New baby Suriname coming tomorrow!!! They only had males;( no females...comparison?

BallBuster7653 · 03-12-18, 02:25 PM

Hey everyone,
So I ordered a Suriname BCC from LLLreptile.com. my baby BOY is coming tomorrow morning. Hes a new born. I wanted a female but they decide to call me today and let me know they only have a male left. Reason I wanted a female is because I want a large snake but to grow slowly unlike what I have had in the past such as retics and burms.

nyway what IM getting at is.... I really wanted an 8-10ft boa weighing over 50 pounds. How large does a male get? Do they atv least get 7 ft...mostly how much do they weigh? For exaample.....5 years from birth whta will a male weigh and measure? 10 years? How long does it take before they are fully grown. Im not a novice by any means but I do not have personal experience with Suriname. Sorry for the typing my keyboard is extremely tiny lol. I am just hoping a male will get just as robust, heavy and lengthy as a female, maybe a little less. I would really love to see pics of adult males and adult females.

My name is mike im glad to be a part of this forum. I also would like to hear some others on here feeding schedules, how much how often kind of thing.

Thanks so much

Mike

Albert Clark · 03-12-18, 04:55 PM

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bigsnakegirl785 · 03-15-18, 06:27 AM

Unfortunately, getting a baby, you can't be guaranteed getting an 8'-10' boa, even with a female BCC. It would be more likely, but even BCC may stay below 8' as an adult. 50 lbs is also extremely heavy for a boa that size, expect 20-35 lbs for a boa 8'-10'.

A male will average 5'-7', but even a male could reach 10'. 10' is about the max I'd expect out of any boa, though there are loads of stories of larger boas, they're mostly unsubstantiated. The vast majority of boas won't reach/exceed 8'. Expect 10-15 lbs for a 7-footer.

My feeding schedules for boas are meals that leave little to no difference in girth immediately after swallowing, at this frequency:

Birth-1 year: 10-14 days
1 year: 14+ days
2 years: 3 weeks
3+ years: 4-6 weeks

I also avoid pinky mice/rats, jumbo mice/rats, Guinea pigs, pigs, and hamsters due to fat content. Most adults should be fine eating a large rat 150-275 grams (the biggest I've fed is 290 grams), my 7' female has been doing quite well on a rat of that size or a 1/2 lb rabbit (which is ~227 grams).

MichaelRobinson · 03-16-18, 09:08 AM

birth to one year feed every 7 days. dont listen to 10-14 days thats ridiculous.

BallBuster7653 · 03-18-18, 12:25 PM

I’m very Well educated on the feeding of snakes I even wrote a thesis on it and how much and how often they should feed if you have a 7 foot full-grown Redtail boa it should be eating temperature sent of its body weight so if it’s at least 10 pounds then you should be eating a 1 pound rabbit every two weeks I hope you feed at least that

TRD · 03-18-18, 01:52 PM

Metabolism isn't the same across snake taxa (far from it in fact), neither does feeder weight tell you anything about the composition of it.

Pedroo · 03-19-18, 08:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MichaelRobinson

birth to one year feed every 7 days. dont listen to 10-14 days thats ridiculous.

True. I agree totally

bigsnakegirl785 · 03-21-18, 05:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BallBuster7653

I’m very Well educated on the feeding of snakes I even wrote a thesis on it and how much and how often they should feed if you have a 7 foot full-grown Redtail boa it should be eating temperature sent of its body weight so if it’s at least 10 pounds then you should be eating a 1 pound rabbit every two weeks I hope you feed at least that

A 7' boa eating a 1 lb rabbit every 2 weeks is overfeeding. No boa over 1 year should be eating every week, and adults should not eat every other week. My 7' girl gets a single large rat (150-275 grams) or a 1/2 lb rabbit every 4-5 weeks. She is at least 10 lbs, but her last weight was 13.5. She bred successfully in 2015 at only 9.2 lbs - had 19 babies no stills no slugs as a first time mom at 7 years old, and she was getting a large rat monthly by her breeder. She was then subsequently pushed back to breeding weight rapidly with multiple prey items (anywhere from every 2 weeks to every 6 weeks), but I didn't plan on breeding her that season, so I lowered her food intake. She gets the occasional 1 lb rat since I no longer have reliable access to rabbits, but it is very far from her usual meal.

