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Obese Kenyan Sand Boa?

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  • 03-14-2012, 02:20 PM
    SuddenEclipse
    Obese Kenyan Sand Boa?
    How can you tell if your KSB is too fat? They are a thick bodied snake. Mine is a feeding machine. She (I think) is eat 1 full grown mouse every week. She is not full grown yet but how can I tell if she's too fat? I swear I could put a Great Dane in her feeding box and she'd try to eat it LOL. How often and how big do you feed these guys? I think she'd eat every single day if I let her hahaha
  • 03-14-2012, 05:29 PM
    TheWinWizard
    Young sand boas will be eating young mice, which you can purchase frozen. The rule of thumb is to feed a meal which is about as big around as your snake at mid-body. For sand boas that means that babies get pink mice and adult males get fuzzies, with a mature female able to eat hoppers or adults. Some may prefer smaller prey than what you think they may take. You should never feed in the cage, as ingested substrate can cause death. Sand boas, being mostly nocturnal, feed best at night. I feed in a cloth snake bag, which can be placed in the cage for warmth and safety. To thaw a frozen mouse place it in a cup of hot tap water for 10-20 minutes until it is thoroughly thawed and warm. My sand boas don't seem to care if their mice are wet, but you can thaw them in a sealed plastic bag, or skip the water altogether and wrap them in a heating pad. Microwaving is hard to control, and an exploded mouse isn't much fun to clean up. Place the warm mouse in the snake bag, wash your hands so you don't smell like a mouse, add the sand boa, and leave it undisturbed inside the snake's cage for a couple of hours. For picky eaters I put a folded towel on top or bury the bag in the substrate, only leaving a couple of square inches exposed for air exchange. They seem to like the weight on top of them. If the mouse is still there when you check you can leave it overnight. Instead of using a snake bag you can place the mouse and snake in a deli cup, but sand boas seem to feel more secure with the feeling of the bag over them and usually eat more readily. If you use a deli cup you might want to put in a piece of damp paper towel that they can hide under. The pinkies and fuzzies that young sand boas eat are not old enough to damage your snake and so can be fed live without harm to the snake, but that is a matter of personal ethics (and economics - frozen is generally cheaper.) Older mice can kill a snake if they get lucky (and your snake unlucky.) There are very few sand boas that will only eat live prey. Sometimes a neonate will insist on live for the first few feedings, but if given one live and one pre-killed when they are hungry they will usually switch fairly easily.

    Babies should be fed every 5-7 days, and adults every week to every month, depending on the snake and the size of the meals. It is hard to get babies actually fat, but there is a belief that feeding baby snakes a lot so they grow fast will shorten their life spans. On the other hand, a hungry snake may be grouchy and if kept underfed they will always be stunted. Watch your snake, and adjust the amount and frequency of food as necessary. Adult females are prone to obesity if overfed. If this happens cut back a bit - obesity shortens lives for snakes as well as humans. If your sand boa consistently refuses food it may be stressed from too much handling. Try leaving it alone more to see if that will bring back its appetite. You should not handle your snake unnecessarily for 24 hours after eating, as it may regurgitate. If it does regurgitate, wait a few days before feeding again, so that the irritation to the esophagus has a chance to heal.
    Copied from http://www.anapsid.org/kenyan.html
  • 03-15-2012, 12:54 AM
    SuddenEclipse
    Vicious is eating a full grown mouse once a week and she is not an adult yet. She was on 2 fuzzies a week. I do not feed in the cage because of the substrate. Vicious doesn't care if it's wet or not. I usually just let it be wet to help her get it down and she doesn't care. I could give her a wet play-dough shaped mouse and she'd eat it. I was just wondering if there was a way to tell on an already thick-bodied snake if they are obese or not. I guess I'll just keeping giving her a mouse once a week until I can figure out if she's too fat. She seems healthy!
  • 03-16-2012, 03:40 PM
    Trolle
    she's fine
    just dont give her more then that a week,2 mice a week is no problem
  • 03-16-2012, 04:14 PM
    TheWinWizard
    Is the skin stretching between the scales yet?
  • 03-16-2012, 09:18 PM
    SuddenEclipse
    It stretchees between the scales as she's eating, but then when she is finished it all goes down to normal. I don't know a lot, but I think my snake is going to be a larger than average sand boa.
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