2. He weighed in at 268 grams during the month of his second birthday, and the following month (which was last month) he came out to 35" and 300 grams.

This photo is from March.



This is the size of meals he's currently getting, this was from his feeding on March 30. Just a couple days late.



From a normal angle, you couldn't tell he ate.



But zoom in at his bulge, and it becomes noticeable, and is small.



His most recent weight was 351 grams, but I suspect some of that may be the weight of his meal, so I'll weigh him again before I feed him again.

[BallBuster7653]

You underfed your snakes considerably. It’s not bad. They are still healthy. But you feed them in s way they have every slow growth weight. For example. I’m guessing he’s boa constrictor imperator. Could be wrong but still applies. Your 2.5 year old bci should be about at least 4 ft and you day he’s 350 grams he should be feeding on small rats or equivalent of 75 grams every 2 weeks or a weaned eat 40 grams weekly. Just my 2 cent. Get me his exact age weight and length I’ll give you a guideline

[bigsnakegirl785]

Originally Posted by BallBuster7653

You underfed your snakes considerably. It’s not bad. They are still healthy. But you feed them in s way they have every slow growth weight. For example. I’m guessing he’s boa constrictor imperator. Could be wrong but still applies. Your 2.5 year old bci should be about at least 4 ft and you day he’s 350 grams he should be feeding on small rats or equivalent of 75 grams every 2 weeks or a weaned eat 40 grams weekly. Just my 2 cent. Get me his exact age weight and length I’ll give you a guideline

I don't have any 2.5 year old boas. I have a 2 year old boa and two 3 year olds (well in June they will be - that's only 2 months away). The 2 year old is 3', perfectly acceptable for his age. The 3 year olds are right around 4'. Again, perfectly acceptable for their age.

The 2 year old male gets a weaned rat 30-45 grams or a day old chick every other week. The larger of my 3 year old females is currently getting the smallest medium rat I have or the largest smalls I have every other week, and the smaller one is getting a small rat or day old chick every other week.

Average growth for a slow grown boa:
1 year: 2.5'-3'
2 years: 3'-4'
3 years: 4'-5'
4 years: 5'-6'
5-6+ years is when they should reach 6.5'-7'+, if they ever get larger

BCC and dwarf localities will grow even slower, and the dwarves will stay smaller.

I also really really...reaaally don't appreciate you coming onto my post, as an inexperienced boa keeper, and telling me how to feed my animals. Constructive criticism is always appreciated, especially if it comes from an experienced keeper/breeder, but it comes off as condescending coming from a source with little to no experience. Also, because you have a history of power feeding, which is the exact opposite of what I'm trying to achieve here.

My aim is to slow growth rate, when comparing to the "average" growth rate where boas often reach/exceed 6' by 3 years old. Which the feeding generally required for this sort of growth is not healthy. It isn't aimed at *keeping* them small, they should still get to their potential with enough time.

I am also completely open to constructive criticism, if it meets my goal of a slow and healthy growth, and is given by a more experienced keeper than I. I am truly not trying to shut out any discourse, but so far you are the only one on this forum giving any feedback, and consistently keep doing so, despite me completely opposing your general mindset behind keeping these animals.

Once everyone poops (they were fed 3 days ago), I will post updated weights here, and see if I have any recent pics of them.

[BallBuster7653]

Lying wrong with that. As long as they’re not loosing any weight or become malnourished. I just prefer larger prey items less often and have an average growth rate. Adult size for my male BCC maybe he’ll get to 7ft. I would like him to teach that within 5 years maybe longer. That’s an inch a month average. I can’t wait for my little guy to be a beat!!

[bigsnakegirl785]

Originally Posted by BallBuster7653

Lying wrong with that. As long as they’re not loosing any weight or become malnourished. I just prefer larger prey items less often and have an average growth rate. Adult size for my male BCC maybe he’ll get to 7ft. I would like him to teach that within 5 years maybe longer. That’s an inch a month average. I can’t wait for my little guy to be a beat!!

They are all growing in an upward curve, the only plateaus I've seen was the time they spent with my mother, and now that they've been with me a few months, they're already picking back up again.

I don't really mind when my boas get large, so long as they get there in a healthy way. I adjust my feedings as I feel necessary, my feeding regimen is more of a guideline. Sometimes they get more, sometimes they get less.

I'm personally very hesitant about larger prey items, because even when spaced out, sometimes they still get overweight. Especially if those prey items are fatty, such as with Guinea pigs or xl+ rats, or nutrient-dense such as with rabbits. I do feed larger prey on occasion, but I always balance it out with smaller prey items after. They'll gain a lot of weight even on just one or two large meals if you aren't careful (such as what I saw with Cloud). You gotta keep in mind, in the wild, they might not eat for many months after a particularly large meal. Feeding these big meals to them every 1-2 weeks is unhealthy and unnatural for them.

[bigsnakegirl785]

So, the weights are in:

Nymeria came in at 716 grams, that's up 33 grams since her weight on 4/20. No defecation yet. She is currently getting a small rat or day old chick every 2 weeks. May push her back out to 3 weeks as I'm happy with her progress.

Tirel came out at 906 grams, that's up 68 grams since 4/5, and she has defecated. That jump isn't surprising as I've been feeding her medium rats rather than her usual smalls. I had to order from Rodent Pro due to some...weird...occurrences (such as an error message saying the company could not deliver to my address), and since they don't vacuum pack, I wanted to go ahead and start her on the smallest mediums I had. She gets one of those every 2 weeks, but I'm not comfortable pushing out her feedings to 3 weeks just yet.

Crona came in at 369 grams, up just 18 grams since 4/5, no defecation yet. Still getting just a weaned rat or day old chick every 2 weeks.

Howl was 1,106 grams when I weighed him after his defecation on 4/30, and came in at 1,101 grams today. He's getting a small rat every 2-3 weeks.