Questions on Feeding

I brought my BCI home early January this year, she was 22 inches when I bought her and the breeder I got her from said she was feeding on hoppers so I grabbed 20 of them on the way out of the expo. She's grown to 26 inches and gained about 60 grams so I went from feeding every 10 days to every 7 to try and keep her food intake steady with her growth. I'm running low on hoppers at this point and I'm wondering how to judge exactly what type and how many feeders to buy next. I'd like to buy in bulk to save on shipping since I plan on ordering them online but I don't want to order too many feeders of the same size and have her outgrow them and go to waste. Is there any way for me to predict how fast she'll outgrow a feeder size? I'm thinking she can take an adult mouse at this point but how many would she need before she goes on to the equivalent next size rat?

How much does your boa weigh now? If she's ready for adult mice a pack of 25 will last you roughly 8-12 months if you feed every 10-14 days. You don't have to bump up the prey size, you can just offer a 2nd prey item sometimes or feed a couple of days sooner.

She's a little over 150 grams now, and the hopper mice I feed her no longer show any bump in her stomach after I feed. She's my first snake so I don't have a good eye for telling if she's a healthy weight but she seems maybe a little on the skinnier side to me.

I upgrade my boas when the next size up leaves a barely noticeable lump. If I'm not sure, I'll offer the boas the larger meal. If the bulge can be seen at a glance, I skip a feeding day and go back down to their old size. Your boa sounds about at the same weight I've upgraded my boas to small mice, so I might go ahead and buy some small mice. If it's too big, whatever hoppers you have left over should hold her over until she's big enough.

I usually see my boas on weaned rats around 1.5-2 years, so once on small mice they upgrade quick. That's even on a straight 10-14 day schedule, no weekly feeding. Once on rats, I see one prey size increase a year. But it really depends on how the individual snake grows.

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Originally Posted by JP23

She's a little over 150 grams now, and the hopper mice I feed her no longer show any bump in her stomach after I feed. She's my first snake so I don't have a good eye for telling if she's a healthy weight but she seems maybe a little on the skinnier side to me.

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Almost everything is addressed in this book,

Feeding, seasonal changes, caging, species and more.

If you own a boa constrictor, you owe yourself, and your boa reference material like this.