Boas will NOT eat as much as you give them

[Dutti]

I fed my 18 months male BCI a live jumbo rat(411 grams) 2 weeks ago. He pooped it out three days ago and two days ago in two batches. So his stomach was empty. And this is the time when he usually gets hungry. I feed him on average every 2 weeks a large live rat(300 grams). Today i brought him another Jumbo live rat(370 grams). I opened his enclosure and let him smell the rat first as i usually do. I know from his reaction whether he is hungry or not, whether he wants to eat or not. He did not react in anyway and showed no signs that he is interested in food. So i did not give him the rat. The reason for that obviously is that the rat he ate last time was bigger than usual. So his body did not require more food now. So he knows if his body requires food or not. This is not about overfeeding, its about that false claim that boas will eat as much as you give them and that they will never refuse a meal, that they can,t judge for themselves if their bodies require food or not

[Dxw425]

I fed my 18 months male BCI a live jumbo rat(411 grams) 2 weeks ago. He pooped it out three days ago and two days ago in two batches. So his stomach was empty. And this is the time when he usually gets hungry. I feed him on average every 2 weeks a large live rat(300 grams). Today i brought him another Jumbo live rat(370 grams). I opened his enclosure and let him smell the rat first as i usually do. I know from his reaction whether he is hungry or not, whether he wants to eat or not. He did not react in anyway and showed no signs that he is interested in food. So i did not give him the rat. The reason for that obviously is that the rat he ate last time was bigger than usual. So his body did not require more food now. So he knows if his body requires food or not. This is not about overfeeding, its about that false claim that boas will eat as much as you give them and that they will never refuse a meal, that they can,t judge for themselves if their bodies require food or not

Fairly certain the general consensus amongst experience boa owners is that large rats every two weeks is a bit excessive, especially at only 18 months old. This kinda proves the opposite of your point, your boa is already eating more than it needs. You'll just shorten the snakes lifespan by power feeding.

[Sauzo]

I fed my 18 months male BCI a live jumbo rat(411 grams) 2 weeks ago. He pooped it out three days ago and two days ago in two batches. So his stomach was empty. And this is the time when he usually gets hungry. I feed him on average every 2 weeks a large live rat(300 grams). Today i brought him another Jumbo live rat(370 grams). I opened his enclosure and let him smell the rat first as i usually do. I know from his reaction whether he is hungry or not, whether he wants to eat or not. He did not react in anyway and showed no signs that he is interested in food. So i did not give him the rat. The reason for that obviously is that the rat he ate last time was bigger than usual. So his body did not require more food now. So he knows if his body requires food or not. This is not about overfeeding, its about that false claim that boas will eat as much as you give them and that they will never refuse a meal, that they can,t judge for themselves if their bodies require food or not

*Shakes head* The reason he didnt eat would most likely be because you ARE overfeeding him lol. A 411 gram rat every 2 weeks......even my retic doesnt eat that much in a sitting. I usually give him a large rat every 10 days which is about 250 grams or i give him a jumbo which is between 350 and 400 grams every 2 weeks. Now that is a 7+ foot python!!

And if you are referring to me saying boas are opportunistic feeders who will eat as much as given, then yes they will but you missed the part where i also added...'unless you stuff them like a turkey'. Any animal, opportunistic feeder or not has a breaking point on food.

And you are right in that the snakes body did not require more food after a 411 gram rat 2 weeks ago hahaha. The only snake i have that has eaten something that big my retic and he doesnt do that anymore as he has topped out in his growth and has thickened up so he is down to maintenance feeding like i said of a large to jumbo rat every 10-14 days. And none of my boas strike or anything. i can reach in and grab any of them any time and they are fine.

And all of my boas will eat any time i give them food. I have never had Rosey my 5+ year old 6.5 ft female ever refuse food in over 5 years. Have never had my almost 4 year old 6' sunglow female ever refuse food in in almost 4 years. In fact not a single one of my snakes has ever refused a meal except my BP during winter but she regulates her own intake and usually quits eating from about mid to end of Nov to around Apr or so.

