Leonard, 1 year(ish) :)

Hey all, I'm still around and reading, just not posting. Congrats on all the beautiful new animals! Here are a couple of updated Leonard shots.

http://i1285.photobucket.com/albums/...pse38fa79b.jpg

http://i1285.photobucket.com/albums/...ps3b6e8723.jpg

I wish they were better. Curse you, iPhone4! Sigh. But he's an awesome snake and I think his coloration is gorgeous -- this is his darker phase, and he also has a much more peachy look he'll likely go into in a couple of days. It appears to be tied to his digestion.

My only concern at the moment is his size. I've seen some other boas at a year, and Leonard seems downright petite compared to them. Plus his silly little head looks tiny. Any thoughts?

Anyway, that's it. And thanks for any input on the boy :)

I think he looks fine.. This is Lily she and she is around 2-2.5 years old.

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/08/08/uga5esa5.jpg
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/08/08/uqugeheh.jpg

She's lovely! And thank you -- that gives me some basis for size comparison :)

Not sure what his length is but my Colombian male is 5 foot something at 2 years old. I think your's looks just fine.

The oldest boas are the largest boas! Feed appropriately, but don't over feed. He will get to the size he's supposed to be in due time.

A lot of these "schedule fed" boas die early. Many people don't take into consideration that captive bred rodents contain much more fat than wild rodents.

There are several good feeders here with good advice. As has been said; "It's almost impossible to under feed a boa."

That snake looks great!

Thanks Gio :) Your boa is looking amazing. And congrats on the new scaly critter, by the way!

Leonard is just over 3 feet long, and is finally up to eating two f/t mice (between 40 and 60 grams in weight total, because I'm a bit of a freak about weighing his food) every 10 days to 2 weeks. In general, I wait for him to eliminate the prior meal before giving him the next. Honestly, I think he'd take 3 mice if I offered them but I don't want to overfeed the little guy. And I don't want to underfeed him. So there are occasional stress-fests, LOL

Next month we have a Dumeril's boa joining us -- he's about two years old, and is one of my exotics vet's animals. She's had some shifts in her homelife, so she's downsizing her collection. Bless her, she knew I was wanting a Dumeril's -- she has two -- and she wanted him to have a good home so it's a win on both counts :)

I think that 3+ foot mark is pretty good at 1 year.

I wouldn't even be overly concerned about weighing the food. Eye it up, and don't get stressed if you over feed a time or two. It's the constant over feeding with large prey and/or the frequency that causes issues.

I just over fed mine the other day. It happens, and with a little thought, you can assume they'd take a few very large prey items in the wild, but at the same time, the opportunities may be few and far.

Your boa is very young, and when mine came from Legacy Reptiles through Gus Rentfro, he was on small rats. I got him around April 22 last year and he was not a year old until June 27 last year.

I was using a 10-14 day schedule then. Now, depending on the prey and size, I have been hitting the 22-23 day interval.

On occasion, I have a refusal from the royal python who only eats live. That jammed me up last time and I gave the live rat to the boa which had already eaten a quail. I was not happy with myself, but every now and then it doesn't hurt. The key is to make sure they clean out and are forced to hunt and move before they are fed again. This winter I will drop temps and the boa will probably eat 3 times.

Here is Sniper almost spot on at 1 year. Unfortunately the only thing I had for scale are the steps. They are "standard" deck steps.

http://i772.photobucket.com/albums/y...a/DSC00412.jpg

Here he is a year old. You can see his pretty lean. I think you boy may be larger at 1 year than Sniper was.

http://i772.photobucket.com/albums/y...a/DSC00414.jpg


Keep doing what you are doing, because he looks good.


BTW,

The color on that boa is just unreal!!

Thanks, re: his color! He was sold to me as a normal at a reptile show. B-grade because of the kinked tail -- I have to look hard for it anymore -- and also, as I later noticed, the micro opthalmia with the one eye (it's actually the eye facing the camera in the first picture I posted), but he as turned out to be an A++ as far as I'm concerned. I'm not breeding, so the kink and the eye are non issues; he's the perfect pet. I have to admit, though, I do wonder just what genetics are in him that made him that color. He only gets more peachy/orangey with each shed -- it's insane :)

The pictures of Sniper at a year make him look Leonard's size or maybe a shade bigger to my eyes? So I'm guessing it's likely they're pretty much the same size-wise at the one year mark. I keep hoping Leonard won't exceed six feet ultimately, mainly for ease of handling, but if he gets longer he gets longer. We'll deal with it, and I'll upsize his enclosure if need be. But yeah, I have absolutely zero motivation to consistently overfeed him.

My weighing of his food is just my thing; I know it's not really necessary. I'll likely continue it though, in large part because it makes food selection easier for my supplier. I can tell them a range of gram weight I want for the food, and they love it because then I'm not coming back saying "these are fuzzies and I said pinkies" or whatever. Gram weight is gram weight; it's pretty concrete, and makes them happy. Plus I have the two ball pythons (bless their beautiful little dull hearts) and I got into gram weight for their food, so never really got out of it.

I still can't get over how crisp Sniper's saddles are and how perfect the ovals between them look. He truly is a gorgeous animal -- you take excellent care of him :)