Feeding concern

[KevinK]

I'm not quite sure how big your leg is, but judging on what I'm seeing I believe you should have no issues whatsoever in bumping him up to medium rats. That girth looks sizable enough to handle mediums.

Try a medium once every two weeks and see how he responds. That's the feeding schedule I, personally, would use.

[Dutti]

Before seeing actual pictures of the animal in question, I would say this is normal behavior....


Boas are EXTREMELY food responsive and it can trigger fast in an animal that has a better sense of smell or knows feeding time is approaching. I've never had one refuse a meal to put it lightly....and I've had hundreds of boas in my hands over the years.

At six feet long and two years old, I would be feeding a sizable rat every two weeks. I agree though, at six feet long, a 65 gram rat seems small for his size. A medium rat seems far more appropriate to me but I would need to see pictures of the animal. Considering my longer feeding schedule I will actually feed prey somewhat larger than the girth, but everyone does things differently. Of course, if you feed more often a smaller prey item it more appropriate.


Post a picture of your animal with a dollar bill next to his body so that we can judge how big his girth is.

Thank you for agreeing with me. Some people here care more about who gives them the information rather than the information itself. I actually don,t care about the people themselves, i give advices and replies because i care about the snakes that they own

[chip07]

At 2 years old I feed smalls every 3-4 weeks. Mediums would be 4-5 weeks for my guys. Boas always get excited about food it seems. Not as bad as the Retics but still!

[Dutti]

At 2 years old I feed smalls every 3-4 weeks. Mediums would be 4-5 weeks for my guys. Boas always get excited about food it seems. Not as bad as the Retics but still!

This is underfeeding to me

[chip07]

This is underfeeding to me

I’ve read the threads on how you feed your boa, so color me unsurprised you find a feeding schedule for slow grown boas underfeeding.

For the OP. These animals don’t eat that much out in the wild and their systems aren’t meant for a ridiculous amount of food. The animals we feed them in captivity are fat compared to the lean animals they tend to find as food in the wild. Then, the inactivity of captivity compared to the wild. And you get animals that are insanely overfed by people. I am on the very conservative end but you can see they are still growing steadily and are all muscle. I fed this way for my first boa and she’s hit 8ft and hopefully isn’t even at half her lifespan yet at 14 years old.

I don’t need nor want an 8ft boa in 2 years that will die before it’s anywhere close to 20. I’ll have 8ft boas in 10 years that will live much longer. Plus, my females are being bred and I want them to have a decent chance of surviving the whole thing. An overtaxed system from overfeeding and growing too fast is not the way to have that happen. They are easily on their way to being ready for breeding at 4-5 years old on a slow schedule.

These are my two year olds. The smaller dark ones are Tarahumara locality boas but are still 2 years old. I usually use cocohusk but I had a bad order that molded up just getting it wet overnight. Debating on aspen again with a humidifier in the room instead but I’m undecided so far.

[Sauzo]

I feed my 6.5' female a large rat every 3-4 weeks.

If you are looking for an overall schedule though. What i have used for years is when on mice, every 7-10 days. Then once on weaned/small rats, every 2 weeks. Medium rats every 3 weeks-4 weeks. Large rats every 3-5 weeks.

I dont feed jumbos to anything unless they are over 8' and usually in that case, i just feed rabbits. Rabbits are much more dense so for those you can go 6 weeks easily.

You can also do quail too. I know Vicky loves quails. Rosey is kind of special ed when it comes to them and she cant grasp the whole wings concept so i usually just give her rabbits or rats.

Stay away from guinea pigs and piglets as those are fine for pythons but they are too fatty for boas.

And to Dutti, you should be the last person giving feeding schedule advice lol. You got a 18 month old BCI that is eating large rats and 4.5' long. You are the poster child for over feeding lol.

And to answer your question, all boas are hungry 24/7 unless you are stuffing them like a turkey. My suriname girl tags the glass at night if she is out and about hunting and you walk by. And all of them will coil in the 'S' and at the front of the cage if its night and you do fast movements past their cage. Boas are opportunistic feeders so they wont pass up a meal and are pretty much ready for a meal 24/7 like I said, unless you are feeding them so much they cant fit more. And with their slow metabolism, its going to form fat around their heart and liver and then they die.

[Aedryan Methyus]

This behavior on feeding day is perfectly normal for Boas. If only Ball Pythons would have a feeding response like Boas on every feeding day... But, only feeding a 65 gram rat every 10 to 12 days at 6'/2 years old Boa is way under feeding in my opinion. My 2 year old male is somewhere between 5' - 5 1/2' and he has been getting a medium rat every 7 days. I don't go by rat weight, but the medium size rats i've been feeding are around 115 - 120 grams. As April suggested, I use the girth rule for all of my snakes. This 2 year old boy of mine could easily be eating large rats at his size (he has a couple of times), but i'm keeping him on mediums for awhile longer, as he is starting to get a little chunky. When he gets switched over to large rats I will probably only feed him every 14 days. I will take some updated pictures of him later to share with you for comparison...

[L.West]

Thanks to you all for your help. I actually rechecked on his age - I was mistaken - he is actually 3 years old now and 1400 grams. He was 2 when I got him. I will move him up to a f/t medium rat every two weeks and see how he does.

I have always been told that it is next to impossible to underfeed a captive Boa. Less is more with them. I think my boy looks really good and lean/muscles.

[Sauzo]

This behavior on feeding day is perfectly normal for Boas. If only Ball Pythons would have a feeding response like Boas on every feeding day... But, only feeding a 65 gram rat every 10 to 12 days at 6'/2 years old Boa is way under feeding in my opinion. My 2 year old male is somewhere between 5' - 5 1/2' and he has been getting a medium rat every 7 days. I don't go by rat weight, but the medium size rats i've been feeding are around 115 - 120 grams. As April suggested, I use the girth rule for all of my snakes. This 2 year old boy of mine could easily be eating large rats at his size (he has a couple of times), but i'm keeping him on mediums for awhile longer, as he is starting to get a little chunky. When he gets switched over to large rats I will probably only feed him every 14 days. I will take some updated pictures of him later to share with you for comparison...

It is almost impossible to 'underfeed' a boa. They are designed to go months without with no ill effect and actually it can have good effects.

With that said, if the boa is 6.5', it should be on large rats which are about 180-200g every 3-4 weeks. My almost 6' sunglow is on a medium rat every 3-4 weeks.

And your boa is chunky because you are over feeding it. A medium rat ever week is WAY too much. Heck like I mentioned above, the last time my boas get weekly feedings is when they are on hopper or small adult mice. Once they are on anything larger in mice, they go to every 10 days and I've been told by some that is even a little too much but it has worked fine for me as you can see from all the boa threads of my boas I got up.

[Sauzo]

Thanks to you all for your help. I actually rechecked on his age - I was mistaken - he is actually 3 years old now and 1400 grams. He was 2 when I got him. I will move him up to a f/t medium rat every two weeks and see how he does.

I have always been told that it is next to impossible to underfeed a captive Boa. Less is more with them. I think my boy looks really good and lean/muscles.

Post a pic of him. I don't weigh my big boas but Rosey is over 5 years old and at her last vet check, she weighed in at 12.7 lbs and 6.5'

I would definitely start with a medium or large medium and see how he looks after eating it. Remember though, boas are always hungry assuming they are healthy. You want to see something worse, buy a baby retic. They don't stop eating until they are about a year old, or at least Caesar didn't stop pushing and charging me for food until he hit a year old lol.