Rescued a Boa, need some help.

Cmwells90 · 06-02-15, 02:47 PM

So last night I saw this sales post on FB for a guy selling a Hypo male Boa. I was totally into this idea cause I wanna use one if my breeding project and he's an adult so it's perfect.

However I picked him up late last night, he's about as long as my 3 yr old female BCI, 5.5 ft ish. But he is REALLY skinny, like corn snake size. He clearly hasn't been taken care of properly (big surprise). Well I've never really taken in an unhealthy animal, but I want to try to nurse him back to a good health. He's incredibly lathargic, which I would assume would be from improper feeding. I can handle the stuck shed and hygine of the cage, but I wanna make sure I bulk him back up properly. I've heard that you don't want to rush them straight to full sized prey items, is this true? Start small and work it up and he bulks up? I know he's not going to be ready to breed this year, but if I can get him back to health, do you think it'll negativly effect his breeding abilities? I'll have more questions later I'm sure, and I'll post picks when I get it all started and cleaned XD.

Thanks!!

Jim Smith · 06-02-15, 03:12 PM

Just keep in mind that bringing ANY unknown snake into your collection involves risk to your existing animal(s). This is especially true if the animal in question is not in peak condition or is showing signs of illness or long term stress. You really want to be careful and keep your new snake quarantined away from your existing snakes. As much as you want to rescue any animal in bad conditions, I'm not sure I would want to use them in my future breeding program. Just a thought...

Cmwells90 · 06-02-15, 03:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim Smith

Just keep in mind that bringing ANY unknown snake into your collection involves risk to your existing animal(s). This is especially true if the animal in question is not in peak condition or is showing signs of illness or long term stress. You really want to be careful and keep your new snake quarantined away from your existing snakes. As much as you want to rescue any animal in bad conditions, I'm not sure I would want to use them in my future breeding program. Just a thought...

Yea, my quantine is my mom's house, so he's no where near my current stock! If I got him back to a good weight, even a year n a half later, it still wouldn't be good to breed him? If that's the case I may just sell him when I get him back up to weight. I don't need another pet : /.

bigsnakegirl785 · 06-05-15, 10:57 PM

Yeah, you want to start with way undersized prey and slowly work them up. I'd do either a weaned rat or a small rat for 1-2 feedings and then start working up to large rats, which should be the size you'd want for a 5.5' boa of normal weight. It may take a few months to get back to full-sized prey if it's as thin as you say. You can feed every 7-10 days until the snake is no longer emaciated, then I'd go to a 14-day schedule until it's back to normal weight. Once the snake is fully healed you'll want to put it on a 3-6 week schedule.

And I agree, I wouldn't use a snake that underweight in any future breeding projects, as their health has probably been permanently affected.

Cmwells90 · 06-06-15, 10:39 AM

[QUOTE=bigsnakegirl785;964412]Once the snake is fully healed you'll want to put it on a 3-6 week schedule.
QUOTE]

This statement concerns me, I have several Boas, many adult. and I don't feed ANY of them every 3-6 weeks. usually 10%-15% body weight every 12-15 days. Don't you think 3-6 is a little too long to wait to feed again? Unless you're feeding like 20%-25% of the body weight. Idk, maybe I'm wrong but that's what I've always done.

bigsnakegirl785 · 06-06-15, 01:33 PM

[QUOTE=Cmwells90;964429]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigsnakegirl785

Once the snake is fully healed you'll want to put it on a 3-6 week schedule.
QUOTE]

This statement concerns me, I have several Boas, many adult. and I don't feed ANY of them every 3-6 weeks. usually 10%-15% body weight every 12-15 days. Don't you think 3-6 is a little too long to wait to feed again? Unless you're feeding like 20%-25% of the body weight. Idk, maybe I'm wrong but that's what I've always done.

No. 10-15% is too much for even a baby boa constrictor to be eating, that's for baby ball pythons, not boas. My adult, nearly 4 year old boa eats a rabbit 2-6% of his weight or a 170-190 gram rat that is about his girth without leaving a bulge every 4 weeks and is fasted 3 months/90 days out of the year starting last year. Here's his thread, you can see he isn't underweight. He's been on this diet 2 years this December. He's 6'3" and 8.5 lbs, so a perfect weight for his size.

Baby boas under 1 year old: feed a prey item about their girth without leaving a bulge, or a barely noticeable one (up to 1.5x girth) every 7-10 days

Boas 1-3 years: feed a prey item that does not leave a bulge every 10-14 days

Boas 3+ years: a prey item that does not leave a bulge every 3-6 weeks

Boa constrictors have extremely slow metabolisms, and can thrive on a lot less feeding than the conventional feeding methods.

Cmwells90 · 06-06-15, 01:52 PM

And this is why keeping snakes can be a pain, haha! So many different things to remember with each species! Do you know of any studies done on their slower matabolism? I prefer to have facts I can research, instead of taking someones word, no offense.

bigsnakegirl785 · 06-07-15, 06:49 PM

I was advised this feeding method, which iirc is discussed in the book The Complete Boa Constrictor and maybe the newer one The More Complete Boa Constrictor as well. I've seen many people from various sources feed once a month as well, with success (as in, they had lean, muscular boas even feeding just once a month).

I would say, you could probably go as often as every 2 weeks feeding rats if you don't feed huge ones, but with rabbits I really honestly wouldn't feed any more often than every 3 weeks. I personally choose to feed 4 weeks regardless of food choice for mine as it seems to work best for him. He's still young, so he'll be sticking with a 4 week schedule, but once he's an adult I may move him onto a 5-6 week schedule as his metabolism will continue to drop from now until he's completely mature. Feeding a rat every 3 weeks would be better than bi-weekly, but you can tweak it for your individual boa.

Rabbits are a lot more nutrient-heavy and they can gain weight extremely easily. When I fed my BCI a rabbit just 2 weeks after his last one, he gained over 1 lb in weight that took over a year for me to shed off. He went from nearly 10 lbs and rather chubby, to a lean 8.5 lbs. I found that 4 weeks is best for him, but it could vary between boas. Some could stay lean on 3 weeks, some may need to go longer than 4 weeks on rabbits.

As they get older, prey to girth ratio becomes more important than percentage of body weight. I highly doubt my BCI could even get a rat or rabbit 10-15% of his body weight down. That 4.5 oz rabbit I fed him was close to his girth and maybe 3% of his body weight. The rats I feed him are becoming a bit small, but are still right around his girth and they weigh 4.5-5% of his weight. He probably won't need any bigger rats until he reaches 6.5', which he's still got a few inches to go before that happens.