What is worng with my Boa?

[tegu]

I have now a feeding plan for the future. I won,t be harming my BCI. No way! If I did I would be harming myself. I have to do a balancing act in which he gets all the vitamins and the right food necessary for him to grow and be a healthy beautiful strong adult Boa and not overfeeding him.

Ok so Im a little bit confused here. You have a different feeding schedule for the future, meaning you will be feeding him more apropriately? Why not just do that the whole way? WHY are you do a "balancing act"? That doesnt make any sense.

[Sunnieskys]

Ok so Im a little bit confused here. You have a different feeding schedule for the future, meaning you will be feeding him more apropriately? Why not just do that the whole way? WHY are you do a "balancing act"? That doesnt make any sense.

Because he is just appeasing us at this point. HOW are you changing. I also see you have BP's are you over feeding them as well? I am really worried about your animals.

[Dutti]

Ok so Im a little bit confused here. You have a different feeding schedule for the future, meaning you will be feeding him more apropriately? Why not just do that the whole way? WHY are you do a "balancing act"? That doesnt make any sense.

When ever i try to end this thread, someone ask a question and i get at the end accused of wanting attention!
Today my BCI shed his skin in one Piece, the whole complete shedding process took 8 days. He is probably the most healthy BCI in his age. No worries. I meant by balancing act is that i won,t be overfeeding or underfeeding him. I will be feeding him more appropriately.

[Sauzo]

You do realize it is almost impossible to 'underfeed' a boa. You would have to literally feed him something crazy like a hopper mouse once every 6 months. And even then it would take a very long time before you noticed ill effects. Boas as well as most snakes are designed and actually do better with less food. I would bet that if you trimmed that boa down to small rats every 2-3 weeks, he would shed a few times fairly quickly and put on more length. I've noticed with all my boas that when I cut them back on food, they tend to grow more lol. Heck my BP went 6 months without food and still managed to poop, shed and grow during that time.

Shedding in one piece has nothing to do with how well the snake is being fed. And like I said before, you wont see the fat or damage until it has been done. the fat will build up around the liver and heart first which you obviously wont see. Then it will move outward and become rolls which you will see as well as fat lines along the top back of the snake. Where the spine is will be like the bottom of the Grand Canyon and on either side will be high peaks which are stored fat. The boa should have a fairly flat top or slight raised sides but not look like the Grand Canyon. Also you will see hips form around the vent area where it will look like someone glued a smaller tail onto the snake. And finally you will see pinhead where the head looks out of proportion to the body in that it appears too small.

But by the time you see this stuff, like I said, the damage will already be done. We have all made mistakes feeding our boas, me included but the difference is a lot of us listened to people who have kept them for years. Ask anyone who has kept boas for years and you will get pretty much the same response.....'less is more with boas' when it comes to food.

[Dutti]

You do realize it is almost impossible to 'underfeed' a boa. You would have to literally feed him something crazy like a hopper mouse once every 6 months. And even then it would take a very long time before you noticed ill effects. Boas as well as most snakes are designed and actually do better with less food. I would bet that if you trimmed that boa down to small rats every 2-3 weeks, he would shed a few times fairly quickly and put on more length. I've noticed with all my boas that when I cut them back on food, they tend to grow more lol. Heck my BP went 6 months without food and still managed to poop, shed and grow during that time.

Shedding in one piece has nothing to do with how well the snake is being fed. And like I said before, you wont see the fat or damage until it has been done. the fat will build up around the liver and heart first which you obviously wont see. Then it will move outward and become rolls which you will see as well as fat lines along the top back of the snake. Where the spine is will be like the bottom of the Grand Canyon and on either side will be high peaks which are stored fat. The boa should have a fairly flat top or slight raised sides but not look like the Grand Canyon. Also you will see hips form around the vent area where it will look like someone glued a smaller tail onto the snake. And finally you will see pinhead where the head looks out of proportion to the body in that it appears too small.

But by the time you see this stuff, like I said, the damage will already be done. We have all made mistakes feeding our boas, me included but the difference is a lot of us listened to people who have kept them for years. Ask anyone who has kept boas for years and you will get pretty much the same response.....'less is more with boas' when it comes to food.

