Boa length/thickness

Hey, quick question about my boa, Nagini. She has been growing faster than any animal I've ever owned, and it's been crazy keeping up with how fast we end up bumping up her prey size!

My question is about the length of the snake and how 'fat' they get. I'm not sure how thick boas are supposed to be at her age. She has gotten 4 times thicker than she was as a baby, probably more, but compared to how much longer she is growing she still has basically the same shape as a baby snake. She doesn't look horribly skinny, but she isn't as bulky as some of the other snakes that I'd guess are near her age(though they didn't post an age next to the pics, so I'm not sure) You can't see her bones or anything, she's not wrinkled.. She looks very toned, just still has more of that young snake look to her instead of the big fat more grown snake look. I guess she sort of looks like a healthy corn snake. Still new to boas, just want to make sure we aren't over/under feeding her. Her prey is as wide around as her thickest part of her body, and she always has a noticeable lump after she eats, which is every 7 days.


I'm not sure on her age exactly, so it's hard to know what she's supposed to look like. For sure less than a year. I just wanted to make sure she looked healthy before we did anything crazy. I don't see many pics of boas in her age group so I don't know if she is a good weight or not. Always a good idea to double check right?

Okay, here are some photos..

Size reference for when she was a younger snake. Photos taken this EDIT: march! My bad
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k2...3_j54mF-XL.jpg
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k2...2_Md6gT-XL.jpg

Photos from last night
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k2...7_949115_n.jpg
http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k2..._7706893_n.jpg
^Same hand that was holding her in the photos from May
She also looks bigger in person. She's got a very round body, it just shows up looking so small in photos, that I just needed to be sure we were taking good care of her.

Females will get a foot or so bigger than a male and a lot thicker. You can tell that she is not quite a yearling but looks healthy. She will grow some more in the next year or so but get a lot thicker.

Even though boa's will eat like garbage disposals they typically wont eat unless they are hungry. My Boa's eat every 7 days and for the first time my Hog Island did not eat on the 7th day or 10th, so it looks like it could be 14 days.

Thank you for the response! I went back and checked, it looks like we bought her in late December, so she's almost 8 months old now? She does eat like a garbage disposal for sure. Her last feeding I got a little worried that I may have given her a little too much(didn't have the right size rat, so gave her two smaller prey items that looked to be about equal to what she should take, but she was left with QUITE the large lump) but she's digested it and is ready to get back to eating again, so that's good.

I was hoping to hear something like that, I figured she was getting a lot of her baby growth out of the way, I know they grow fastest when they are young, and that she will start to bulk up soon.

We gotta get to working on her full size cage soon :rolleye2: she's already longer than our ball python and getting to outgrow her large tub!

The more I look at your "baby" the more I think it could be a suriname x maybe with a colombian? I hope someone else chimes in but I do believe you have a bcc on your hands. Look up suriname or bcc and colombian and compare some pics. you can also count the saddles. It hard to tell from your pics but if youre are looking at her it should be easy to tell.

If it is a Bcc you should plan on a 6 or 8ft cage for a female ;)

Ah, she was actually pure colombian(at least directly from her parents) from a jungle to jungle breeding according to the breeder--The breeder suspects she is a very low apparent jungle because of her 'barely' wonky saddles and some other jungle-y traits. But I don't know, maybe she has some BCC grandparent lol! ;)

I've never heard her called possible BCC hybrid before! :P I'll keep it in mind if she does end up getting outrageously big(Oh Nathan would be thrilled!)

Check out http://www.riobravoreptiles.com/ and see if you can match him up

I don't have her with me right now, but I found a good picture of her back from when she was younger

http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k2...n/P3230367.jpg

When counting saddles I'm supposed to count all the way to the vent right? Well, on this picture it looks like she has 18(maybe 19?)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rperry03

The more I look at your "baby" the more I think it could be a suriname x maybe with a colombian? I hope someone else chimes in but I do believe you have a bcc on your hands. Look up suriname or bcc and colombian and compare some pics. you can also count the saddles. It hard to tell from your pics but if youre are looking at her it should be easy to tell.
If it is a Bcc you should plan on a 6 or 8ft cage for a female ;)

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I see what your getting at by the coloration of the baby pic, but the newer pic looks more creamy almost "jungly" definitely Colombian and BCC tend to have peaks on their saddles definitely no peaks on this boa. Plus saddle count isn't always accurate so I don't even count saddles, knowing heritage is the only way to know for sure. Now to the op I would feed her a hopper or weanling rat every 7 days and move up prey size as it's required by her. She looks healthy, just long and could use a little girth. Very pretty boa by the way would love to see some outdoor pics of her :please:

I can't find my book but I always forget the techniques. Ill have to search for the way and how many saddles.

;) I'll see if I can set up a new outdoor photoshoot sometime soon! Hopefully I can catch her the day after she sheds--She's always prettiest not immediately after shedding, but just 24-48 hours later-she turned bright white as a hatchling, but now turns to a beautiful yellow gold!

We've been feeding her hopper rats, we'll probably move up to weanling rats now(if the rodent breeder near me would answer his email! :( ) since she isn't getting any girth--and we'll get some various bigger sizes at the convention coming up september 10th!

Thanks for the comments everyone!

She looks very healthy now! I like to compare baby boas to lanky kids - they're healthy like that, and then as they age they tend to fill out more. Something with boas you tend to need to watch for is obesity because they're lower metabolism snakes, but your girl looks very good :gj:

Thanks for the comment! It's interesting, there are so many people who keep ridiculously obese boas, it's sometimes hard to tell where skinny, healthy, and overweight is because each person has their own views! I know what I think is a fat boa, it's just these 'tween' stages I needed a little help on. I know Nagini is very strong and active, it just seems like all the rodents are going directly to making her longer and there's not much left to get her girthier(which means we feed her more rodents, and those still just make her longer! XD)! She shows no sign of slowing down on the growth though! I think we are possibly going to have a big girl on our hands! :D

She looks great. She's definitely a Columbian - no peaks on the saddles, even small ones. As far as her growth, I think she looks good. Keep in mind that genetics will also play a big role. If she came from big parents, she'll probably be bigger. I have a female that came from really big parents - her mom was an 8 + footer, so my girl is growing faster than any other snake I have.
All in all, I say your girl looks good, and, yes - boas grow a lot!

Very pretty boa! I have a little one that looks like she is just getting long also. I can tell that she is getting a little girth to. I read some where that you don't want bulk them up to fast that you will end up with a fat snake with a little head :) Can't wait to see outdoor pics also.

Yeah, I had never doubted her being colombian until the comment. I think the weirdness of the saddles came from her jungle parents. Hoping that as she ages she shows more signs of the trait!

And thanks for the help guys. I know there are a lot of arguments about breeders and owners making their snakes too obese and 'pin headed', and I wanted to keep her on a healthy diet--I just wanted to make sure she wasn't too close to the other extreme. I felt confident myself in person, but it never hurts to double check with others who have more experience!