BallBuster, my issue does not lie with having an equation. My issue is that your regimen is power feeding. If having a percentage helps you to care for your animals, then great. Just keep in mind, that boas are not built to eat the same amount of food throughout the year, and be willing to adjust feeding during winter months or if your snakes become too chunky. I would also space out your feedings by a lot more than your current frequencies. If you're going to feed larger meals, you need to be feeding them even less often than what I normally suggest.
I personally prefer mid-sized meals, because if you feed this big huge meal to a boa, but space it out properly for them to digest the entire meal before eating again, that snake is not getting enough nutrition long term.
Alternatively, if you feed those big meals and you feed them too often, that snake is not getting enough time to fully digest their meal, and will be getting an influx of nutrition higher than they can properly deal with. A whole rat 10-15% of a boa's weight has more proportionate nutrition for a snake than an entire meal from a fast food restaurant would have for a person.
This is why, if I feed a larger-than-normal meal, I first wait extra long to offer the next meal, and then offer a smaller meal and wait the normal amount of time. The smaller meal and extra wait time offers balance to the overload of calories and fat that larger meal offers, but then they're also having normal sized meals and normal wait times between meals after that, so that they aren't going too long between meals. They make the most use out of the entire meal, without causing excess fat storage, which cannot always be determined by viewing them from the outside.
As far as a Suriname, BCC are a lot more sensitive to feeding mistakes than B(C)I are. They are much more prone to regurgitation if fed too much, or fed too fatty of prey items. Some individuals can handle it better, so it may just come down to fitness of their genes: maybe some lines are more hardy when it comes to feeding than others. But, the common theme I see concerning BCC is to feed them smaller meals more sparingly. Not more.
I have also weighed a fair bit of my prey items, and I get my prey items from sources that sell their feeders based off of weight. I have a pretty good idea of what I feed my snakes, and it is nowhere near what you feed your's. I have not yet kept a constrictor (besides my retic) that needs significantly more food than I feed my boa constrictors. All of my snakes get meals equal to or less than their girth on average. Sometimes they may get slightly larger meals, but besides in the beginning when I didn't know any better, I have never fed 1.5x the girth to any of my snakes (besides my retic).
For the past 4 years, I have fed my 6.5', 8.5-9 lb boa regular large rats (150-275 grams on average and largest I've had was 290 grams) and 1/4-1/2 lb rabbits. He gets 8-9 meals a year. That's 1,017-2,610 grams of food a year, which is 24-63% of his weight yearly, going off of his last recorded weight of 4,144 grams. That's based off the smallest weight of 113 grams (1/4 lb rabbits) if I fed that every single meal 9 times a year, and the heaviest weight of 290 grams if I fed that 9 times a year. He does not need more than that. Now, my female gets even less than that, considering she's quite a bit heavier than him, but gets similar-sized meals. I've only had her about 1.5 years now, though, so I am still tweaking feeding with her to find what's right for her.
My growing babies, on the other hand, do get more food. The first 9-11 months I'm normally feeding hopper mice (7-12) grams, at which point I have seen them sitting at 145-170 grams. The rest of the year they will be on weaned/small adult mice (12-17 grams). That is a little harder to reliably guess percentage of weight, since they at least double their weight during this time. But, those meals sit at 6-8% of their weight, on average. The largest I've ever fed to my young boas was 11%, but that was balanced out with an extra 2 weeks before feeding them again, and then their normal-sized meals afterwards. Assuming they got 6-8% the entire year, and ate exactly 26 times a year (that's on a biweekly schedule, I don't feed my boas weekly, ever), that's maybe 156-208% of their weight in that first year. If I'm correct in thinking you can just multiply 6-8% by 26 meals. If a different equation should be used someone let me know, I haven't taken math classes in a couple of years. XD
So, yes, baby boas do need more food, and I do give it to them...but 4x their weight a year? And for adults, too? Sorry, not buying it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BallBuster7653
Also boaGirl I am not about power feeding or getting thjem to grow fster t atll!!! I want a alrge snake but just s far as genetics and a good feeding regimen give, nothing more. BUt your saying by suriname after a year should be 2.5- 3 ft? hes 3 months old I think hes 28" they were feeding hoppers weekly...so IM guesssing 28" 3 months old? or is he older thn that? Hes 28" and 100 grams exactly. 1/2" girth. I would relly lik to be exct with when he ws born but of course LLreptile isnt sure. ..but anyway hes already almost 2.5 ft anf he cant be anywhere near a year old can he?
IM tinking...now hes 28" im thinking/estimating this:
now 28"- a year from now 4 ft
then 5 ft 2 ears from now.... 6ft from 3 years from now and in about 5 years i would hope for a 7 ft 10-15 pounds nice adult male suriname...thats my estimate..
but i base my feedings by their weight every month I record their weight girth and length and adjust to my regimen.
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Whether or not you realize it, the feeding regimen you are utilizing would be considered power feeding. It well beyond their metabolic need for food, and will quickly catch up to them.
It is very easy to get a snake overweight, and when care sheets and websites are throwing out these humongous weights for snakes...yeah, it can be difficult to tell your boa is overweight. If you think 30 lbs for a 6' boa is normal, or 50-60 lbs for an 8-footer, you're not going to be worried that you're feeding too much. I have even seen a 6' boa as heavy as 60 lbs, 6x or more the normal, healthy weight you'd expect for a boa of that size. No amount of exercise or warmer temperatures can make up for that gross amount of overfeeding. Snakes are incredibly, incredibly good at packing on weight, not so good at losing it.
As far as a guess on his age...really no way to tell. Boas are born at different sizes, and grow at different rates. If LLLReptile bred that snake and saw the birth in their facility, I see no reason to doubt its age. If they are not sure, then there is literally no way to even guess his age. He could be 3 months, he could be a year, could be 1.5 years.
BCC are generally considered slow growers, so 4' at 1 year, 5' at 2 years, and 6' by 3 years is some insane growth. You can get them to grow faster than that, but not by much. A boa does not need to reach 6' by 3 years old, and I'd argue growth like that is unhealthy, especially considering the feeding regimen being used in your case. I don't expect any of my boas to reach 6' before 5-6 years old, and they still have the chance to get 7'-8'+ with time, if they are meant to get that large.
You may find
this podcast interesting (sorry, I don't think they have a translated version, but here it is if you want to give it a listen).
As far as breeding, I think you're going to run into a lot of heartbreak and problems if you try breeding a female feeding her the way you're currently doing. As I mentioned elsewhere, overweight/obese boas are at a higher risk of not breeding, slugging out, or dying while gravid. Some females make it through, but most of the instances I've seen of snakes dying from obesity have been currently gravid females. It is especially risky for them than a male or non-breeding female to be fed so heavily.
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