What breed of snake is my snake

[amousley1]

Looks like a sibling to my mutt boa! (Terrible lighting in my picture though)

[CrotalusR#1]

That's funny, so when an anaconda eats a capybara it's detrimental to it's health? So what's the biggest meal for an 18+foot retic a big rat rabbit?lol
Nathan

[Tsubaki]

Originally Posted by bigsnakegirl785

All good points. I've found this method best for me and my boa constrictor.

The mouse is still rather large, though. It appears more than 1.5x the width of that snake.

I'm glad you found a method that works for you and your animal, it does not sound like a bad method. I agree there are many overweight snakes, and i can assure you that is from overfeeding, not larger prey. I feed larger prey, but i do not have a standard feeding schedule. It varies from snake to snake, and from time to time, i'll share how i feed my snakes in case anyone is curious.

I can not set my calender in advance, when i feed my animals is not always the same for each of them. I set it per meal. Basically put: I never offer food in shed or when mating, i try to avoid offering food if they don't forage. I set a minimum amount of time between meals, and a maximum amount of time depending on age/gender/species. When that minimum time passes, i feed them as soon as they forage, if they do not forage i feed them at the maximum time.

Never had an overweight animal in my life, and never had a skinny one either. While using this method i noticed, more laid back animals eating less often. While more high strung individuals, often ate at start of the minimum. All while retaining a proper weight. The balance of that personalization makes it feel right to me, but this method might not be for everyone, to each their own

Looking at the picture, i'd say the mouse is about the same girth as the thickest part of the snake (which is not visible in the picture) It's dead and laying flat, it looks thicker than it is.

[SnoopySnake]

Originally Posted by CrotalusR#1

That's funny, so when an anaconda eats a capybara it's detrimental to it's health? So what's the biggest meal for an 18+foot retic a big rat rabbit?lol
Nathan

No one was talking about anacondas or retics, they were talking about boa constrictors.

I have heard what bigsnakegirl said too, but more so I hear that bcc's need smaller meals than bci because they have slower metabolisms.

That said, I agree with everyone else. Looks like a mix of various boa constrictor locale.

[CrotalusR#1]

SnoopySnake

theirs just know way boas should only eat prey size as big around as there mid body. anacondas are boas by the way....gaboons have super slow metabolisms but they still have been know to eat stray cats, Royal antelope, and monkeys!.. if a snake is kept in a proper set up they can very easily digest large prey items. if there not being kept properly than i would go with what some of you are saying but if that's the case, probably shouldn't be keeping the snake in the first place. my boa used to eat huge prey items and was extremely healthy.

[poison123]

Didn't read everybody's comments.

Based off of my experience with BCIs, they tend to bloat fairly easy. They may have a faster metabolism than BCCs but not by much. Candas and bcis are in two completely different genus so comparing them is inaccurate imo.

[SnoopySnake]

Originally Posted by poison123

Didn't read everybody's comments.

Based off of my experience with BCIs, they tend to bloat fairly easy. They may have a faster metabolism than BCCs but not by much. Candas and bcis are in two completely different genus so comparing them is inaccurate imo.

This is what I was getting at, lol.

Originally Posted by CrotalusR#1

gaboons have super slow metabolisms but they still have been know to eat stray cats, Royal antelope, and monkeys!.. if a snake is kept in a proper set up they can very easily digest large prey items.

Also just because they do this in the wild doesn't mean its best. They're opportunistic feeders, they'll eat whatever they can find that fits, they don't go by whats best for their health. I also don't think gaboons are comparable either as its a completely different type of snake.

[CrotalusR#1]

Also just because they do this in the wild doesn't mean its best. They're opportunistic feeders, they'll eat whatever they can find that fits, they don't go by whats best for their health. I also don't think gaboons are comparable either as its a completely different type of snake.

i mentioned gaboons because some one mention slow metabolisms, so yes in that sense they can be compared..... leave it man to change in captivity whats been working for millions of years in nature..... im done on this post so please don't respond to this, i really don't want to have to do another reply, thank you.

[Mikoh4792]

I'm going to have to agree with Snoopysnake. They are opportunistic feeders, and they don't consciously eat to live a long, and healthy life. They just need to eat whatever they can to reach breeding age and pass on their genes. Derek Roddy, a member of this site has been feeding his snakes smaller and more frequent meals for some time and said he has noticed an increase in longevity and overall fitness of his animals.

What happens in "nature" isn't exactly always what's best, but is what is necessary to survive.

[CrotalusR#1]

Mikoh4792
I agree that smaller and more frequent meals are probably better, and that's what I personally do, but the fact that people are saying it's bad to give a snake a meal bigger around than there mid body is just ridiculous. regardless of the species. A meal that is way to big can defiantly be bad and sometimes be fatal... I have such a hard time believing that a snake that can easily be eating goats or pigs would do better on prey that are like snacks compared to what they can and should be eating... Snakes are made to eat large prey hence the whole the structure of there jaw, head and body lol... You can't really argue nature! After all isn't that what where trying to imitate in all of our cages? Why stop and start making the changes when it comes to food? You don't see any one making humidity, temp, and husbandry changes do you? why, because the the way all those things are in nature is the way that works best...why fix something that's not broken? Lol I hate that saying but it fits .
Nathan

[Dilema]

I own Carpets which can take huge food items. Personally all of mine get large meals less often. Judging by some of the comments on this thread some of you would be amazed at what size prey a carpet can actually comfortably take. I have seen so many feeding pictures on forums where people are feeding 3 or 4 times smaller than i would be feeding the same snake.

