Quote:
Originally Posted by bigsnakegirl785
No, because the older and bigger a boa gets the less food it should be eating. An adult boa eating 10-15% of its weight is eating more food than a baby eating 10-15% of their weight. This is taking into consideration a rat/rabbit 10-15% of an adult's weight is bigger compared to their girth, and adults have only a fraction of the metabolism of a baby. None of my adults get anything larger than a regular large rat (150-270 grams on average, no larger than 290 grams at the most). If they require rats any larger than that, I do a mix of larges and whatever size rabbit I deem necessary, but I'm not thinking I'll go with a rabbit over 1 lb even if I had a monster 8'-9' boa.
That means my 13.5 lb female is getting rats 2.4-4.7% of her weight. She has yet to be fed rabbits, but I'm thinking 1/2-1 lb rabbits every other feeding will be sufficient. I will have to tweak that as I see how her body tone does over an extended period of time. So the rabbits are 3.7-7.4% of her weight. She gets one of those every 4 weeks.
My 8.5-9 lb male gets the large rats and 4-10 ounce rabbits once every 4-5 weeks and is fasted 90 days each winter. At his lightest he's getting rats 3.9-7.5% and rabbits 2.9-7.4% of his weight. At his heaviest that's rats 3.7-7.1% and rabbits 2.8-6.9% of his weight.
Feeding an adult 15% of its weight every 3 weeks is a good way to obesity and fatty liver disease.
I do also want to add in the case of the smaller male, the rats are very close to his girth. A rat 15% of his weight could easily be 2-2.5x his girth. The rats are about 3/4 of the female's girth, and a full 1 lb rabbit would likely be about equal to or larger than her girth. A rat/rabbit 15% of her weight would easily be 1.5-2x her girth. Vin Russo says in his book that all meals should leave a barely noticeable lump. These size meals would leave a quite considerable bump...
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That's a lot of words for not answering my question. I asked, what does length have to do weight of a prey item? You went through a lot of numbers and explanation that didn't prove your original fact.
For the record, I made a recommendation for this specific snake, not your well taken care of since birth snakes. That is why I went with a 15% weight of prey item every 3 weeks. That's a regime I'd begin with and then move further out. There's also a possibility this snake may be bred which is why I'd want a little more weight on her now and then slide back her feeding amount/frequency.
I do not like leaving large lumps in my snakes either so I'd trim down to a 10% food item to avoid that.
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