Resuced Hog island boa and a few questions - Page 3

acidonangles · 08-15-16, 06:18 PM

Also, thank you everyone for helping me out.

**Minkness** · 08-15-16, 06:42 PM

Definitely a hypo and DEFINITELY underweight. Try getting him on small rats and feed once a week until he gains some body weight and muscle tone. He may be the right 'age' to be fed bi-weekly, but he needs callories and nutrition NOW.

Poor thing. =(

trailblazer295 · 08-15-16, 06:50 PM

You either have the forearm of a bodybuilder or he is very thin. A pretty accurate length and a weight would be very helpful. I know accurate lengths with snakes is hard. I lay mine out on the floor and a measuring tape beside them yo ucan get a few inches in range.

Feeding wise if you have the option of chicks it would be good to add into the rotation of food.

**Minkness** · 08-15-16, 06:59 PM

Forearm size aside, I'm looking at all the loose skin and total lack of any muscle tone visible. I know the pics aren't so great, but that's unmistakable.

A varied diet is good once the boa is back on track and gaining weight. For now, work on getting him on rats. Hopefully he's not stick on mice.

If he is, you can thaw a nouse and a rat togetger (called scenting) and you shouldn't have an issue. You could even iffer both feeders if he'd take them.

bigsnakegirl785 · 08-15-16, 07:37 PM

The snake doesn't look underweight...you can't see any ribs and the snake has fine muscle tone. That "loose skin" is probably just the snake pushing up against their arm. In the full body-pics, the snake looks fine, too.

The skin is only bunched up in that one place, look, I can move the skin on all my boas like that, too. They don't store their fat under the skin, so the skin is going to move around.

bigsnakegirl785 · 08-15-16, 08:07 PM

bigsnakegirl785 · 08-15-16, 08:12 PM

Also, to be on top, we really need a length and/or weight record for your boa acidonangles, or another photo of it next to a universally recognized object (full body preferably). Like, ironically, a banana. For scale. Then we can better gauge what size rat you'll need.

acidonangles · 08-15-16, 08:18 PM

I'll weigh him tomorrow and try to get a measurent. I'll also throw a banana near him for some more reference.

**Minkness** · 08-15-16, 08:38 PM

And if you asked me BSG, your snakes look on the thin side as well. Just my 2 cents, not that you'll care.

bigsnakegirl785 · 08-15-16, 08:49 PM

Minkness, I think you're used to seeing obese boa constrictors, my boas are not underweight in the slightest and if you spent some time in a boa constrictor group seeing the average body tone of a boa you'd know that.

**Minkness** · 08-15-16, 09:01 PM

Are boas that different from any other snake when under weight? If any other snake wrinkled like that it would be considered underweight. What makes boas any different? I'm sorry, but just because you think you know something doesn't mean you do. I could be just as wrong as anyone else, including you, but that boa looks pretty thin to me and needs groceries.

So let's say he has a 4 foot boa that's 3 years old, but was powerfed for the 1st year and a half of it's life to grow it faster, then this last pwrson gets a hold of it and starves it. Sure it would still grow, but let's be honest, we don't even actually know the age. It's a rescue. For all we know the previous guy lied or was lied to about age and the issue is just going down hill.

Forget age, look at tone, thickness, shine, sheds, bowl movements.

I took on a '9 month old' BP that was all of 70 grams....they could have just as easily told me she was a hatchling and I would have believed them. Now she's a healthy 1200g, sheds and poops like a pro and has no other issues. I fed her like a hatchling, not like a 9 month old. That's just how you have to look at ANY rescue. Not by what is told but by what we see with our own eyes. Period.

To me, that boa, and some of yours, look thin. Just because you CAN feed less, doesn't mean you should. Point blank. Do what's vest for the animal. Not every situation is text book and one shouldn't expect such when dealing with any living, breathing, creature.

bigsnakegirl785 · 08-15-16, 09:04 PM

Their skin wrinkles because it's skin. The skin is free from the skeletal structure. They do not store fat under their skin like we do, so the skin will move freely. Their fat is stored internally, around their organs and in structures called fatty deposits. Wrinkled skin is not a sign of thinness in any snake unless they are emaciated, in which case you'd see skeleton structure as well.

Less is always better, regardless of the species. Fatty liver disease is a real problem, and snakes survive famine better than they do feast, snakes are not built to have large stores of fat. Large stores of fat result in that fat travelling to the liver and killing them. Like with cats, except the process is much slower. (To be clear I'm talking about fatty liver disease, FLD kills cats in either a matter of days or weeks with no food idr, in snakes it can take a few months of a fat/obese snake not eating.)

bigsnakegirl785 · 08-15-16, 09:37 PM

As a side note, there's a difference between a snake that has skin that you can move and one with loose/baggy skin. Skin that fits the form but can be pinched, like in my snakes is 100% normal, and belongs on a healthy animal. On an underweight/emaciated animal, the skin will hang but that's less because the snake doesn't have any fat reserves and more because the muscle mass is breaking down to feed their body. In which case, the tissue covering the ribs and spine becomes thin enough you can view them. This isn't to be confused with a young boa, who hasn't built sufficient muscle mass to cover their ribs.

So, in short, just because you can move the skin on your snake it doesn't mean it's underweight. So don't worry acidonangles, your snake isn't underweight, it's quite healthy-looking.

**Minkness** · 08-15-16, 10:19 PM

I just got home and first thing I did was pull my boa out and punch his skin...and while I haaaaate to admit it, it wrinkled. You can imagine my cussing....weighed him too. 1947 grams. About 4.5 feet long and 3 years old and fed a small or medium rat every 2 weeks. Now I'm curious.....is he healthy or overnight?

bigsnakegirl785 · 08-15-16, 10:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Minkness

I just got home and first thing I did was pull my boa out and punch his skin...and while I haaaaate to admit it, it wrinkled. You can imagine my cussing....weighed him too. 1947 grams. About 4.5 feet long and 3 years old and fed a small or medium rat every 2 weeks. Now I'm curious.....is he healthy or overnight?

Only way to tell is to post a picture so we can see the body tone. Feeding seems a bit too often but the weight seems ok. I'd personally be feeding a boa of that age every 3-4 weeks. I don't have a weight of my boa when he was that small, and none of my other boas are that big yet, but he was 1,984 grams when he was just under 5' (~4'10").