I really dont know why i continue to even debate this topic with you as i will state with certainty that you have not kept boas long enough to know proper husbandry. Join any boa FB group and tell them you feed an 18 month old MALE bci a 400g rat every 2 weeks and they will run you outta the group lol.

I'm guessing this is your first and only boa which you have had for maybe a year? Nothing wrong with learning but dont give out bad info especially your feeding habits. You can ask ANY person who has had boas for years and they will tell you the same thing i have told you countless amounts of time...you are overfeeding. And the definition of overfeeding in your case is you are feeding the snake the maximum size food in a very short time period. Do you really think a boa in the wild is going to be eating a huge meal every 2 weeks like clockwork and not have to expend a single calorie of energy to acquire it? No. Boas in the wild expend LOTS of energy to find food and miss more food than they catch and in the winter, they go months WITHOUT food. Sometimes they will only eat maybe 4 times a year yet they do great in the wild.

Now we got our captive fat lazy sausages which dont have to expend an ounce of energy and some dont even have the cage space to expend energy if they wanted. Add to that, people feed them the max size item they can fit like clockwork on a schedule that they would NEVER encounter in the wild and then wonder why they would refuse food lol.

Again, not sure who is the bigger idiot, you for believing your nonsense or me for arguing the point with for the 100th time haha. Anyways, do what you want, it is your snake that will ultimately pay the price for your ignorance of their husbandry but dont pass that ignorance on to newer people who are trying to learn how to correctly keep boas or really any snake for that matter. None of them were designed by Mother Nature to eat as much as mammals or even lizards.

[Sauzo]

Oh and to add, you are the perfect example of why a lot of people say BCC are harder to care for than BCI. They arent but they are much less forgiving on incorrect husbandry. If you fed a BCC anywhere close to what you are feeding your BCI, that BCC would have died well before the 1 year mark. Now i am no expert on BCC as i only have one atm that i have had for almost a year but she is exactly as easy to care for as all of my BCIs.

And you really should join the FB page Boa Constrictor Keepers. There is a post there from a gal who purchased an adult female BCI 4 months ago and the thing was fed weekly. You can literally see the fat rolls on it. The responses are pretty much the same as i said and what i have told you about not being able to see the damage done by overfeeding until it is done as a guy saw a dissection video of an obese boa and you could see all the fat around its heart and liver and organs as the fat has no where to go.

But anyways, like i said, your boa, your problem. Just dont make your bad advise into someone else' problem as well.

[Dutti]

*Shakes head* The reason he didnt eat would most likely be because you ARE overfeeding him lol. A 411 gram rat every 2 weeks......even my retic doesnt eat that much in a sitting. I usually give him a large rat every 10 days which is about 250 grams or i give him a jumbo which is between 350 and 400 grams every 2 weeks. Now that is a 7+ foot python!!

And if you are referring to me saying boas are opportunistic feeders who will eat as much as given, then yes they will but you missed the part where i also added...'unless you stuff them like a turkey'. Any animal, opportunistic feeder or not has a breaking point on food.

And you are right in that the snakes body did not require more food after a 411 gram rat 2 weeks ago hahaha. The only snake i have that has eaten something that big my retic and he doesnt do that anymore as he has topped out in his growth and has thickened up so he is down to maintenance feeding like i said of a large to jumbo rat every 10-14 days. And none of my boas strike or anything. i can reach in and grab any of them any time and they are fine.

And all of my boas will eat any time i give them food. I have never had Rosey my 5+ year old 6.5 ft female ever refuse food in over 5 years. Have never had my almost 4 year old 6' sunglow female ever refuse food in in almost 4 years. In fact not a single one of my snakes has ever refused a meal except my BP during winter but she regulates her own intake and usually quits eating from about mid to end of Nov to around Apr or so.

I really dont know why i continue to even debate this topic with you as i will state with certainty that you have not kept boas long enough to know proper husbandry. Join any boa FB group and tell them you feed an 18 month old MALE bci a 400g rat every 2 weeks and they will run you outta the group lol.

