Advice on weight gain for underweight snake

dannybgoode · 09-10-16, 02:17 PM

He looks very healthy. Nice squared off shape to him. As others have said boas are very easy to overfeed as they rarely refuse a meal whether they need one or not.

Here's my Central American Boa imperator for reference-she's around 16 mo and weighs around 285g. She's just been moved up to 2x20g mice (I only feed multiple pretty when she's going up a size-personally I think it's easier on her at first to eat 2x smaller mouse than 1x 40g weaner rat and I'll do the same with the weaners when she's being moved up to adult rats).

Nice looking boa you have. They are supreme snakes-my favourite...

bigsnakegirl785 · 09-11-16, 12:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dandelion

Wow! First off thank you for your wonderful replies!

Well, after reading your posts I don't think he's very underweight. I should have taken a picture of him when I first brought him home. I suspect now that he was much more dehydrated than anything. I post a picture I took today. He was fed yesterday. He's 23" long. I seem to have misplaced my scale but what I'm hearing makes me think he's gonna be just fine.

Looks good to me! Can definitely tell he's been eating adult mice. haha At 23", hopper mice are probably the best sized meal for him atm. I'd feed one every 10-14 days.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dannybgoode

He looks very healthy. Nice squared off shape to him. As others have said boas are very easy to overfeed as they rarely refuse a meal whether they need one or not.

Here's my Central American Boa imperator for reference-she's around 16 mo and weighs around 285g. She's just been moved up to 2x20g mice (I only feed multiple pretty when she's going up a size-personally I think it's easier on her at first to eat 2x smaller mouse than 1x 40g weaner rat and I'll do the same with the weaners when she's being moved up to adult rats).

Nice looking boa you have. They are supreme snakes-my favourite...

I would only feed one smaller meal, doubling up the mice is actually worse than feeding a larger meal. There's a higher fur and and fat ratio between two mice vs a single rat. At 285 grams she should only need a single medium adult or jumbo adult mouse, she could probably even take a weaned rat just fine, if not now then really soon. She's about the same weight as my sunglow was when I started her on jumbos. Always feed a single prey item, even if it's a bit small they'll grow just fine.

dannybgoode · 09-11-16, 12:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigsnakegirl785

Looks good to me! Can definitely tell he's been eating adult mice. haha At 23", hopper mice are probably the best sized meal for him atm. I'd feed one every 10-14 days.

I would only feed one smaller meal, doubling up the mice is actually worse than feeding a larger meal. There's a higher fur and and fat ratio between two mice vs a single rat. At 285 grams she should only need a single medium adult or jumbo adult mouse, she could probably even take a weaned rat just fine, if not now then really soon. She's about the same weight as my sunglow was when I started her on jumbos. Always feed a single prey item, even if it's a bit small they'll grow just fine.

Thanks BSG. I'll bear that in mind...