Suggestions for feeding a small yearling boa?

I recently got my first boa imperator, Genesis, a beautiful little 2018 male Hypo Blood from Vin Russo. After giving him a week to settle into his new home, he had his first feeding yesterday and responded with gusto (which is delightful to me, as someone accustomed to the coaxing and wheedling that my BPs sometimes need, haha).

My dilemma is this: The feeder mice I have are too small, so I'm trying to decide how to space them out.

Vin told me this boy has been taking hopper mice every 10 days, but should be able to move up in size relatively soon. I bought a bag of f/t hoppers, but clearly I'm not used to eyeballing prey size for the narrower boa body type yet, or remembering to account for their longer feeding intervals, so now I have a supply of 19 small to medium sized hopper mice to get through. [facepalm] Unfortunately I don't have anyone else to feed these to, since my BPs are well beyond that size range and have already been switched to rats anyway.

Would it be reasonable to feed these too-small hoppers every 7 days instead of every 10 days, until the supply is exhausted, and then go up to the proper prey size and go back to feeding every 10 days (or every 14 days, as we'll probably have run into the winter months by then)? I don't want to accidentally overfeed him due to ignorance or overzealousness, but I also don't want to underfeed him as he's still quite small and young. I also want to take into account the fact that his morph is Central American in origin and is not going to be a very big boa to begin with, so some standard feeding guidelines may not necessarily apply.

Any thoughts would be appreciated! Here's a photo of Genesis from Vin, since I haven't wanted to pester him too much yet. :)

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...534997e8_o.jpg

I’d aim for every 7-10 days until they’re used up or become comically small for him. Right before I bumped my Suriname up to small mice I was giving him two hoppers every ~10 days instead of one every 7 days. Handled it no problem.
Definitely better to er on the side of too small prey than too large though. Basically you want very little lump if any after feeding.
Nice looking Boa btw!


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Beautiful boa! :bow: I'd do much the same, feed one "medium" hopper a bit sooner than the "10 days" for a while, then maybe feed 2 of the "smaller" ones
together towards the end of your supply, every 10 days. And don't worry too much...nature never supplies meals this perfectly anyway. ;) And when he's in
shed, just skip the food until after.

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Originally Posted by jmcrook

I’d aim for every 7-10 days until they’re used up or become comically small for him. Right before I bumped my Suriname up to small mice I was giving him two hoppers every ~10 days instead of one every 7 days. Handled it no problem.
Definitely better to er on the side of too small prey than too large though. Basically you want very little lump if any after feeding.
Nice looking Boa btw!


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Thank you! Ha, the hoppers aren't "comically" small for him quite yet, but still noticeably so. No visible lump after feeding, that's for sure.

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

Beautiful boa! :bow: I'd do much the same, feed one "medium" hopper a bit sooner than the "10 days" for a while, then maybe feed 2 of the "smaller" ones
together towards the end of your supply, every 10 days. And don't worry too much...nature never supplies meals this perfectly anyway. ;) And when he's in
shed, just skip the food until after.

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Thank you! Right now I feel like I have to set a time limit on myself so I don't spend ages just sitting by his tub admiring him. I'm sure it just weirds him out, haha. And is it a definite must to skip the feeding while he's in shed? My BPs will sometimes eat during shed and sometimes won't, but I don't know if boas work a bit differently in that regard.

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Originally Posted by RedRabbit

Thank you! Right now I feel like I have to set a time limit on myself so I don't spend ages just sitting by his tub admiring him. I'm sure it just weirds him out, haha. And is it a definite must to skip the feeding while he's in shed? My BPs will sometimes eat during shed and sometimes won't, but I don't know if boas work a bit differently in that regard.

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Beautiful Boa and what a treat picking one up from Vin!

i think you’ll find Boas hardly ever refuse a meal. During shed, mine isn’t as energetic when it comes to feeding but he’s never refused. Looking forward to your progression thread. Congrats!

Great looking boa. I agree with the feeding advice already given. One prey item every 7-10 days or two prey items every 10-14 days should work well. You can offer food while they're in shed. Some snakes will eat and others won't. I prefer to wait until after they shed to feed them.

