New baby and new to boas.

[Artemisace]

Also meant to say 48 hours apparently my brain thinks 24+24=24.

She's definitely tiny, but aside from the feeder bulge she appears in good body tone so wouldn't worry too much. Some babies are born tinier, as long as you're feeding her mouse fuzzies or hoppers, or rat pinks of the same size (and not the giants I seem to get lol) she should be good on prey size.

Definitely do your research, I've been told boas are very difficult to breed (my earliest breeding venture won't be until next fall at the earliest if all works out, or fall 2019 if it doesn't), and the babies may be difficult to sell depending on what male you pair to her and if she's het for something. They can have 20-30 babies, I've heard of them as large as 50-60 and as small as under 10, and you should be willing and able to keep most or all babies if you do have trouble selling them. You've got 4-6 years to think about it though, and you'll enjoy her care along the way, I know I enjoy all of mine.


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Well right now she's eating what I would consider rat fuzzies. I hate switching snakes from one prey item to another it's a chore that doesn't always work. At least with ball pythons... she seems a little thin to me, but I'm used to ball pythons so I guess that's kinda coloring my judgement. But not gonna over feed her. There's a ball python at one of the local shops that's super fat, it's sad. It's owner way over fed it

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[CloudtheBoa]

Definitely shouldn't be a problem with boas, they are usually not picky at all. I can give any one of my non-ball python snakes, doesn't matter what species (except the retic for obvious reasons), a mouse and have them take a rat the very next feeding. Then they can take another mouse and switch right back to rats with no problems.

I feel rat fuzzies are probably a bit too big, especially if you feel she has a thin girth and after seeing the bulge in those photos. I feed mouse hoppers until they're well over 100 grams, and even just a regular rat pinkie is bigger in size than a mouse hopper. Unless you get day old rat pinks, allegedly. I haven't raised rats in a few years and have never been delivered day old rat pinks.

This is also considering the fact I've never gotten a baby boa under 80 grams. I feel that Crona may have been smaller, being 82 grams at 4 months old vs Nymeria being 80 at 1 month. He's now 7 months at the weight and length Nymeria was at ~3-4 months. So me, myself, with your boa being even smaller, would err on the side of the smaller mice.

Plenty of people do start out on rats (my first one was started on rats), so as long as you step down on the prey size as they get older then perhaps it's not so bad. I just in general like to feed conservatively right from the beginning, so that's what my advice will reflect.


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[Artemisace]

Some more pics of her outside after big poo lol.





Can't wait for her to start shedding and growing for me, get big plans and finally decided to chase Moonglows as the project I most enjoy lol.

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[Sauzo]

I would personally stick with mice until she is large enough to take weaned rats. And definitely size down the meals. In that first picture, that lump was huge. I don't even like lumps that big in my pythons and they are stretchier than boas. You're better off feeding smaller meals than larger meals. All of my gals when they were neonates ate hopper mice, then adult mice, then weaned rats, then appropriate sized rats, then rabbits once they were large enough for jumbo rats as jumbos have a lot more fat so I don't feed those.

[Artemisace]

I would personally stick with mice until she is large enough to take weaned rats. And definitely size down the meals. In that first picture, that lump was huge. I don't even like lumps that big in my pythons and they are stretchier than boas. You're better off feeding smaller meals than larger meals. All of my gals when they were neonates ate hopper mice, then adult mice, then weaned rats, then appropriate sized rats, then rabbits once they were large enough for jumbo rats as jumbos have a lot more fat so I don't feed those.

I'm going to try her on frozen thawed hopper mice this weekend and see if she takes. Just a little gun shy since I've had problems switching snakes off mice in the past. I do also have ft rat pinks I could try her on that are much smaller than the first meal. The last meal she ate barely left a lump in her. I purposely picked out the smallest fuzzy rat they had.

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[Sauzo]

I wouldn't worry about boas. They are garbage cans lol. I've never had a problem switching mine from mice to rats and prekilled to F/T. Even my BP went from mice to rats prekilled to F/T with no problems. Even the jungle carpet who would only eat live white mice at night for the gal who had her before ate F/T any color mice in the day for me 2 days after I had her. And the little 2 month old Dumerils gal eats like a beast on F/T hopper mice. I might just be lucky or be the "snake whisperer" lol but I wouldn't worry about boas.

