Shedding and growth rate

[Mugwump]

Hello all,

I'm new here, and fairly new to boa ownership, so I thought I might be able to profit from some of the wisdom and experience quite a few of you possess.

Kind of a trivial question here...more of a personal interest query than a life or death matter, but my little Guyana BCC shed today, and the size difference between pre-shed and post, especially girth-wise, was ridiculous. It almost looked like a different snake. This was the first time I've noticed such an explosive shed-related burst of growth (might have to do with the fact that I only started feeding him rats about a month or so ago). So my question is, do boas (or snakes in general) manifest growth continuously, or only show new growth after a shed (as if the old skin is containing and compressing the new growth until it can no longer do so)? I hope that isn't too confusingly worded.


I've included an old pic of him just for kicks. Cute fella, isn't he?


Sorry about that, got kicked off my internet connection before I could attach. Also, apologies for the terrible quality of the pic.