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Originally Posted by RedRabbit

Thank you! Right now I feel like I have to set a time limit on myself so I don't spend ages just sitting by his tub admiring him. I'm sure it just weirds him out, haha. And is it a definite must to skip the feeding while he's in shed? My BPs will sometimes eat during shed and sometimes won't, but I don't know if boas work a bit differently in that regard.

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Too bad snakes aren't like cats...I think they'd love all this admiration from us, lol.

It's not a "definite must" to skip feeding when a snake is in shed, but it does help to keep from over-feeding a boa that has a slower metabolism to begin with. ;)

Some snakes of all kinds accept food in shed while others don't...it's very individual, but also some have no trouble digesting & shedding simultaneously, while for others
it makes for messed up sheds because both digestion and shedding requires good hydration from their bodies & some snakes don't multi-task well.

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Originally Posted by ckuhn003

Beautiful Boa and what a treat picking one up from Vin!

i think you’ll find Boas hardly ever refuse a meal. During shed, mine isn’t as energetic when it comes to feeding but he’s never refused. Looking forward to your progression thread. Congrats!

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Thank you! I almost failed to snatch him up in time. Vin had just posted him as part of a trio of Hypo Blood holdbacks from last summer's litter. I emailed him immediately, but for some reason Vin's response got shunted into my Spam folder, so I didn't find it until several days later, when I had started wondering about the radio silence. By the time I hurriedly replied, two of the trio had already sold - but as luck would have it, the one left was this little guy, the one I actually liked the most out of the three. Things have a funny way of working out.

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Originally Posted by EL-Ziggy

Great looking boa. I agree with the feeding advice already given. One prey item every 7-10 days or two prey items every 10-14 days should work well. You can offer food while they're in shed. Some snakes will eat and others won't. I prefer to wait until after they shed to feed them.

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Thank you! And agreed, I'll probably start deferring feeds during shed not just in the boa's case, but for my BPs as well. Even the less picky of the two has become gradually more likely to refuse while in blue, and then it's just another thawed, excessively blow-dried rat gone to waste.

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

Too bad snakes aren't like cats...I think they'd love all this admiration from us, lol.

It's not a "definite must" to skip feeding when a snake is in shed, but it does help to keep from over-feeding a boa that has a slower metabolism to begin with. ;)

Some snakes of all kinds accept food in shed while others don't...it's very individual, but also some have no trouble digesting & shedding simultaneously, while for others
it makes for messed up sheds because both digestion and shedding requires good hydration from their bodies & some snakes don't multi-task well.

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Ha! Very true ... and yet, I think I still prefer snakes. :) I like cats, and will happily be a pet-sitter for my friends' cats, but I've just never felt the need to have one myself.

"and some snakes don't multi-task well" <-- Pfft, and I can't even blame them. I'm no longer as good at multi-tasking as I used to be, either!

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Originally Posted by RedRabbit

I recently got my first boa imperator, Genesis, a beautiful little 2018 male Hypo Blood from Vin Russo. After giving him a week to settle into his new home, he had his first feeding yesterday and responded with gusto (which is delightful to me, as someone accustomed to the coaxing and wheedling that my BPs sometimes need, haha).

My dilemma is this: The feeder mice I have are too small, so I'm trying to decide how to space them out.

Vin told me this boy has been taking hopper mice every 10 days, but should be able to move up in size relatively soon. I bought a bag of f/t hoppers, but clearly I'm not used to eyeballing prey size for the narrower boa body type yet, or remembering to account for their longer feeding intervals, so now I have a supply of 19 small to medium sized hopper mice to get through. [facepalm] Unfortunately I don't have anyone else to feed these to, since my BPs are well beyond that size range and have already been switched to rats anyway.

Would it be reasonable to feed these too-small hoppers every 7 days instead of every 10 days, until the supply is exhausted, and then go up to the proper prey size and go back to feeding every 10 days (or every 14 days, as we'll probably have run into the winter months by then)? I don't want to accidentally overfeed him due to ignorance or overzealousness, but I also don't want to underfeed him as he's still quite small and young. I also want to take into account the fact that his morph is Central American in origin and is not going to be a very big boa to begin with, so some standard feeding guidelines may not necessarily apply.

