Feeding concern

[Dutti]

I am feeding my year and a half(5 foot and 2036 grams)male BCI currently a live large rat(about 300 gramm) every two weeks on average. I didn,t suggest to anybody to do the same. I didn,t suggest to "L.west" that he should feed the same as i do, although his Boa is 3 years old and 6 foot. What i told him is that 65 grams rat is too small and suggested to double the size of the rat or even treble it. Here is my boy relaxing.

[Aedryan Methyus]

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.

This boy of mine is only between 5' and 5 1/2', but I agree I could probably cut him back to a medium rat every 14 days at this point just to lean him back down a bit even though he is plenty large enough to be eating large rats. He is still bread shaped. He just has a little extra pudge is all... When my daughter gets home I will get a current weight on him and have her take some pictures with me holding him to share with you guys. He just emptied out today, but he is looking a little fatter than usual right now, because he ate a HUGE rat last week that someone else wouldn't eat, so he got passed by one feeding day yesterday...

[Sauzo]

This boy of mine is only between 5' and 5 1/2', but I agree I could probably cut him back to a medium rat every 14 days at this point just to lean him back down a bit even though he is plenty large enough to be eating large rats. He is still bread shaped. He just has a little extra pudge is all... When my daughter gets home I will get a current weight on him and have her take some pictures with me holding him to share with you guys. He just emptied out today, but he is looking a little fatter than usual right now, because he ate a HUGE rat last week that someone else wouldn't eat, so he got passed by one feeding day yesterday...

Yeah, i would for sure feed him mediums at the largest if he's only 5-5.5'. Thats what i feed my almost 6' sunglow girl. A medium rat every 3-4 weeks. Usually in winter, i tend to extend out their feeding but i dont 'winterize' them like some others do and cut out the food and lower the temps for about 3-4 months. My snakes all live in an eternal summer but like i said, i do cut their food intake which usually leads them to grow more, go figure lol.

Males can be put more on a maintenance schedule and most people i've seen feed adult males every 4-6 weeks. Females get a little more.

My little salmon het sharp snowglow boy was getting kind of chunky too on his weekly mouse. I cut him back to an adult mouse every 10 days and now he's up to a small weaned rat every 14 days.


And a pic of him when i got him to show his tail. I love how bright it is. And it hasnt dulled at all in almost a year.

[Aedryan Methyus]

I posted a few updated photos of my buddy - Simon in his own thread if anyone would like to see more, but here is one with regards to his size/feeding schedule, etc...

[L.West]

I posted a few updated photos of my buddy - Simon in his own thread if anyone would like to see more, but here is one with regards to his size/feeding schedule, etc...

Your snake looks to be way more thick than my boy. My snake seems to be longer though. I have decided to give my boy a medium rat every 12 days and see how he does with that schedule.

[Aedryan Methyus]

I think your boy will do great on mediums. This boy of mine is probably just starting to be slightly overweight, so i'm going to cut him back to 1 medium every 14 days for awhile and see how he does. I will feel awful passing him up on feeding day every other week, but it's for his own good... lol

[Dutti]

I am feeding my year and a half(5 foot and 2036 grams)male BCI currently a live large rat(about 300 gramm) every two weeks on average. I didn,t suggest to anybody to do the same. I didn,t suggest to "L.west" that he should feed the same as i do, although his Boa is 3 years old and 6 foot. What i told him is that 65 grams rat is too small and suggested to double the size of the rat or even treble it. Here is my boy relaxing.

I fed him today a live jumbo rat(411 grams). Surely it was not my attention to feed him a jumbo rat. The shop where i buy the live rats from had only this one available so i took it. He can now eat the biggest rat alive