bci growth rate

[Reticsrule]

i bought a baby colombian bci in a pet store(Petco) back in april 2004. when i bought him he was 21". now he is about 30". im not sure but i swear when i bought him they said he was around 6 months old. 21" seems very small to me for a 6 month old bci. anyway i was wondering if his growth rate seems normal to you guys and if there is any way that he was 6 months old when i bought him.(I dont know if its a male or female)

[greenman1867]

I suspect if he was 21' in april, he should be 36-40 inches now. Of course husbandry has a lot to do with growth rates. Whats the cage temps? What are you feeding (size and type) and how often?

I don't think he was 6 months old when you got him, more like 6 weeks I bet.

I am no expert though, but i am sure if I mis spoke someone will correct me.

Shawn

[Reticsrule]

he is being housed in a fiberglass tank. the temp. is around 87 degrees. until a couple of weeks ago i was feeding him pretty small mice once a week.(i think they were fuzzies). then i found out that they were too small so was feeding him two a week. i then fed him an adult mouse once a week for the past three weeks. now im out of mice and im buying more today at the reptile show. im definetly going to move him to rats and pretty big ones at that because he took the adult mice with no problems.

[varanus69]

my bci's are about the same age if it was actually 6 months old at the time..i feed mine 1/2 pound rabbits and the don't evan really make a buldge in there stomachs any more...they were 27 inches when i got them in august 04 and as of jan 5th the female was 42inches and the male was 39 inches thats alot of growth.. you need to step up the feeding on your little guy there...

[Reticsrule]

well i just got back from the reptile show and i had to get large mice. the small rats were a little too big. the guy told me that i could feed my boa two large mice in one feeding once a week.

[varanus69]

well just thought i would add one more thing.. i measured my female boa again today using the snake measurer program and she is now 48.15 inches.. on jan 5trh she was only 42 inches.. so rabbits really help with growth 6 inches in 1.5 months

[JdmAllMotorHatc]

yea really growth just depends on feeding like the others are saying, you could always just step up and power feed him for awhile, a lot of people hate others that do this but if hes not growing like he should itll get him back on track

[greenman1867]

Small Rats may be a tad big (right now but will be okay in a couple months if you move to rats ASAP), but if possible go by rat weight. Get Weaned Rats aprox 40-45g. Get 10 of those and 10 50-55g. That will do you for a few months amd you will see marked imporovements in the growth of your Boa.

I would go to a 5 or 6 day feeding schedule. Also up your temps to 92 -95 deg F at the basking spot.

I wouldn't worry too much, but IMO it is really important to feed rats not mice. Do not power feed, you will cut years off your Boas life, also you risk regurg which id gross and unhealthy. Just try getting rats the size above and feed the 40-45g ones every 5-6 days for a couple months then switch up to the bigger ones.

Shawn

[Reticsrule]

do you guys think that feeding him two large mice in one feeding a week will work for now?

[greenman1867]

I am sure they will do fine until you can get some rats.
Do you have a good digital scale? If you can find one its great to keep track of your snakes weight as well as your foods weight.

Let us know what your Boa weighs if possible.

[D J N]

Most the B.c.i's I've had were at the 3 foot mark by 6 months, the only exception was a runt male I got off a buddy it was 17 when born he was tiny.

[Reticsrule]

well i just wanted to say that i just fed my boa two of those large mice i got at the show and he ate them with no problems at all.