very thin snake

For juvenile boas you can feed every 5 days. I wouldn't go any closer together than that. You can keep them on that schedule till they're about 6-8 months old. And yes, you can feed two prey items at a time, I've done that with mine. Especially when they're at the point where the next size up prey item is too big, but what you've been feeding isn't enough. Boas are very good about not over feeding, so offer a second item, if he doesn't take it, he's had enough.

And J32A2 has a point, rats are meatier than mice, so if you can get him on weaned rats, or hoppers, your hogg will bulk up faster.

I'd definitely seek the advice of your vet as far as feeding bigger meals while the snake is being medicated. I've never had to treat for internal parasites but meds are meds, so ask the expert is my take on that in all situations.

As far as a healthy, big boa like Rauri....we feed him multiples occasionally when a single larger prey item isn't readily available or for our own convenience. Rauri cleans up my extra feeder rats that are outgrowing what our BP's can manage and seems quite content to slurp them up. Remember though at one point of his life Rauri was a pet store pet snake so he's was taught early in life to eat basically any prey item with equal ease so for him a rat, a GP or a bunny of any size he can manage is just cool beans! We just make sure that we never overdo his total volume of prey whether it's one large one or multiple smaller ones.

As I said though, please do seek your vet's advice as well as the advice of really experienced, long time boa folks. Rauri is our only boa thus far and we are still learning as we go along too.

Boas in general can regurge easier than any of the pythons. So I would rather see you feed on a 5 day schedule for awhile than give mutiple prey items. With boas I always use a much more conservative approach then I do with my pythons. :)

Also remember that boas aren't going to have that nice rounded look that pythons do... they seem almost squarish, just because of the way they're built.

jo,

he isn't medicated yet. we are still battling these mites.

since it took so long to get the P.A.M. (almost a week longer than expected) drake was blue when we finally got the package... so now we are waiting for him to complete his shed (which is all messed up from the mineral oil) and once that's all done and he's been treated for mites THEN we'll make the vet visit. i don't want to take him there with mites. they treat lots of snakes and i wouldn't want to pass along mites to another person's snake.

so... hopefully by the end of next week we'll have everything taken care of with drake. in the meantime we are leaving him alone and letting him eat, explore his enclosure and get comfy with his new home.

in the end of all of this... i hope we have a wonderful relationship - him and i - but i'm quite sure he's going to be my naughties snake - just from what he's shown me already LOL

thanks for your advice everyone...