Cloud, Colombian BCI

[Vypyrz]

Another strange habit of his. His doesn't stand it up himself, but he'll hold it in place like this if I stand his tail up.

Nice looking boa, and great photos, but that one got me laughing. Welcome to BP.net.

Shows never come to my side of the state, but the Charlotte and Raleigh shows are only a few hours away, so I'll try to make it to whichever show I can.

What part of NC are you in? The Raleigh show was 2 weekends ago. The next one will be July 19-20. The Charlotte show dates are April 5-6, and August 23-24. The dates for Winston-Salem are May 31-June 1, and December 13-14.

[Vypyrz]

What part of NC are you in? The Raleigh show was 2 weekends ago. The next one will be July 19-20. The Charlotte show dates are April 5-6, and August 23-24. The dates for Winston-Salem are May 31-June 1, and December 13-14.

I just saw your post in the NC thread. Some other show dates in your region are Columbia, SC, March 8-9, July 12-13, and November 1-2. The dates for Greenville, SC are February 8-9, and October 11-12. The Chattanooga, TN show dates are March 29-30 and August 9-10. And, the Knoxville, TN show dates are February 15-16.

[CloudtheBoa]

I just saw your post in the NC thread. Some other show dates in your region are Columbia, SC, March 8-9, July 12-13, and November 1-2. The dates for Greenville, SC are February 8-9, and October 11-12. The Chattanooga, TN show dates are March 29-30 and August 9-10. And, the Knoxville, TN show dates are February 15-16.

Greenville is probably the closest to where I am, but I highly doubt I'll be able to make the February show. I probably won't be able to make any shows until this fall or spring of next year, so for this year I'm most likely looking at the Greenville October show or the Chattanooga August show (the Greenville is more likely because it's closer). Columbia is sort of close, but isn't it a hot show? I'm hoping to see some Burms or retics.

[Vypyrz]

Greenville is probably the closest to where I am, but I highly doubt I'll be able to make the February show. I probably won't be able to make any shows until this fall or spring of next year, so for this year I'm most likely looking at the Greenville October show or the Chattanooga August show (the Greenville is more likely because it's closer). Columbia is sort of close, but isn't it a hot show? I'm hoping to see some Burms or retics.

Yes, the SC shows have "hots", as well as, most everything else that you normally find at them.

[CloudtheBoa]

So, Cloud did take that rabbit. He was being weird about it, though. Usually he'll hit his food as hard as he can, even sending hides flying and sloshing water, but he wanted nothing to do with the rabbit dance and actually started to run away. So, I gave up and plopped it down on the side of enclosure he was escaping to. Literally, the moment I started rolling the door shut he turned right around in the middle of crawling away and went straight for the rabbit. He spent 10-15 minutes searching for the head, and proceeded to eat. Not the only time he's been strange, either. Once I was feeding him a large rat and instead of striking it he wanted me to hold it perfectly still above him. He opened his mouth wide and just gently gently brought his mouth up to it to eat. lol It was the weirdest thing I've ever seen. This time it could have just been because it was a new prey item, he's only ever had rats. *shrugs*

Freshly shed, and 2 days after his meal. The rabbit didn't leave a bulge really, but they're on the higher end (~15% of his body weight) of the weight range.






Hugging my waist.


His tail in natural sunlight. Not warm enough to take him out, but the sunlight kept the door warm and there was no wind so I felt safe opening the door for light.


So, Cloud shed one of his teeth last night...I found it stuck to his bottom lip by a string of saliva. Thought it was a frayed scale at first, but when I grabbed his head to inspect I then thought it was a tongue skin that took awhile to come off (I usually find them on his chin 2-3 days after he sheds) but when I stuck my finger to it to remove it I found out it was a tooth. o.o


Less than 24 hours later, and it went from clear to bone white.

[artgecko]

Great pics of your boa! How old is he now? I am in the process of getting my first boa so I'm trying to suck up all of the info I can find. I'm glad he decided to eat for you and that you found a local source of food.

[CloudtheBoa]

Great pics of your boa! How old is he now? I am in the process of getting my first boa so I'm trying to suck up all of the info I can find. I'm glad he decided to eat for you and that you found a local source of food.