Today i fed him a live rat. I have choosen this rat because it looked optical smaller than the rats he ate before. I decided to weigh the rat for the first time before feeding it to him. I have never weighed the rats before. The rat weighed 284 grams which means a large rat. That also would mean that the rats he ate before were XL. Usually i feed him 24 hours after he poops. The longer i delay the feeding the more brutal his feeding response would become. Once i have fed him XL live rat 72 hours after he pooped and his feeding response was astonishing. What would happen if i cut his food to a small rat? That would make him more and more hungry. No doubt in my mind that large rats are the right size for him now and he can manage without any digestive problems what so ever. XL maybe were a bit too big. He is growing in age and size, so i will try to keep him on large rats as long as its possible.

[Sauzo]

Today i fed him a live rat. I have choosen this rat because it looked optical smaller than the rats he ate before. I decided to weigh the rat for the first time before feeding it to him. I have never weighed the rats before. The rat weighed 284 grams which means a large rat. That also would mean that the rats he ate before were XL. Usually i feed him 24 hours after he poops. The longer i delay the feeding the more brutal his feeding response would become. Once i have fed him XL live rat 72 hours after he pooped and his feeding response was astonishing. What would happen if i cut his food to a small rat? That would make him more and more hungry. No doubt in my mind that large rats are the right size for him now and he can manage without any digestive problems what so ever. XL maybe were a bit too big. He is growing in age and size, so i will try to keep him on large rats as long as its possible.

Lol you are missing the whole point. Boas are always hungry unless you are packing them with such a big prey they actually cant fit more. Here is a comparison for you, you feed a 4.5 foot boa an XL rat. My 7 foot retic eats an XL rat. Pythons have a much faster metabolism than a boa. You just cant grab the concept that snakes aren't dogs or cats or mammals. They don't need to eat every day or eat that often. Like I said, they have been designed by nature to go LONG periods without food and without damage. It is actually better for them as it allows their digestive system and organs to take a break.

My 6.5 foot BCI girl doesn't even get XL rats. She gets a large rat every 3-4 weeks and she does fine.

If you cut his food down to a small rat, he would probably have a growth spurt like I mentioned. And I have no doubt he would be healthier. Your snake wouldn't all of a sudden start striking at anything. They need a trigger which is generally smelling food.

And a large rat is NOT the right size but you just don't want to listen. And snakes grow throughout their whole lives. Yes, the first year or 2 is their fastest growth period but that doesn't mean you should pack them with food. There is a big difference between giving them enough food to keep them happy and growing and giving them so much food that you are power feeding it with prey that is way too big for it.

And all snakes have astonishing feeding response. My retic hits food so hard, he literally shakes all the sliding glass doors in my 3 6x3 cage stack. My big boa is the same way. Heck even my yearling BCL and BCC hit their food so hard, they have ripped the tail skin off their FT mice from the feeding tongs lol. I imagine your snake kind of just grabs the food and eats it which to me shows that is isn't really hungry but being opportunistic, they wont pass up a meal.

If you don't want to believe me, here are 2 papers done by 2 different scientists who have the same conclusion.
http://ssecor.people.ua.edu/python-model.html

And here is another study done.
https://www.uta.edu/news/releases/20...-intestine.php

Oh and unless I am mistaken, your snake has had constipation 2 times in 18 months. That is a problem. None of my snakes have ever had constipation and that's in over 5 years. Heck my first BP I had when I was a kid never had constipation and that was before all the fancy stuff was around. I kept him in a 55 gallon tank with a screen top and heat lamp lol. I had him for over 10 years and then had to rehome him and my Nile Monitor. He had a few bad sheds which I had to soak him and pull him through a washcloth but he never had a problem pooping.

[Dutti]

If you cut his food down to a small rat, he would probably have a growth spurt like I mentioned. And I have no doubt he would be healthier. Your snake wouldn't all of a sudden start striking at anything. They need a trigger which is generally smelling food.

And a large rat is NOT the right size but you just don't want to listen. And snakes grow throughout their whole lives. Yes, the first year or 2 is their fastest growth period but that doesn't mean you should pack them with food. There is a big difference between giving them enough food to keep them happy and growing and giving them so much food that you are power feeding it with prey that is way too big for it.

