Does Head Size Mean Anything?

[MasonC2K]

I have a female albino BCI that I got 2.5 years ago when she was 4 months old. I've started to notice that other BCI's I see that are her length or even shorter have much larger heads.

Does that mean anything or is it just a normal if not common variation?

[Evenstar]

A picture of your snake will tell us a lot.

But some BCI have larger heads than others. I personally feel it's a developmental thing and just a matter of how well-developed the snake's head muscles are at that point in time.

Over feeding can cause a boa to grow too fast in proportion to their heads and cause a "pin-head" look. On the other hand, feeding too small a prey item can cause the head muscles to not develop well. This is a matter of finding a happy medium. Don't feed too often or too large, but don't feed too small either.

[MasonC2K]

Hopefully this works.




I feed her a small to medium rat every 7 days.

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[Gio]

She looks good, and I like the head muscle on her and don't think it looks too small. Interesting topic because I read a study on the correlation between head size and prey size. I can't remember the link because I was digging and digging and then fell upon it. Prey size will NOT increase the bone structure in the head or cause the skull itself to grow more according to the study.

But the muscle in the jaw will develop more rapidly and become bigger which will make the head look bigger where the jaw muscles are. This can be different from snake to snake obviously. Personally I like a good thick head and neck tie in on boas.

The pin head thing Evenstar mentioned drives me crazy. It looks all wrong and so disproportionate.

For the size of you snake, her head looks fine to me. The shot of you standing with her looks very proportional.

[Evenstar]

I agree with Gio - she looks good to me in proportion to her size. Her jaw muscles are well-developed and while she has a slightly more triangular head shape, it is certainly not too small. She's a pretty snake!

Gio - thanks for digging around on that info! I am glad you pointed out the difference between skeletal structure and musculature!

Here's an interesting picture that could be considered relevant to the discussion....

[DooLittle]

She looks good to me too. I've got lots of pictures of my boas posted if you want to look at them. I can post here too if you would like. Both mine were a year old April-ish. Your girl looks to be about the size of Ripley.

[hypnotixdmp]

What about my girl, does she look proportionately correct? I ask because I started off feeding her a little too often.



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[Gio]

What about my girl, does she look proportionately correct? I ask because I started off feeding her a little too often.



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Damn,, She's beautiful. I think she is proportionate and has a real solid looking head.

The "Pin Heads" are really noticeable. They are like 6 foot snakes with the head of a 3 footer. It looks really strange.

[hypnotixdmp]

Thank you, and I'm glad...I was stupid when I first got her and another boa feeding Evey 5-7 days. Now its 10-14

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[Evenstar]

I agree - she looks good to me too, Hypnotixdmp. Very pretty snakey....