Thanks! He's right about 2.5 years old now. I'm not sure if it's because I was 2 weeks late on his feeding or not, but he seems to have severely slowed down his growth. During his growth spurt (after his first birthday - he didn't grow much his first year) he was growing 2-3 inches every other week until a month or two after his 2nd birthday and then he was growing 1in ~every 3 weeks, but he's only grown 1in since the beginning of December so he's probably about as big as he's going to get now. . I measured him at 5ft 11in, so still close enough to just call him 6ft. I'm not sure how long boas grow for because I get mixed reviews, so he could still have a year or two to grow a bit more.

Same here, but I was hoping to get a freezer so I could bulk order online so these were meant just to hold him over. I like to have food stocked up, that way I don't have to worry about food for awhile - and it's cheaper in the long run. lol

[Gio]

Thanks! He's right about 2.5 years old now. I'm not sure if it's because I was 2 weeks late on his feeding or not, but he seems to have severely slowed down his growth. During his growth spurt (after his first birthday - he didn't grow much his first year) he was growing 2-3 inches every other week until a month or two after his 2nd birthday and then he was growing 1in ~every 3 weeks, but he's only grown 1in since the beginning of December so he's probably about as big as he's going to get now. . I measured him at 5ft 11in, so still close enough to just call him 6ft. I'm not sure how long boas grow for because I get mixed reviews, so he could still have a year or two to grow a bit more.

Same here, but I was hoping to get a freezer so I could bulk order online so these were meant just to hold him over. I like to have food stocked up, that way I don't have to worry about food for awhile - and it's cheaper in the long run. lol

Boas grow their entire lives. Your boa is quite large for its age, and seems a little heavy in the lower half, maybe he recently ate or its just the picture. It's a nice looking boa none the less. This time of year you should lower the temps in the cage if ambient temps don't lower enough in your house to change/drop cage temps for a seasonal adjustment. Boas should be taking in less food during this part of the season. Some very experienced boa keepers will skip a month or two or more of feeding.


If your boa is already close to 6 feet, that is the normal range for a male BCI. 7 feet is considered quite large. Boas that are fed a lot and brought up too fast die much earlier than boas that are conservatively fed.

Gus Renfro, who is considered THE authority on boas stated "the biggest boas are the oldest boas". What he meant by that, is that boas that are brought up properly will live much longer lives and grow to their full potential.

There are some factors, outside of the obvious ones that will influence a male boa's growth. If you have no female boas in your home, and you never plan on breeding your male, it will likely become larger than a male boa that detects the scents of a female during breeding season or is actually used to breed. That process takes up an incredible amount of energy and male boas will often refuse food during breeding season.

You can also read where Vin Russo mentions in his book, THE COMPLETE BOA CONSTRICTOR, that he feels boas grow more when they are not in a constant state of feeding and digesting. Russo, who is a friend of Gus Rentfro's is also an authority on BC's.

Too many people feel these snakes require a constant supply of food, and it's just NOT true. Boa Constrictors are designed to be able to go long stretches without food. It's a hard fact to slam home, but if you want to have a long lived, healthy animal, drop the temps and let the snake take a break from the cycle of feeding and digesting and feeding again.

A snake that is pure muscle and lean is the ideal snake. There are no fat boas in the wild!

[CloudtheBoa]

Boas grow their entire lives. Your boa is quite large for its age, and seems a little heavy in the lower half, maybe he recently ate or its just the picture. It's a nice looking boa none the less. This time of year you should lower the temps in the cage if ambient temps don't lower enough in your house to change/drop cage temps for a seasonal adjustment. Boas should be taking in less food during this part of the season. Some very experienced boa keepers will skip a month or two or more of feeding.


If your boa is already close to 6 feet, that is the normal range for a male BCI. 7 feet is considered quite large. Boas that are fed a lot and brought up too fast die much earlier than boas that are conservatively fed.

Gus Renfro, who is considered THE authority on boas stated "the biggest boas are the oldest boas". What he meant by that, is that boas that are brought up properly will live much longer lives and grow to their full potential.

There are some factors, outside of the obvious ones that will influence a male boa's growth. If you have no female boas in your home, and you never plan on breeding your male, it will likely become larger than a male boa that detects the scents of a female during breeding season or is actually used to breed. That process takes up an incredible amount of energy and male boas will often refuse food during breeding season.