I'm guessing this is your first and only boa which you have had for maybe a year? Nothing wrong with learning but dont give out bad info especially your feeding habits. You can ask ANY person who has had boas for years and they will tell you the same thing i have told you countless amounts of time...you are overfeeding. And the definition of overfeeding in your case is you are feeding the snake the maximum size food in a very short time period. Do you really think a boa in the wild is going to be eating a huge meal every 2 weeks like clockwork and not have to expend a single calorie of energy to acquire it? No. Boas in the wild expend LOTS of energy to find food and miss more food than they catch and in the winter, they go months WITHOUT food. Sometimes they will only eat maybe 4 times a year yet they do great in the wild.

Now we got our captive fat lazy sausages which dont have to expend an ounce of energy and some dont even have the cage space to expend energy if they wanted. Add to that, people feed them the max size item they can fit like clockwork on a schedule that they would NEVER encounter in the wild and then wonder why they would refuse food lol.

Again, not sure who is the bigger idiot, you for believing your nonsense or me for arguing the point with for the 100th time haha. Anyways, do what you want, it is your snake that will ultimately pay the price for your ignorance of their husbandry but dont pass that ignorance on to newer people who are trying to learn how to correctly keep boas or really any snake for that matter. None of them were designed by Mother Nature to eat as much as mammals or even lizards.

I,m not advising anyone to feed their boas like i do with my boa. First of all, i have only one boa and if i had more than one i would have done things differantly. When i got my boa i was a beginner. I had almost no knowledge of snakes. He was a month old baby. And i was learning while he was growing. If i was experienced maybe i would have done things differantly. What i,m doing requires a lot of attention and work. To begin with, live feeding is not easy. Its something that not everyone would find ok. The jumbo rat that i fed last time to my BCI bleeded heavily while he was constricted. Not everyone like to see that. The danger that the rat can bite is real if the snake is not used to live feeding. And everyone has to remember that overfeeding can get you at the end a very thick large heavy lazy boa 10+ feet long and 12 inches in diameter. That requires a very big enclosure and lots of food. And as it was mentioned, it will shortened the snake life and cause illnesses. Yes this is my only and first boa. Nobody should think that i,m an experienced guy.

[Sauzo]

Well, to correct a couple points. Even a heavily power fed boa will not get a foot thick. For that kind of girth, you are talking pythons like a female mainland retic or female burm. In the boids, you would be talking an anaconda.

And even with an anaconda, they take a long time to grow as well being a boid.

As for a boa reaching 10+ ft, i have never seen a 10 ft boa. Biggest i have seen have been 8-9 ft and those were old females. You got to remember, a boa grows fast if fed heavily its first year or two. After that they slow down a lot so if you keep that power feeding up, all it is going to do is pack on the fat around the organs and then create really thick fat rolls on the snake. It will get thicker but only to an extent. it's just like underfeeding or stunting a snake to keep it small will only make it so small, you cant stunt a female mainland retic into being a 4 ft ball python lol. The same goes for overfeeding, you cant turn a 6-7 ft male BCI into a 12-13 ft burm. All the overfeeding will do is make the snake so obese, that it has a heart attack or liver failure and dies before even reaching 10 years old.

And why cant you do things differently now? Just because the snake has been overfed now doesnt mean the problem cant be corrected and the snake could still live a happy life. Traveling down the overfeeding road, you are just shortening that boas life with each meal. At least if you correct it now, you can stop the damage from continuing. You act like, the feeding schedule for a boa is set in stone once you begin feeding it. A lot of breeders actually cycle their boas during the winter with no food and lower temps to condition them for breeding. I personally have my snakes in an eternal summer as i dont cycle as i have been told cycling females can make them start to produce follicles for breeding which i dont need. i do usually give them smaller meals though in the winter and bigger meals in the summer. My point is it's never too late to correct the feeding problem and honestly, it is YOUR responsibility as the owner since the animal depends on you to take good care of it so it has a nice happy long life.

