very thin snake

my hoggie is thin... and he has mites poor thing. so i'm wondering if i should feed him twice a week - (2 mice per feeding) for a couple of weeks to help him fatten up a little.

will this do him more harm than good?

:mouse2: :mouse2:

thanks for sharing your opinions. (and yes, i'm treating him for the mites)

This is an unschooled opinion, based soley on the the magnitude of Internet reading I've done on the subject...


I don't think it's healthy for any snake to be fed that frequently. Their digestive tracks and metabolism are not the same as mammals and they need several days, at the very least, to completely digest and be ready for another meal.

I also don't think a couple extra mice over the course of "a couple weeks" is going to have much of an impact anyhow. Long-term, consistent, proper feeding will fatten him up to a healthy weight. There just isn't any good way to rush the process, that I'm aware of.

I'd get the mite issue dealt with as well as a fecal done if he hasn't had one recently just to rule out any internal parasitic load then just feed him once weekly. Just give him the best, chubbiest, healthiest prey around and as long as he's healthy I'm sure he'll come along for you in time. I know from a couple of our rescues that once they are well and eating weekly, they do seem to make great strides but it's always about just being consistent with their feeding and letting them gain back their weight in a normal fashion. I'd avoid twice weekly feedings as they never seem to be recommended and I'd personally worry about pushing him too fast and causing issues with regurging if he can't digest quickly enough between feeds.

Rec goddess, have you ever heard of gut loading prey??? maybe that will work......

well i am raising the mice up myself and feeding them good stuff in an effort to have them as fat and squishy and healthy as possible. this way i can watch the mice and if one seems unhealthy they can be removed from the healthy bunch and not fed until it's looking healthy again.

nope, no fecel yet... he hasn't pooped for me! but i plan on taking it into the vet when he does. do i just scoop it up out of the enclosure and take it in?

As per my herp vets instructions....scoop up the feces, double zip loc bag them and keep in the fridge (not freezer), bring to the office asap. I've never had to do it but I think you can also have your vet vent swab a snake that hasn't pooped for you to check for things but best to phone your own vet for advice on that as far as how effective it is (as compared to a fecal float).

just spoke to my vet's assistant rose - she suggests that we just treat the snakes for parasites regardless... so thursday i'll take dexter and drake into the vets to be weighed and then she'll give me the doses to inject into their dinners...

that way, everyone can be treated for price of getting one fecel done. :D

one more question: one or two prey items per week? i read somewhere that two prey items is not good for boas...

agree or disagree?

i only have mice available right now and want to keep him on mice... but one, IMO isn't enough for him. he's very interested in that second mouse when i put it in - so... what do you suggest?

I would feed 1 appropriate sized Rat once a week. Rats are better than mice, plus they taste GREAT!

If he's big enough for a rat, 2 mice would be okay. The one prey item is ideal if the prey size is appropriate, but if mice are all you have go for 2.

For juvenile boas you can feed every 5 days. I wouldn't go any closer together than that. You can keep them on that schedule till they're about 6-8 months old. And yes, you can feed two prey items at a time, I've done that with mine. Especially when they're at the point where the next size up prey item is too big, but what you've been feeding isn't enough. Boas are very good about not over feeding, so offer a second item, if he doesn't take it, he's had enough.

And J32A2 has a point, rats are meatier than mice, so if you can get him on weaned rats, or hoppers, your hogg will bulk up faster.

I'd definitely seek the advice of your vet as far as feeding bigger meals while the snake is being medicated. I've never had to treat for internal parasites but meds are meds, so ask the expert is my take on that in all situations.

As far as a healthy, big boa like Rauri....we feed him multiples occasionally when a single larger prey item isn't readily available or for our own convenience. Rauri cleans up my extra feeder rats that are outgrowing what our BP's can manage and seems quite content to slurp them up. Remember though at one point of his life Rauri was a pet store pet snake so he's was taught early in life to eat basically any prey item with equal ease so for him a rat, a GP or a bunny of any size he can manage is just cool beans! We just make sure that we never overdo his total volume of prey whether it's one large one or multiple smaller ones.

As I said though, please do seek your vet's advice as well as the advice of really experienced, long time boa folks. Rauri is our only boa thus far and we are still learning as we go along too.

Boas in general can regurge easier than any of the pythons. So I would rather see you feed on a 5 day schedule for awhile than give mutiple prey items. With boas I always use a much more conservative approach then I do with my pythons. :)

Also remember that boas aren't going to have that nice rounded look that pythons do... they seem almost squarish, just because of the way they're built.

jo,

he isn't medicated yet. we are still battling these mites.

since it took so long to get the P.A.M. (almost a week longer than expected) drake was blue when we finally got the package... so now we are waiting for him to complete his shed (which is all messed up from the mineral oil) and once that's all done and he's been treated for mites THEN we'll make the vet visit. i don't want to take him there with mites. they treat lots of snakes and i wouldn't want to pass along mites to another person's snake.

so... hopefully by the end of next week we'll have everything taken care of with drake. in the meantime we are leaving him alone and letting him eat, explore his enclosure and get comfy with his new home.

in the end of all of this... i hope we have a wonderful relationship - him and i - but i'm quite sure he's going to be my naughties snake - just from what he's shown me already LOL

thanks for your advice everyone...