Progression of Muriel the Albino Paradox

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Originally Posted by Fincayra

Huh. The breeder told me to keep her on pinkies for at least five feedings before starting on fuzzies. Can't help but doubt his judgement now. She is my first boa and I'm still learning. I'd like to feed her the remaining pinkies but if it's not recommended I guess I'll be taking another trip to the pet store.

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The breeder is right. The reason he said that is because on new boas, its best to start them on smaller food for a month or so to let them get adjusted. Too big of a prey too soon can cause regurgitation which will do more damage than just not feeding at all. This is fairly common for BCCs, which is why most people with BCC feed every 2 weeks regardless. A single regurgitation on a BCC can set it back months. So I would listen to your breeder and start her off on the pinkies. A snake has never died from too small of prey but has from too large and boas aren't like pythons, they should be fed smaller prey more often than really large meals less often. The breeder I got Vicky from was feeding her rat pups which are equivalent to adult mice. I started Vicky off on hopper mice and have now just moved her up to small adult mice. I just feed her every week vs the breeder who fed her every 10-14 days. I'll drop her down to every 14 days once she hits 1.5 years old.

The thing is that a mouse fuzzy would not be too big for that snake. BCI are not as prone to regurging as BCC, but feeding one pinky to that snake is underfeeding it and there is the possibility of milk bellies being harmful to their digestive system. OP should feed their boa more developed mice, as long as it does not leave a noticeable, or a barely noticeable lump, the baby should be fine.

They should be fed smaller prey slightly less often. Babies should be fed every 7-10 days and no more often than 7. You can feed every 2 weeks as babies if you wish but I feel you should feed them a bit more while they are growing, so I hold off on a biweekly schedule until they hit a year old.

Also, feeding an older mouse rather than a baby rat would provide more nutrition and calcium to a growing snake while still being small enough.


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I'd rather not throw away the pinkies I have left. I'm thinking it won't do her too much harm to offer them up till they're gone and then I can get the appropriately sized prey.

I was going to share a few pictures (I caught her parascoping yesterday) but I think this might be a little more urgent. Today I was handling Muriel and I noticed her vent seemed a little irritated. It looks like there is a little bit of crust and the area also looks a bit dark and swollen. It doesn't look that bad, but it was enough to get my attention. I tried to get pics but she was squirming too much. I'll see if my roommate can help me when he gets off work later. But for now, should I be concerned?

Without pictures, no way to really know. Rat fuzzies will work fine. Some people do argue the less calcium etc but I have raised almost all of my snakes on fuzzy rats as their first food and it seems those snakes grew faster than the ones I fed on mice. It probably is just the fact that rats have more "meat" per say for the size. Just feed off the pinkies, you can give her 2 if 1 isn't enough. A lot of people double up on smaller prey they got left plus sometimes your snake will end up in an "inbetween" size like I have had many times. During those times, I just double up on the smaller size food until they are big enough to easily take the next size up. Better to feed too small than too big especially for a boa.

Also I feed my boas once every week until they are about 1.5 years old, then I drop it to 2 weeks untl about 3 years old, then down to every 3-4 weeks although Rosey gets food about every 2-3 weeks cause she is always hungry even though I should be hard and fast about her. Also avoid feeding old or "jumbo" feeders as those usually are retired breeders or old rodents which have a higher fat content in them and boas don't digest fat well. Stick to medium or large rats. She should be good on large rats for a VERY long time and after that if you want you can feed rabbits.

Also has Muriel taken a poop since you've had her? Did it look normal? It wasn't all runny or smelled REALLY bad, like dry heaving bad? Maybe get a warm wet paper towel and gently try and wipe the vent area to see if is maybe dried on poop? Has she just shed? Sometimes babies will be in a rush to get out of shed and they will actually tear the membrane a little in the vent as the skin inside the vent also comes off in the shed(a little, not like a whole tube or anything). You will sometimes see a little blood on the shed at the vent area. Its normal and should be fine, just check the vent and make sure its not bleeding. As they get older, it stops happening and it only happens on some babies, not all.

Oh and to be clear, most boas can be started off on mouse hoppers or rat fuzzies right out of mom.

Nearly impossible to get pics, haha.

Checked today and her vent looks better, a little dirty at best. I haven't seen a poop yet, though- I'll keep an eye out. She hasn't shed yet either. But I think I was mostly being paranoid.

Just a couple of pics to share today. It was so cute to catch her parascoping. I've noticed she's very active in the evenings around 5:00-6:00pm when the sunlight spills into my room.

http://i.imgur.com/ijfJ4kR.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/29CgSkv.jpg

Love the pics, she is adorable!

She's so gorgeous!

She's lovely ♥

Enjoy how tiny she is. I got Cy when he was almost 1 month old and he was so little, only 64g. But I swear he started growing right before my eyes. He is almost 4x the size of when I got him and he's 10 months old.

What a gorgeous little girl!! I love that periscoping picture it is just perfect :D