Any thoughts would be appreciated! Here's a photo of Genesis from Vin, since I haven't wanted to pester him too much yet. :)

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...534997e8_o.jpg

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Stunning looking boa there RedRabbit, I love the colour of the bloods

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Originally Posted by RedRabbit

Ha! Very true ... and yet, I think I still prefer snakes. :) I like cats, and will happily be a pet-sitter for my friends' cats, but I've just never felt the need to have one myself.

"and some snakes don't multi-task well" <-- Pfft, and I can't even blame them. I'm no longer as good at multi-tasking as I used to be, either!

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I much prefer snakes too...I'm not a cat person but I've "cat-sat" before & took in a stray some years back & later re-homed. I'm a dog & snake person.

What wonderful luck, the way you managed to get this beautiful snake, despite the communications delay. :bounce:

Progress check! So, thanks to the unexpected addition of my younger boa, Q (for whom the previous batch of mice were a bit closer to the right size), we've gotten through the bag of too-small hoppers by feeding both Gen and Q every 7 days. Now that I've purchased fresh supplies of correctly sized mice for both of them -- weaned/small mice for Gen the yearling, and medium hoppers for 4-month-old Q -- my plan is to space Gen back to every 10 days, and further to every 14 days for the winter months of December through February. My question is more for the little guy, Q. Does he need more frequent feeding due to his younger age (i.e. every 7 days, and space to 10 days for the winter), or can he follow the same 10-14 day timing as Gen?

I'm facing the same question right now with Adelita. I think a 10-14 day schedule might be pushing it for a sub-yearling boa, but a 10-day schedule with a bit of a temperature drop (to the degree you'd want to do that with a young boa) should be fine.

For what it's worth, I'm putting Adelita on an 8-day schedule starting next week, with the possibility of moving to a 10-day schedule between December - February. Depending on how she's feeling and how her new enclosure shakes out, I may drop her basking temp from 90F to 88F and lower the humdity from 60-65% to 50-55% as well.

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Originally Posted by RedRabbit

... My question is more for the little guy, Q. Does he need more frequent feeding due to his younger age (i.e. every 7 days, and space to 10 days for the winter), or can he follow the same 10-14 day timing as Gen?

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If he were my snake, I'd feed every 7 days for a while & then gradually lengthen the time between meals & see how it goes. If he's ravenous, stay with 7 day intervals
for a while longer. Remember that wild snakes don't get meals delivered at specific intervals & they manage just fine, so don't beat yourself up if your schedule is less
than exact...some variations are natural anyway.

I fed my boa every 7 days as a baby. He’s a tad over a year now and I tried switching him to every 14 days but changed it to every 10. You don’t want them fat but you don’t want them skinny either. They should retain the classic boa shape without scale separation. Jason’s exotic reptiles has a good boa feeding video imo.


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Thanks for the input, everyone! Exactly the info I was looking for. I know that boas generally do better with a more restrained feeding regimen compared to BPs, and that it's easy to accidentally overfeed them, but I don't want to unwittingly undershoot, either. With the above advice in mind, does this sound like a reasonable plan for Q?

1. At this time, I will continue feeding him every 7 days.

2. For December-February, I will shift him (gradually) over to every 10 days. By December he will be around 5-6 months old and will be better able to tolerate the spacing, and this will observe the seasonal feeding schedule that seems to be recommended by the long-established boa breeders.

3. After February, I will bring him back up to feeding every 8-9 days for the remaining 4 months before he hits his 1-year mark.

4. Once he reaches the 1-year mark, he can be on the same 10-day schedule that Gen currently has.

If yes, then it's time for me to map out my calendar from now up through next June, haha!

Sounds like a plan! :D

Sounds good. Just remember there’s not necessarily only one correct way to do things. Pay close attention to your animal and adjust the feeding as needed and you should be ok. I love that boas never refuse a meal, makes set schedules much easier than with bp’s. So far my boa is definitely my favorite snake, don’t tell the others... haha. I definitely want to get more in the future.


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https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...1e24e0d270.jpg
Remembered I had this, might be of some assistance.


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