You can also read where Vin Russo mentions in his book, THE COMPLETE BOA CONSTRICTOR, that he feels boas grow more when they are not in a constant state of feeding and digesting. Russo, who is a friend of Gus Rentfro's is also an authority on BC's.

Too many people feel these snakes require a constant supply of food, and it's just NOT true. Boa Constrictors are designed to be able to go long stretches without food. It's a hard fact to slam home, but if you want to have a long lived, healthy animal, drop the temps and let the snake take a break from the cycle of feeding and digesting and feeding again.

A snake that is pure muscle and lean is the ideal snake. There are no fat boas in the wild!

Yes, sorry, that is because he recently ate. Those photos were only 2-3 days after he ate, so he's going to look a bit bigger than normal. Here are some of him empty from a few days ago, he thins out a lot after he poos. I have begun a biweekly feeding schedule over the last several feedings, and I may lengthen it out to 3 or 4 weeks for his rabbits, because he put on a lot more weight than I had ever thought he would have just from one rabbit and I was not expecting it to be so extreme. He was 7lb 11.6oz empty 2 weeks ago before I fed him his first rabbit, and he was 8lb 13oz (3,666 grams to be specific) empty after he voided all his rabbit. So, he gained an entire pound just from one rabbit! I will most likely be waiting a 3rd week, if not a 4th, before I offer him his 3rd rabbit, as I try to keep him on the leaner more muscular side.

[CloudtheBoa]

Boas grow their entire lives. Your boa is quite large for its age, and seems a little heavy in the lower half, maybe he recently ate or its just the picture. It's a nice looking boa none the less. This time of year you should lower the temps in the cage if ambient temps don't lower enough in your house to change/drop cage temps for a seasonal adjustment. Boas should be taking in less food during this part of the season. Some very experienced boa keepers will skip a month or two or more of feeding.


If your boa is already close to 6 feet, that is the normal range for a male BCI. 7 feet is considered quite large. Boas that are fed a lot and brought up too fast die much earlier than boas that are conservatively fed.

Gus Renfro, who is considered THE authority on boas stated "the biggest boas are the oldest boas". What he meant by that, is that boas that are brought up properly will live much longer lives and grow to their full potential.

There are some factors, outside of the obvious ones that will influence a male boa's growth. If you have no female boas in your home, and you never plan on breeding your male, it will likely become larger than a male boa that detects the scents of a female during breeding season or is actually used to breed. That process takes up an incredible amount of energy and male boas will often refuse food during breeding season.

You can also read where Vin Russo mentions in his book, THE COMPLETE BOA CONSTRICTOR, that he feels boas grow more when they are not in a constant state of feeding and digesting. Russo, who is a friend of Gus Rentfro's is also an authority on BC's.

Too many people feel these snakes require a constant supply of food, and it's just NOT true. Boa Constrictors are designed to be able to go long stretches without food. It's a hard fact to slam home, but if you want to have a long lived, healthy animal, drop the temps and let the snake take a break from the cycle of feeding and digesting and feeding again.

A snake that is pure muscle and lean is the ideal snake. There are no fat boas in the wild!

Also, I don't think I went into great detail in the thread, but he has been fed 1 smaller meal weekly. About 10-15% of his body weight weekly which is a feeding schedule that I learned of (it has a name but I can't remember it) that's supposed to keep snakes on the slimmer muscular side but they also tend to grow fast, and before that (because of a loss of my rat breeding colony and the unreliableness of pet stores) he got multiple small meals. So at 4.5ft and ~3.5-4lb he either got 2 small rats (50-70 grams each) or 3 weanlings. Then, when he was 5.5ft and just over 5lbs he got 175-179 gram rats. The 10-15% weekly is supposed to be decreased to 10% weekly as an adult. The rabbits were actually weighed at 12-13 oz each, but because I was looking for 1lb rabbits, for simplicity (in my mind) I call them 1lb. I'm not sure if that sounds right to you or not, but the weight method is what I've been advised for by several boa keepers. So that's what he was on while he had rats a month ago, 10% of his body weight weekly. Since it's rabbits now and they're more fatty, it will be 3-4 weeks instead of weekly.