Just my opinion and it works for me and my snakes

[bigsnakegirl785]

Originally Posted by CrotalusR#1

SnoopySnake

theirs just know way boas should only eat prey size as big around as there mid body. anacondas are boas by the way....gaboons have super slow metabolisms but they still have been know to eat stray cats, Royal antelope, and monkeys!.. if a snake is kept in a proper set up they can very easily digest large prey items. if there not being kept properly than i would go with what some of you are saying but if that's the case, probably shouldn't be keeping the snake in the first place. my boa used to eat huge prey items and was extremely healthy.

I'm not say they can't physically eat these prey items, but snakes are already quite a bit overfed in captivity. Smaller prey items less frequently may help improve longevity and health than the current conventional way of feeding. Tsubaki has also had luck with regular-sized meals less frequently, but either way less food seems to be very beneficial for them.

I have personally seen just how big of meals snakes can take (one due to a rat that outgrew my ball python while I was feeding live, and another was when I was feeding too large of rats to my boa constrictor, which I fixed fairly quickly).

As a baby, my boa was fed rats that were averagely half his girth, but up to his girth, until he was about 2 years old. He reached 6ft at 2.5 years old, so it definitely didn't stunt him. Now I'm feeding him small meals again, less frequently as well. He's been doing this for almost a year now, and he's definitely not underfed and I've even noticed better health doing this.

Originally Posted by CrotalusR#1

Mikoh4792
I agree that smaller and more frequent meals are probably better, and that's what I personally do, but the fact that people are saying it's bad to give a snake a meal bigger around than there mid body is just ridiculous. regardless of the species. A meal that is way to big can defiantly be bad and sometimes be fatal... I have such a hard time believing that a snake that can easily be eating goats or pigs would do better on prey that are like snacks compared to what they can and should be eating... Snakes are made to eat large prey hence the whole the structure of there jaw, head and body lol... You can't really argue nature! After all isn't that what where trying to imitate in all of our cages? Why stop and start making the changes when it comes to food? You don't see any one making humidity, temp, and husbandry changes do you? why, because the the way all those things are in nature is the way that works best...why fix something that's not broken? Lol I hate that saying but it fits .
Nathan

Yeah but they only eat those large prey sometimes. They aren't built to eat large prey all the time, but because they're ***opportunistic*** they are built to eat those large prey items on the off-chance they find them. You are making a very huge jump in the last part of this post. Comparing changing husbandry (unless it's to support new knowledge on care) to changing feeding is a large stretch. As long as the snake isn't being starved or overfed, it doesn't matter how you feed them. There's lots of right ways of doing things, and I'm not saying to implement this feeding schedule for any other species.

[CrotalusR#1]

bigsnakegirl785 .What I'm saying in the last part of the post is that Why do we imitate there natural conditions as close as possible and stop at food? Know what I mean? I'm not saying every meal should be massive. What I'm arguing is the fact that some are saying you shouldn't feed them prey items larger than there mid body. Saying shouldn't is implying that it's wrong.... I'm just saying that feeding them prey items larger than there mid body is not bad at all as long as you have a proper set up that allows for them to thermoregulate properly..... Idk why every one is arguing facts! It happens in the wild so it sure as hell can happen in a cage!

[bigsnakegirl785]

Originally Posted by CrotalusR#1

bigsnakegirl785 .What I'm saying in the last part of the post is that Why do we imitate there natural conditions as close as possible and stop at food? Know what I mean? I'm not saying every meal should be massive. What I'm arguing is the fact that some are saying you shouldn't feed them prey items larger than there mid body. Saying shouldn't is implying that it's wrong.... I'm just saying that feeding them prey items larger than there mid body is not bad at all as long as you have a proper set up that allows for them to thermoregulate properly..... Idk why every one is arguing facts! It happens in the wild so it sure as hell can happen in a cage!

No one has said not to feed more than mid body, if what you mean is half their girth. I have said from half girth up to just under girth size are acceptable meals, although if you feed less frequently then you could possibly go up to 1.5x their girth.

Proper set up or no, that's more fat and excessive energy they're getting, which will still be detrimental to their health. Since they're built to store energy, it will be a lot more difficult to have them burn that extra energy than it will be to overfeed them and them become overweight or obese.

If you want to imitate nature, then offer variable prey sizes at varying intervals. Maybe feed a rat 2x the girth one feeding, then 3-4 weeks one half the girth and feed another 1.5x the girt 1-1.5 weeks later. Shake it up, that's how it would be in the wild, they don't consistently get small mice every odd week in the wild. Sometimes they eat a lot, sometimes they go through a famine, sometimes they have large meals other times they have small meals.

[CrotalusR#1]

OK well this is one of the stupidest debates I've ever been in.... what you said in the last half of your post about how you should feed snakes if you where trying to imitate the wild is exactly my point! Why people have started doing a rat a week i have no idda but it is idiculous... using different prey items and different sizes is what should be done....including a big meal every now and then... if a snake is given a proper set up with lots of stimulating smells and places to go there will be plenty of exercise.