As for rat pinks, those are going to be too small for her. I wouldn't do anything smaller than a hopper mouse. Try one and see what the lump looks like. As mentioned, it should be noticeable but not glaringly noticeable if that makes sense. You want to know it ate a meal but not look like it ate a football and needs to be rolled like a wheel into its hide lol.

And the reason I say I don't like rat pinks or fuzzies is because to me, they just seem like a milk bag lol. They aren't going to be as developed with bones and organs as a hopper or small adult mouse. I see as the same reason you don't feed guinea pigs to boas since they have a lot of fat but they are fine for pythons.

[Artemisace]

I wouldn't worry about boas. They are garbage cans lol. I've never had a problem switching mine from mice to rats and prekilled to F/T. Even my BP went from mice to rats prekilled to F/T with no problems. Even the jungle carpet who would only eat live white mice at night for the gal who had her before ate F/T any color mice in the day for me 2 days after I had her. And the little 2 month old Dumerils gal eats like a beast on F/T hopper mice. I might just be lucky or be the "snake whisperer" lol but I wouldn't worry about boas.

As for rat pinks, those are going to be too small for her. I wouldn't do anything smaller than a hopper mouse. Try one and see what the lump looks like. As mentioned, it should be noticeable but not glaringly noticeable if that makes sense. You want to know it ate a meal but not look like it ate a football and needs to be rolled like a wheel into its hide lol.

And the reason I say I don't like rat pinks or fuzzies is because to me, they just seem like a milk bag lol. They aren't going to be as developed with bones and organs as a hopper or small adult mouse. I see as the same reason you don't feed guinea pigs to boas since they have a lot of fat but they are fine for pythons.

You have better luck with ball pythons than me. I have several that are the pickiest butt heads in the world and none of my ball pythons will eat frozen thawed. Which is just so frustrating 😒 but anyway, I get the not developed enough argument. That makes a lot of sense actually, I'll try her on the hoppers I feed my cornsnakes and see where to go from there.

The only garbage disposal of a snake I have is my green anaconda, but she's on a self induced fast right now which is weird for her. But normally she just destroys food no matter what it is.

My only other boa experience was one I babysat for a while that was a picky little thing. She would only eat live, no matter what her owner or I did.

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[CloudtheBoa]

Sauzo - the size of the pinks depends on the source. All of my rat pinks are in the 7-11 gram range, and are bigger in size than my hopper mice. Day old pinks are apparently the size of fuzzies or small hoppers though I've never gotten such a tiny rat pink.

Ditto on nutritional content. Pinkies are virtually useless for boids imo.


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[Artemisace]

Sauzo - the size of the pinks depends on the source. All of my rat pinks are in the 7-11 gram range, and are bigger in size than my hopper mice. Day old pinks are apparently the size of fuzzies or small hoppers though I've never gotten such a tiny rat pink.

Ditto on nutritional content. Pinkies are virtually useless for boids imo.


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The rat pinks I have are quite large, but I'll try the mouse hoppers first and see how that goes.

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[Sauzo]

You have better luck with ball pythons than me. I have several that are the pickiest butt heads in the world and none of my ball pythons will eat frozen thawed. Which is just so frustrating 😒 but anyway, I get the not developed enough argument. That makes a lot of sense actually, I'll try her on the hoppers I feed my cornsnakes and see where to go from there.

The only garbage disposal of a snake I have is my green anaconda, but she's on a self induced fast right now which is weird for her. But normally she just destroys food no matter what it is.

My only other boa experience was one I babysat for a while that was a picky little thing. She would only eat live, no matter what her owner or I did.

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Dang, that's just bad luck all around lol. I am jealous though of that Anaconda but I just cant bring myself to get something that will end up so big. Same goes with retics. Love both of them but in the end, those both will be more snakes than I can "tote" around if needed.

Maybe the boa you babysat for wasn't comfortable? Pretty much all of my girls just destroy food anytime. The only exception is the BP who will usually go off food from Oct/Nov until about Mar/Apr, then she goes gung ho again and eats everything.

@Cloud- Yeah I've noticed that from place to place. The shop by my house has hoppers which are pretty darn small where as the normal place I go has pretty meaty hoppers.