And as for live feeding, well that is your decision. I personally feed all my boas FT as i dont want to have to kill rabbits, quails, chicks, rats and mice. Not that I'm against it but i would have to make a CO2 chamber large enough for them and thats just more work. Plus FT is much more readily available and can be stored in a freezer. And the most obvious reason is that i dont want a rabbit or large rat biting my boa. the vet is already expensive enough with checkups. i dont need to add treatment of a rat or rabbit bite to the bill lol. Also freezing prey kills a lot of parasites which feeding live doesnt and can transfer parasites to the snake. That is why i have been told, if you feed live, you should take a fecal in once a year to get a float done on it.

And i know all about messy eaters lol. My sunglow grabbed her rat by the head and then used her body to pull it and literally ripped the stomach open and guts were hanging out. luckily it was on top of a hide so i washed it off easily. And Caesar grabbed his jumbo rat a couple weeks ago by the stomach and with male retics having long teeth, he must have punctured it as there was blood ALL over him and the cage floor. i ended up having to give him a bath after a few hours and cleaning up the blood area in the cage. Luckily Caesar is a lush and loves attention so he was happy to sit in the bucket with his head on the edge of it while i scrubbed him with a wet paper towel.

Bottom line is the stuff you are doing now while incorrect are nothing that cant be fixed easily. And the live feeding, like i said, i dont do it but its not incorrect, just runs more risks than FT and imo doesnt offer any benefits over it.

[Dutti]

Well, to correct a couple points. Even a heavily power fed boa will not get a foot thick. For that kind of girth, you are talking pythons like a female mainland retic or female burm. In the boids, you would be talking an anaconda.

And even with an anaconda, they take a long time to grow as well being a boid.

As for a boa reaching 10+ ft, i have never seen a 10 ft boa. Biggest i have seen have been 8-9 ft and those were old females. You got to remember, a boa grows fast if fed heavily its first year or two. After that they slow down a lot so if you keep that power feeding up, all it is going to do is pack on the fat around the organs and then create really thick fat rolls on the snake. It will get thicker but only to an extent. it's just like underfeeding or stunting a snake to keep it small will only make it so small, you cant stunt a female mainland retic into being a 4 ft ball python lol. The same goes for overfeeding, you cant turn a 6-7 ft male BCI into a 12-13 ft burm. All the overfeeding will do is make the snake so obese, that it has a heart attack or liver failure and dies before even reaching 10 years old.
.

Boas can reach 12 inches in diameter and over 10 feet long. I found this old video on youtube of a BCI who was obvioulsy abandonment by her owner and was let loose, i guess because the snake reached a size where that owner no longer was able to manage. She was caught near a goat pen in florida. The guy who caught her and own the goat pen commented below the video and wrote this:" I have never seen a snake this big on the loose, especially on my ten acres of woods. After I got over the shock I realized she had to be someone's pet so we treated her gently and put her in a tot bag and sold her to a snake breeder in Pasco County. It was an experience but she was easy to handle. The breader said she was 10 ft long and about 12" in diameter and full grown".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsU7mWrt6w0

[PythonBabes]

To me, when you've been corrected and even offered help from an experienced person, and you continue to go about your wrong ways, that is just plain sad.

When you do that to an animal, it means you don't care about it. You've been informed that you are KILLING your snake, ok. You don't care about it, plain and simple. Someone who cares would change the snake's feeding schedule so that it can be healthier and as a result, live to its full potential.

I just feel bad for the boa...

[Dutti]

To me, when you've been corrected and even offered help from an experienced person, and you continue to go about your wrong ways, that is just plain sad.

When you do that to an animal, it means you don't care about it. You've been informed that you are KILLING your snake, ok. You don't care about it, plain and simple. Someone who cares would change the snake's feeding schedule so that it can be healthier and as a result, live to its full potential.

I just feel bad for the boa...

Why are you feeling sorry for a boa that is living in a big beautiful enclosure and being very good taken care of? There are plenty of domestic and wild boas which are much more in need of your sympathy

[PythonBabes]

Enclosure means nothing when it is not being fed properly.

Not gonna go back and forth with you simply because I feel like you make these threads just to create conflict.

Not gonna feed the troll