(The meal weights pretty reliably tell you the size of the prey item, but not always. You want something roughly equal to their girth that leaves little to no difference in girth immediately after swallowing. If you want to go even deeper down the rabbit hole - no pun intended - then the nutritional content can even vary between identical-sized prey items depending on what the supplier has been feeding. A well-fed rat/rabbit with a balanced diet will be more nutritious than a rat/rabbit fed with a less nutritious diet.)

My adults eat every 4-5 weeks, except my smallest. He's only 4' so he gets a small rat every 3 weeks, but I suspect he was fed specifically to stay small by his previous owner(s). He has gained some weight while in my care, but I don't think he's grown any in length.

10-14 days from birth is perfectly reasonable. 7 days is acceptable up to 1 year old, but unnecessary. After 1 year, you'll want to move to 14 days. My 2-3 year olds eat every 3 weeks, and adults 4-6 weeks.

BallBuster7653 · 03-21-18, 12:13 PM

big snake girl, you misunderstoood..Im going to make a post on this..I even had bob clark himself say he was very impressed by this regimen......Check the thread im going to make a post about this....but if you 7' girl is 10 pounds....shes almost fullgrown , not sure what kind of boa you have...but adults get 10% every 2 weeks....or 20% a month....or 5 % a week I just go by 2 weeks.....so she should get ayt least a 1 pound rabbit every 2 weeks, or a 2 pounder every month....You should accurately weigh your snke and its prey to be sure.

BallBuster7653 · 03-21-18, 12:14 PM

Also from bith to 6 months ita preferable to feed every 5-7 days....but my formula from exmaple a newborn 75 gram boa need 1/3 its weight every 2 weeks....so 25 every 2 weeks...or to make sure it eats once a week you feed 12-15 gram hopper or rat once a week...

bigsnakegirl785 · 03-23-18, 12:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BallBuster7653

big snake girl, you misunderstoood..Im going to make a post on this..I even had bob clark himself say he was very impressed by this regimen......Check the thread im going to make a post about this....but if you 7' girl is 10 pounds....shes almost fullgrown , not sure what kind of boa you have...but adults get 10% every 2 weeks....or 20% a month....or 5 % a week I just go by 2 weeks.....so she should get ayt least a 1 pound rabbit every 2 weeks, or a 2 pounder every month....You should accurately weigh your snke and its prey to be sure.

10 lbs is a guesstimate based off of her 2015 pre-gravidity weight of 9.2 lbs, her 13.5 lb weight at acquisition, and the fact I've been dieting her for about a year to slim her out (she was visibly chunky when I got her), so I'm assuming she may have lost a pound or two. I do need to get a scale large enough to weigh her, but she very well could still be above 10 lbs. She turns 10 years old in June or July, so she's definitely mature, she didn't breed for the first time until she was 7+ years old.

I will read your post, but for now, based purely off what you're saying here...a 1 lb rabbit every 2 weeks or a 2 lb rabbit monthly *as the normal prey size* is too much food imho. I might feed her a 1 lb rabbit monthly, but that's only with large rats and 1/2 lb rabbits every other feeding. I wouldn't feed a rabbit that large more than maybe 2 or 3 times a year, considering she gets 9-12 meals a year.

BallBuster7653 · 04-04-18, 10:58 AM

We’ll get her exact weight and you’ll know what to feed. If you want her to loose weight fine but you may wanna.check the sex because even a bci females get much bigger than 7ft especially at 10 years old. Seems like a male to ne

bigsnakegirl785 · 04-07-18, 02:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BallBuster7653

We’ll get her exact weight and you’ll know what to feed. If you want her to loose weight fine but you may wanna.check the sex because even a bci females get much bigger than 7ft especially at 10 years old. Seems like a male to ne

You know, you guessing that she's a male is hilarious to me, because she's a proven female...she had a litter in 2015 or 2016. Pretty sure I've mentioned it before.

