Adult Size and Age

Boelens seem to be pretty easy to take care of. The only issue I have is keeping the humidity above 50% while keeping the enclosure around 81 degrees, which can lead to incomplete sheds. Other than that, no problems, not to mention my boelens is the most friendly python I ever had. I will correct you on one thing, Boelens are know to have a FAST metabolism.

What species of pythons (females) have the best odds of growing to 8-11' when fully grown? I believe there are many that fall under and some that go over, but not many that fit this range. I can only think of the Coastal Carpet, BH and Boelens.

I'm checking in with an update. She now is feeding on 170-190g large rats every 7 days and is about 7'9". She does appear to be adding a lot of girth now and don't feel comfortable increasing the rat size until she thins out by either growing in length or adding girth to her neck/head. Her head/neck looks like its starting to be to small for her body or vice versa. Can enclosure size play any role into growth? She has be cramped in a 4ft wide x 2ft tall x 2ft deep enclosure for close to three years now. I plan to have her in a 8ft wide x 4ft tall x 4ft deep enclosure in the next 2 months. Hopefully/can she begin to grow in length again?

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Originally Posted by leosantare

I had a black Headed female before I got the female Boelens, which is one of my favorites. Although she died at 7 years old from FLD. Her underside actually started to turn green and was passing neon green urates. She was 8.5ft and by no means fat which my vet at the time agreed. I was feeding her 1 large rat every 7 days, which is why I raised the question 1 large rat vs two medium rats. In the end, I don't think large rats are bad and my black head just got FLD with me doing things correctly. After she passed I wanted to get another python and reached out to many about my 8-11' size range and heard the boelens is just as big as the BH and more heavily bodied. Well, this doesn't seem to be the case. My female boelens who turned 4 years old 30 days ago is about 7'3" and I just fed her a 186gram rat and feel that it may have been to large, I think I will back down to 170grams.

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Side track here:
What is FLD? Couldn't find anything that matched it in a search.

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Originally Posted by leosantare

I'm checking in with an update. She now is feeding on 170-190g large rats every 7 days and is about 7'9". She does appear to be adding a lot of girth now and don't feel comfortable increasing the rat size until she thins out by either growing in length or adding girth to her neck/head. Her head/neck looks like its starting to be to small for her body or vice versa. Can enclosure size play any role into growth? She has be cramped in a 4ft wide x 2ft tall x 2ft deep enclosure for close to three years now. I plan to have her in a 8ft wide x 4ft tall x 4ft deep enclosure in the next 2 months. Hopefully/can she begin to grow in length again?

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Enclosure size has nothing to do with growth. A larger cage MAY increase her movement, in turn giving her more exercise and that exercise may recruit more muscle leading to her urge to feed more.

However, I find my boa constrictor will not use his cage space if he is always well fed. I find him more active when he has to hunt for his food and it is not available all of the time. My coastal carpet is all over the place, but she is not eating at all this winter.

It sounds like you have seen some growth as of late which is what you want.

Here is a little info that Gus Rentfro used to give people that wanted big boa constrictors. He would tell folks that the largest boas in nature are the oldest boas.
In captivity most people overfeed their animals. Overfed animals (snakes) NEVER reach the golden ages of properly fed snakes. A long, lean older snake is better than a young fatty that grew to quickly and tuned inactive and unhealthy.


Patience and time is what you need here. When they give the approximate size of a species, the research is often from the wild. In the wild, the sample is from the specimens they find, and little is known about the ages, odds are the BIG ones are the oldest ones. When they give the " size range" the largest sample animal is usually the exception and not the rule. So you get the smallest, with a give or take, everything in-between and the largest sample give or take.

In captivity some of the growth equation changes but a snake that is kept healthy and is allowed to feed properly, digest, eliminate and hunt again will eventually grow to it's potential over the long haul.

I'm not well versed on the diet of your snake, but if there is some variation in prey type and prey size, look into it. I feed my snakes quail, rats, and small rabbits.

If the need for size is immediate, add another snake that is an adult, or close to it.

Otherwise stay the course.

By chance do you know the age and size of the parents of your animal?

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Originally Posted by distaff

Side track here:
What is FLD? Couldn't find anything that matched it in a search.

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FLD is Fatty Liver Disease

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Originally Posted by Gio

Enclosure size has nothing to do with growth. A larger cage MAY increase her movement, in turn giving her more exercise and that exercise may recruit more muscle leading to her urge to feed more.

However, I find my boa constrictor will not use his cage space if he is always well fed. I find him more active when he has to hunt for his food and it is not available all of the time. My coastal carpet is all over the place, but she is not eating at all this winter.

It sounds like you have seen some growth as of late which is what you want.

Here is a little info that Gus Rentfro used to give people that wanted big boa constrictors. He would tell folks that the largest boas in nature are the oldest boas.
In captivity most people overfeed their animals. Overfed animals (snakes) NEVER reach the golden ages of properly fed snakes. A long, lean older snake is better than a young fatty that grew to quickly and tuned inactive and unhealthy.


Patience and time is what you need here. When they give the approximate size of a species, the research is often from the wild. In the wild, the sample is from the specimens they find, and little is known about the ages, odds are the BIG ones are the oldest ones. When they give the " size range" the largest sample animal is usually the exception and not the rule. So you get the smallest, with a give or take, everything in-between and the largest sample give or take.

In captivity some of the growth equation changes but a snake that is kept healthy and is allowed to feed properly, digest, eliminate and hunt again will eventually grow to it's potential over the long haul.


I'm not well versed on the diet of your snake, but if there is some variation in prey type and prey size, look into it. I feed my snakes quail, rats, and small rabbits.

If the need for size is immediate, add another snake that is an adult, or close to it.

Otherwise stay the course.

By chance do you know the age and size of the parents of your animal?

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I was hoping enclosure size had something to do with her growth. She still is very active, she takes a nap for about 3 days after she eats but then she all over the place. Her feeding response is just as strong, if not stronger than always. Boelens are CH from West Papua and had no way of getting info on her parents. I guess I will continue to feed rats every 7 days until she is 5 years old, then every 10 days. Like I said she is about 7'9" and hope she gets to be 8'6". I would be happy with that. She is awesome and the friendliest snake I ever met. She actually rubs up against me with her head/face in a twisting way as if she was a cat! What would you say the chances of her growing 9" in 12 months are?

http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file.../4/jasmine.jpg

You'll be fine.

That's a beautiful animal. It will get bigger and better with time.