Quote:
Originally Posted by Aaron_S
What does length have to do with weight of a prey item? Wouldn't it be best to weigh the snake and use a percentage of that to figure out what size meal to have? You can have a length-y "fat" build or a length-y "skinny" build, it's still relative to the weight of the prey item.
Personally I'd use about 15% of the body weight of the snake on a 3 week schedule.
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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.
Quote:
Originally Posted by GyGbeetle
BSG: The boas were babies when they got big. Neither of them are even a year yet! They just really like to eat. So your suggestion of feeding babies every 7-10 days I think will be helpful. We have 3 more babies that we've been feeding every 7 days (all of our babies are fed every 7 days, so I don't know what happened with these 2. But they're leaning out now, on every 2 weeks feed, so that's good).
For the new one, Hennessy, I'm worried about throwing in a rabbit. Will she go back to rats once she gets a taste for the better stuff? I don't want to confuse her at all. She's had 1 feeding with us, and she took it like a champ, no regurg or issues. It was a jumbo rat, which is what her previous human claimed to be feeding her. Honestly, I don't think he really was. We picked her up from ... I can't even describe it. They smoked inside the house. She had no heat source. Her enclosure was filthy, and she was curled up in a spot in the this HUGE cage, almost in fear. Still angry about it. So I take what he said her feeding schedule was with a grain of salt. All I can control is what we give her moving forward.
I just found a good online rat source. Do you know of a good online rabbit source?
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Actually, I advised 10-14, the usual advise is 7-10 days, but I feel that's too often for a baby.
I get my rabbits for free from my father, so unfortunately I do not have an online source to share. Layne Labs sells rabbits, but their shipping is cost-prohibitive for me (I live on the opposite coast), I'm not sure what it would be like for you. Rodent Pro also sells them, but I'm leery about using or advising them.
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