What is worng with my Boa?

Lot's of great advise given here. OP, you should take a breath and absorb some of it. Power feeding your boa like that is putting it's long term health at risk. You are already seeing some of the short term problems associated with overfeeding and it's going to get worse. Not trying to jump on the dog pile, but there are some smart folks in this thread. Years and years of real world experience with boas. Both captive bred and wild. You should listen up. Your boa will love you for it and you might learn something in the process.

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Originally Posted by MissterDog

Everyone is telling you what you're doing is harmful to your boa, have you considered there may be a reason for that?

You have to really ask yourself, what's more important? Your ego or your snake's health? Is it more important to prove and insist your way is best or making the correct adjustments for your snake to thrive?

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Of course my snake,s health. He is my beloved boy. He is healthy. There are always exceptions to the rules. All you know that he was consipated 2 times and on large rats. Based on that the assumption was made that he will get injured, get sick and eventually die. It,s difficult for you to judge things like that. I have him since he was one month old and i have devoted lots of time and effort for him. I know his feeding schedule and habits from the begining. The rule is "No Boa in his age should be eating large rats, specially if it was fed live. Because the meal is too big and the risk of injury to the snake is big from a live large rat". Absolutely true but he is an exception to this rule. Give me the benefit of the doubt please and consider him a special case. I,m doing my best to care for him. I will be posting updates about him and you will see how well he is doing.

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Originally Posted by AbsoluteApril

How are you determining what he needs to be fed?
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Based on several things like the time he needs to digest the meal, the time he needs to swallow it. How long after eating he starts getting active again. If he remains hungry after eating or not. His general health and growth

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Originally Posted by Dutti

Of course my snake,s health. He is my beloved boy. He is healthy. There are always exceptions to the rules. All you know that he was consipated 2 times and on large rats. Based on that the assumption was made that he will get injured, get sick and eventually die. It,s difficult for you to judge things like that. I have him since he was one month old and i have devoted lots of time and effort for him. I know his feeding schedule and habits from the begining. The rule is "No Boa in his age should be eating large rats, specially if it was fed live. Because the meal is too big and the risk of injury to the snake is big from a live large rat". Absolutely true but he is an exception to this rule. Give me the benefit of the doubt please and consider him a special case. I,m doing my best to care for him. I will be posting updates about him and you will see how well he is doing.

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I don't doubt that you care for him, I don't question you are dedicating your time to him at all. It's your persistence to ignore the advise from the experienced folk here, explaining to you about the risks and seeing you get defensive when they are giving you reasons why you need to change your approach is what's that's making me question your judgement.

I do sincerely hope you're right and he is a special case, but it's a little concerning that you seem to be dismissing what others are saying with "what I'm doing is fine anyways" attitude.


Best of luck.

Ok looks like you're stuck with your opinion. Hopefully you don't take care of any other animals improperly because you think they are an exception and don't need proper care. Hopefully you will learn from your mistakes. From the stubbornness and ignorance you've shown in this thread, you probably wont, but we can always hope.

Also, how can you say he is an exception when your are experiencing problems directly related to digestion? Like, seriously? I think it's VERY clear what your problem is.

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Originally Posted by tegu

Ok looks like you're stuck with your opinion. Hopefully you don't take care of any other animals improperly because you think they are an exception and don't need proper care. Hopefully you will learn from your mistakes. From the stubbornness and ignorance you've shown in this thread, you probably wont, but we can always hope.

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I,m not saying every animal i have is exceptional. My yearling dumeril boa is on small rats. I,m not saying he is a super boa. But he is really an exception to that rule which i have just mentioned. Why? His size is bigger than his age, he is a skilled talented hunter, he has enough muscle, bones and strong digestive system to crush a large rat.

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Originally Posted by Dutti

Of course my snake,s health. He is my beloved boy. He is healthy. There are always exceptions to the rules. All you know that he was consipated 2 times and on large rats. Based on that the assumption was made that he will get injured, get sick and eventually die. It,s difficult for you to judge things like that. I have him since he was one month old and i have devoted lots of time and effort for him. I know his feeding schedule and habits from the begining. The rule is "No Boa in his age should be eating large rats, specially if it was fed live. Because the meal is too big and the risk of injury to the snake is big from a live large rat". Absolutely true but he is an exception to this rule. Give me the benefit of the doubt please and consider him a special case. I,m doing my best to care for him. I will be posting updates about him and you will see how well he is doing.

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This has got to be a joke. Your snake has been experiencing digestion problems, a "special case" would not have had constipation even once! Constipation doesn't just happen for no reason! Your snake is not an exception to the widely accepted rule that a boa his size should not be eating large rats, and I hope you will come to see this. Hopefully before it's too late.

Wow this argument is still going lol? For your info, you are also overfeeding your dumerils. My 1.2 year old female dumerils is on adult mice still. You do know snakes are designed to go long periods of time without food or small amounts of food. You basically are killing your snakes with kindness.

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Originally Posted by Dutti

Based on several things like the time he needs to digest the meal, the time he needs to swallow it. How long after eating he starts getting active again. If he remains hungry after eating or not. His general health and growth

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Boas can take weeks to digest a meal especially a large rat for such a small snake.

Time it takes to swallow a meal means nothing. My suriname swallows her hopper mice in about 1-2 mins as well as all my other snakes except my retic who takes probably a couple mins longer but he eats XL guinea pigs.

All snakes are hungry. My boas are all coiled up ready for another meal after they finish the first. Doesnt mean they need it or its good for them.

General health isnt going to be evident right away. You wont see the damage done until it has been done. Reptiles are very good at hiding illness as a sick reptile is easy prey.

And growth. Well you are piling food into him, of course he is going to grow. The problem is his organs are not designed to grow that fast so there is enormous stress being put on them. Imagine you working at 110% 24/7 for 10 years. Something would eventually give out.

As for a 'special case', the only special case i see is a boa that was power fed on too big of prey being grown too fast. And by the sounds of it, a dumerils that is there as well. Heck my 4.5' BP gets small rats and even my 5.5' sunglow BCI gets small rats here and there. You will eventually learn with snakes that 'less is more' with most of them especially boas.