feeding weight

hey guys. so with all my boas and my previous balls, i have always eyeballed the girth as an indicator or what size rat to feed. i just read something about the 15% rule. so my question is kind of simple, do you guys use this for just the juvis, or do you stick to this rule with your breeders as well? thanks guys

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Originally Posted by scooter11

hey guys. so with all my boas and my previous balls, i have always eyeballed the girth as an indicator or what size rat to feed. i just read something about the 15% rule. so my question is kind of simple, do you guys use this for just the juvis, or do you stick to this rule with your breeders as well? thanks guys

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The 10-15% guideline is just for hatchlings and juvies.
For the most part we max our males out at 1 small(75-90 gram) rat once a week. But we have a couple bigger(1300+ gram) males that will occasionally get a medium.
And our females at 1 medium(120-140 gram) rat once a week.
Feeding these sizes has worked great for us. Good growth rates for both sexes and great recovery after breeding season.

Yea, that's what I had figured it was just neos and juvis. So your breeder females don't ever get up to large rats? What do your female breeders plateau their weight at?

We haven't had any of our females plateau weight wise. Our biggest girls are in the 2500-2800 gram range currently and still growing great.
Even just eating 1 medium every week they are still getting 4-500+ grams of food every month. So I don't see any reason for them to stop growing and gaining weight.

the 15% weight rule is for new breeders or keepers as a guideline. doesn't take long to look at the snake and be able to tell what size rodent is the proper size to feed.

Thanks for the replies guys. I appreciate the responses. I've mainly had boas for the last twelve years, but my first snake was a male normal I kept as a pet. Before I gave him up I had him on large rats and he took them down no problem. Is that too much? I never had a scale but I'd say he feel in the 2000 gram range, maybe.