Boa growth rate question.

Hello I have a 1.1 BCL (longicauda) they are about a year and a half and very healthy. They have always been on the same feeding schedule, they get a rat about every 2 weeks and approximately the same size rat, I breed them. When I got them as new borns I couldnt tell them apart size wise. But now the female is twice the size, she is about 4 feet and girthy and the male is significantly smaller.

My question is this; how can the female be so much bigger than the male when being fed exactly the same thing at the same time and they both have only defecated twice in the last year and it was about the same size?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by nchapa

Hello I have a 1.1 BCL (longicauda) they are about a year and a half and very healthy. They have always been on the same feeding schedule, they get a rat about every 2 weeks and approximately the same size rat, I breed them. When I got them as new borns I couldnt tell them apart size wise. But now the female is twice the size, she is about 4 feet and girthy and the male is significantly smaller.

My question is this; how can the female be so much bigger than the male when being fed exactly the same thing at the same time and they both have only defecated twice in the last year and it was about the same size?

---

As with most reptiles, there is some degree of sexual dimorphism. With snakes females typically grow longer and girthier than males. Like everyone else also says, they grow at their own pace according to their genetics etc.. The male probably just didn't inherit the "bigger" genes as well. They'll probably max out in the next year or two and considering you're feeding on a pretty modest schedule, I think they should be alright.

They defecated only twice last year? Sounds like they're very constipated lol but as long as they're healthy I guess.

Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 2

My thoughts on the defecation is that they were babies and growing, and pretty much everything they were eating was getting absorbed as nutrients. The only thing that doesn't get digested is hair, so if they were eating prey with little amounts of hair, then they probably would poop less. :P They probably urinated/had urates normally though.