Not every female gets big, and not every male stays small. Size is not an indicator of sex.

Plus, at 10 years old she could still very well grow another foot or more, but I'm not really pushing her to grow because I want her to live a long life. She's likely not going to get much bigger, but 7' is perfectly average for an adult female, idk where you're getting your information from. Average female size is usually quoted as 6'-8'. Very, very few boas get over 8'.

BallBuster7653 · 04-08-18, 06:36 AM

I know plenty about boas and most snakes in general. There are many different sub species and that’s where I was curious and the adult size does matter and many grow over 8 ft. I’m not talking about power feeding. But pure genetics. I just think we have different views on feeding. Seems a healthy feeding regimen to me would be feeding too much to you. Let’s test it

Ok 2 examples you tell me what you would feed and how often .....

A Suriname redtailed BCC is 1 year old and about 30”-3ft. HE is not going to breed and weighs about 150 grams. How much and how often ? What to feed

Next one .....

A female BCI is 7.5 ft and 8 years old. She weighs in at 20 pounds. What would you feed and how often. Also she is not a breeder either.

bigsnakegirl785 · 04-08-18, 02:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BallBuster7653

I know plenty about boas and most snakes in general. There are many different sub species and that’s where I was curious and the adult size does matter and many grow over 8 ft. I’m not talking about power feeding. But pure genetics. I just think we have different views on feeding. Seems a healthy feeding regimen to me would be feeding too much to you. Let’s test it

Ok 2 examples you tell me what you would feed and how often .....

A Suriname redtailed BCC is 1 year old and about 30”-3ft. HE is not going to breed and weighs about 150 grams. How much and how often ? What to feed

Next one .....

A female BCI is 7.5 ft and 8 years old. She weighs in at 20 pounds. What would you feed and how often. Also she is not a breeder either.

I know you say boas often get over 8'...but do you have any actual experience with these snakes? You have owned a few, but I believe you've said you haven't owned them for long at any one time.

If you started a thread where people posted their big boas, yeah, you're gonna get a lot of results. Because people will see the thread and feel the need to comment. You'll get a lot of smaller adults posted with no size information (heck you're likely to even get hatchlings included despite "big boas" being in the description), 6'-7' boas being claimed as 10'+, and a few boas here and there at 8'+. 6'-7' is the most common size for boas such as commons (Boa imperator), Surinames/Guyana, etc. A lot of them may be obese as well, making it easier to claim larger sizes vs a healthy weight individual. A big girth makes it easy to overestimate their size.

Many boas also stay under 6'. BCA, most localities of BI, some localities of BCC will stay around 5', and BCS. BCL are a very lean boa, but can get up to 7', they just won't have as much girth as another boa of the same size. Hog Islands and Colombians are the exceptions to the BI species, as they get 6'-8', most of the other localities stay 3'-5' and rarely ever get larger.

You can power feed them all you want, but if a boa isn't meant to get over 8', it won't, and it will live a much shorter life in the meantime. You can feed like I do, and it won't limit their adult size. If they're meant to get 8', they will. It just might take longer than 4 years.

I feed breeders and non-breeders the same, the only difference with breeders is if they are of age and I plan on breeding them that year I might not fast them and even then there's little difference.

A 30"-36" boa is not going to be 150 grams unless it's underweight or emaciated, so I'd probably take it very slow and gently bring up its feeding until it's a normal weight. Probably a small meal weekly until it looks good, and then after that a meal roughly equal to its girth every 2 weeks. You'd expect closer to 300-500 grams for a boa of that size.

Considering a 20 lb 7.5' female is a bit on the heavy side, I wouldn't worry so much about how I feed her. I'd be more likely to fast her than a normal-weight boa of her size. If she looked lean in body tone despite being so heavy, I'd feed her normally. A .5-1 lb rabbit or large rat every 4-5 weeks, fast or no fast during the winter depending on if she was of a good weight.

If there are any other factors that may change my mind on feeding, that would depend on the individual snake and situation.