David EATS Goliath! (video)

[Terminal]

Great video and the boy is quite cute.

[dkatz4]

Sauzo, thanks for the thorough reply! Let me clarify one thing: he poops 7 days after eating, not every 7 days. I know exactly what you mean by "hips", such a bad look, can't imagine why anyone lets it get to that point (not trying body-shame). A little tricky for me to vary food type- not many options in my area, but I will keep an eye out. Seems like for the time being I will add a few days to my current schedule, keep it closer to a full two weeks or more, then slow way down after his 2 year old growth spurt. To be honest, when I got him I was nervous about keeping a snake so I saught one out that would be little, but after getting comfortable I realize that a big guy would've been great so I want to allow him to reach his full size potential but safely and healthfully. I was aware of the dangers of over feeding, but didn't realize how easy it is to do so accidentally. I guess the best thing to do is just appreciate Irwin for his cute little self and get him a BIG friend :-D.

[CloudtheBoa]

Their growth spurt is during their second year, so you're not entering it, it's about to end. My boa went from growing 2-3" every other week to barely any growth once he turned 2. He grew maybe a foot by the time he turned 3, and he's grown half a foot since he turned 3, and he's going to be 5 in August.

Boas grow slowly, and dwarves even slower, it doesn't matter if it takes them a little longer to get to size, and is actually healthier. 3'-4' is a reasonable size for a dwarf male, so it's possible he may only grow another foot at most.


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[Kam]

The background music was the best ever!

[piedpipper]

If you guys haven't seen the "Cambodian boy sleeps with python" video, that is what an EXTREMELY overfed snake looks like. And pythons are harder to overfeed.
Supposedly they fed this burm 4-5 chickens a week and gave it to the zoo because they "no longer could afford to feed it" lol. Little did they know one of those chickens a month would've been more than sufficient.
You can really obviously see those "hips". The tail is ridiculously narrow compared to the body.

Heres a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8uPhuXQNiM

It's pretty funny that the narrator is worried about the snake eating the boy. The poor snake is so fat it can barely move!

[dkatz4]

I see what you mean about the python, that thing can barely move, I wonder if it has slimmed down at the sanctuary. Makes sad to think of they day it left, must have been heartbreaking for the kid.

Kam! How goes the search? Find a new friend yet?

[dkatz4]

Update: despite my bragging he has not pooped yet but he did have a nice clean shed so I went ahead and fed him again yesterday which was exactly 2 weeks from his last meal (video). This rat was a bit smaller than the last one though still in the same size category just on the small end of it. I recorded it again, not for another silly video but just for my own edification. once again he kept it clamped for about two minutes and sniffed around for 15 minutes before actually eating. Any ideas about this behavior? I'm not worried or anything because he is eating just fine but very curious.

[Gio]

I always feed on a schedule, to ensure the snake is getting time for their organs to return to a normal state and stay there for a bit. Even feeding my boa a large rat every 4-5 weeks and fasting him 90 days, he's still getting more food than he would in the wild, but spacing it out like that is much healthier.

Until he turns 3, yes, 10-14 days is appropriate. But as Sauzo mentioned, I would err closer to 14 days than 10 days with that size of a meal. It's not overly large, but it's not something I personally would feed my boas of his age every feeding. The older they are, the smaller the bulge you want to see.

Males reach sexual maturity at 18 months, and reach physical maturity at 5-6 years, maybe even up to 9 years. Females reach sexual maturity at 4 years, and physical maturity at 5-6, up to 9 years.

This is solid info.

It is extremely important to let the snake (boa constrictor in particular) empty out completely. There are several important chemical and organ size changes that occur during feeding and digestion. It is critical that a BC has the time to enter, process, complete the entire cycle and stabilize for a time.

Gus Rentfro is my favorite authority on boa constrictors. He is world class when it comes to knowledge of these animals and has deep knowledge of the feeding habits in captivity and in the wild.

Vin Russo (friend of Gus's) states in his book, THE COMPLETE BOA CONSTRICTOR that he found BCs to grow more when they are NOT fed over the winter.

The largest of the boas are found in the wild and they are the oldest snakes. That is according to Gus Rentfro.

You may hear of big boas in captivity, but many of them are on the fast track to a short life and will probably not reach their true size potential.

A HEALTHY, large BC should have no problem living into it's late 20's. Breeders, like Rentfro, have had boas nearly 30 years old produce perfect litters after breeding.

So as far as feeding goes; I most certainly would let your BC completely empty out before feeding again.

If you feed large once, allow some time and then feed a smaller meal next. Mix up your prey type for variation in diet. Rats, quail, small, small rabbits, (if it can handle them in time), and use variation in prey size as well.

The "schedule" I follow is actually no schedule at all. The boa's digestion process and activity level dictates how I'll feed. If you want a more active BC, feed less. You will see hunting behaviors and a lot more moving around than what a "fat and happy" BC would show you. This is very similar to snakes with very high metabolisms. They eat, clean out and start moving. Boas will hunt and forage, but they need to be hungry to do it. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a hungry BC.



Once fully mature, I'd drop your temps in the winter and skip feeding through the season until spring.


Gus once wrote that he felt it was very easy to overfeed a BC, but almost impossible to underfeed one.

OK,

That was my rant.

Have fun and enjoy your boa!

Neat video too.

[dkatz4]

Very informative rant, Geo. Thanks for all the info. Now I had read from a variety of sources that it was perfectly fine to feed my snake before he poops, are you saying that maybe that is not such a good idea? Just to be clear? Also bear in mind that my snake is not a baby but is not done with the initial growth stage of his life either, not quite two years old yet.
On a slightly related note I would love to pick up a copy of vin's "complete boa" but it is a very big and very expensive book – I wonder if there is an abridged version for people who have absolutely no interest in breeding?

[CloudtheBoa]

It actually isn't that big a book. Expensive maybe. It's $40 on Amazon.

(There's also a lot of big photos in there, so the reading is quite manageable.)

As far as waiting for poop I usually don't, unless my snake reliably poops before their next scheduled feeding day. In which case I'm not really waiting.

That said, my sunglow poops maybe every 2 months or every 3-4 meals, but she gets fed every 10-14 days. I may space her out even more if I need to though...






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