And all snakes have astonishing feeding response. My retic hits food so hard, he literally shakes all the sliding glass doors in my 3 6x3 cage stack. My big boa is the same way. Heck even my yearling BCL and BCC hit their food so hard, they have ripped the tail skin off their FT mice from the feeding tongs lol. I imagine your snake kind of just grabs the food and eats it which to me shows that is isn't really hungry but being opportunistic, they wont pass up a meal.

If you don't want to believe me, here are 2 papers done by 2 different scientists who have the same conclusion.
http://ssecor.people.ua.edu/python-model.html

And here is another study done.
https://www.uta.edu/news/releases/20...-intestine.php

Oh and unless I am mistaken, your snake has had constipation 2 times in 18 months. That is a problem. None of my snakes have ever had constipation and that's in over 5 years. Heck my first BP I had when I was a kid never had constipation and that was before all the fancy stuff was around. I kept him in a 55 gallon tank with a screen top and heat lamp lol. I had him for over 10 years and then had to rehome him and my Nile Monitor. He had a few bad sheds which I had to soak him and pull him through a washcloth but he never had a problem pooping.

He is having a growth spurt. He is shedding every 35 to 40 days. I feed live and you feed frozen, i guess its a differant thing. When eating live, the snake will strike harder and use a lot more of its energy and power. Its not that i don,t want to believe, its that i have reduced already his food from XL to large rats. Considering that he is a growing snake, so if i keep him on large rats for months to come, meaning delaying the upgrade to XL rats as much as possible, that would be ok. He won,t be constipated again because he will be eating large not XL rats in the coming period.

[bcr229]

Also bear in mind that many boa keepers fast their adult animals for the winter months because in the wild because during the cool season they would be breeding not eating. So, they don't feed their snakes at all from November 1 thru March 1, even if the snakes aren't being paired this season. I feed mine but they go on half rations over the winter since I don't cycle my BI's for breeding.

[Sunnieskys]

Shakes my head.... You, again, are not listening! You're going to kill your snake. You are NOT the expert here! Experts are trying to give you advice. Sorry to burst your ego. But you're acting like a control freak. For the love of nature, just decrease to small rats! It's really is that simple.

[Coluber42]

For what it's worth, here's why your snake's demands for food shouldn't necessarily be taken as a guideline for how much it needs to eat: Animals' feeding responses and cravings in general aren't only a response to how much they need to eat, per se; they are also a response to how much (and what kind) food is available in their environment, and how hard it is to get at - in other words, how motivated they need to be in order to get what they need when food does not just magically appear at regular intervals.
So if there's a nutrient, vitamin, high-calorie treat, etc, that the animal's body requires but it's hard to get, the animal has evolved to find it extra delicious so that they'll be motivated to make the extra effort to get it. But if that substance becomes freely available, it's easy for that animal to get way too much.
In the case of humans, our ancestors had to work hard for their food; calorie-dense foods, and particularly fat and protein, were valuable but difficult and potentially dangerous to get. So we are wired to crave those things, because our ancestors needed the motivation to get the necessary quantities of them.
Today, foods full of fat and sugar are available basically any time the whim strikes, but we're still wired to crave them as if they were rare. We at least have the ability to understand that it's bad for us to just gorge on ice cream and fried chicken all day, but lots of us still eat a lot more calories, fat, sugar, etc, than is really good for us.

The same is true for dogs, cats, birds, horses, reptiles, fish, pretty much every animal that we care for. We have the ability to give them whatever treats they want whenever they want it, and we have a hard time resisting those little faces when they beg. Essentially, their motivations, like ours, are out of sync with the availability of their food. So as a result to world is full of fat pets of all kinds.

Basically, your boa's feeding response is tuned to an environment where there are no guarantees; it can take a lot of time to catch anything; making the effort requires coming out into the open and possibly risking predation; etc. But the snake lives in an environment where food will literally drop from the sky the second it shows any interest. As a keeper, it's your job to give the animal what it needs, which may not be the same thing as what it wants where food is concerned.