What should I feed a month year old red tail?

Okay so I have a 2 year old red tail boa on medium rats, soon to be large rats (She's 5 feet)

Well today, I got another baby red tail, he's a month an a half old. Looks like he should be eating pinkies... Though when I asked the person what he's eating, he said he just moved them up to adult mice! I mean this snake is really small, and I just want to know what you guys think... His head is tiny, looks like it can barely feet a pinkie in it, the body is not much wider...


(Sorry about title... just saw it... lol "Month year old"

My smallest two baby boas I have who are around 60 grams (a BCL and Colombian) I have on fuzzy mice. I like feeding my boas mice up until their first year so your little one would be around that I would imagine: is your boa a Colombian, CA, other BCI locality or a BCC or BCO or other? Some boa localities are larger when born and this will determine prey size too.

It's honestly all going to vary on how well they were fed previously and then at the same time not so much because it's a baby. It should be able to eat fuzzy mice, but if it can eat that then it should be able to take a rat pinkie. I'd just check sizes to be sure though.

I'm sure Evenstar or Daybreaker will chime in, but on my two babies I feed sub adult mice(basically the smallest considered adults). My male is about 120g and takes roughly 15-16g mice and my female is about 155g and she takes about 18-20g mice.

The "general" rule of thumb is that the prey item shouldn't leave a noticeable lump in their belly. I personally like to feed large enough that you can tell they ate, but not so large as to cause any real "lump" and def not any stretched scales.

Even my 2007 8-1/4' BCI only takes small-medium rabbits. And I feed rabbits because I feed live, and as a personal choice I like a prey item that doesn't put up a real biting match with my snake. The rabbits just chill there and don't bite, while rats will bite before the snake even strikes.

Edit: whoops didn't see Daybreaker already posted lol.

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Originally Posted by Daybreaker

My smallest two baby boas I have who are around 60 grams (a BCL and Colombian) I have on fuzzy mice. I like feeding my boas mice up until their first year so your little one would be around that I would imagine: is your boa a Colombian, CA, other BCI locality or a BCC or BCO or other? Some boa localities are larger when born and this will determine prey size too.

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He's a BCC Red tail.

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Originally Posted by BallPythonChick

He's a BCC Red tail.

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Sorry I meant BCI Red tail, not sure where he's from, but I know he isn't a Colombian!

This should help a lot
http://i1305.photobucket.com/albums/...ps40b8dea1.jpg

Sorry about the horrible picture, my camera is at the pawn shop, picking it up tomorrow. Had to use my phone.

But I put the penny in for size reference.

But I'm pretty sure he isn't a BCC, or columbian. Just some BCI of some sort.

He's so cute :) I love the little bitties.

When I got my little guy I was told he was eating mouse fuzzies for his breeder, but he's been on hoppers since I've had him because he didn't recognize the rather small fuzzy I was dangling in front of him as food. I'm thinking the fuzzies he was fed were larger. There is some overlap in weight between fuzzies and hoppers -- sadly, I know this because I'm ridiculously uptight about all my snakes' prey, and weigh it out every week. My male sand boa is on fuzzies, some of which are up to 8g (I'm holding those back), and my female sand boa as well as Leonard are on hoppers, which range from the ridiculously small-ish 8g up to about 12g.

All this to say I'd go by size of prey rather than stage of rodent development.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BallPythonChick

Sorry about the horrible picture, my camera is at the pawn shop, picking it up tomorrow. Had to use my phone.

But I put the penny in for size reference.

But I'm pretty sure he isn't a BCC, or columbian. Just some BCI of some sort.

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He's cute, and he actually looks like a Colombian BCI to me.

Based on the pic I'd say a fuzzy - hopper sized mouse should be fine for him: unless the baby was huge when born a Colombian baby on adult mice already at ~1 1/2 month old just seems like too much to me. It's better to slow grow these guys on a 7-10 day schedule for babies.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BallPythonChick

This should help a lot
http://i1305.photobucket.com/albums/...ps40b8dea1.jpg

Sorry about the horrible picture, my camera is at the pawn shop, picking it up tomorrow. Had to use my phone.

But I put the penny in for size reference.

But I'm pretty sure he isn't a BCC, or columbian. Just some BCI of some sort.

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I see a little Colombian BCI there. Colors can vary quite a bit with BCI's and still be a Colombian. Colombian BCI's are by far the most prominent member of the boa family sold in the pet trade as far as I can tell lol.


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