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  1. #21
    Registered User Mikknu's Avatar
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    I was thinking it seemed like an awful lot of food for him. He's only 101g at least weigh. I'm nervous to stop what he was eating before he came to me, but is there a trick to switching feeding schedules? Or do you just go for it? With this being my first snake, I want to be sure I'm not growing him too fast or risking a regurgitation.

    I can understand starting him on rats because that's what he'll go to eventually, but what might be another option I could get from my local reptile shop? I'll talk to the breeder as well and ask them about their heavy feeding schedule they had him on. Maybe only 1/pup every 7-10 days is a better alternative

  2. #22
    BPnet Lifer dakski's Avatar
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    Re: Olin- 2020 Colombian Boa Thread

    Quote Originally Posted by Mikknu View Post
    I was thinking it seemed like an awful lot of food for him. He's only 101g at least weigh. I'm nervous to stop what he was eating before he came to me, but is there a trick to switching feeding schedules? Or do you just go for it? With this being my first snake, I want to be sure I'm not growing him too fast or risking a regurgitation.

    I can understand starting him on rats because that's what he'll go to eventually, but what might be another option I could get from my local reptile shop? I'll talk to the breeder as well and ask them about their heavy feeding schedule they had him on. Maybe only 1/pup every 7-10 days is a better alternative
    I feed rat pups to Jeff, my 300G+ boa. They are 20-30G or so.

    Boas are prone to regurgitation if fed too large a meal and can develop regurgitation syndrome which can kill them.

    I rarely feed a prey item more than 10% of a BI's body weight. Boas are incredibly efficient and less is more with them. My 4 year old boa, Behira, is getting medium rats, about 100G +/- and she weighs about 2KG and is 5 1/2 feet now. She was on a 14-21 day schedule on those, usually 21, and growing. I had to speed that up briefly - you can look at her thread - frequent shedding - to every 10 days, but that's too much for a boa that size and age in most circumstances.

    You want to take years - like 4-6+ for your little one to get to adult size.

    Regarding prey type. Boas will eat just about anything. I've switched boas from mice to rats in about 2 seconds. Same with live to F/T; about 2 seconds.

    They are voracious eaters, but therefore, it's up to us as keepers to make sure they are eating appropriate sized meals and not too often.

    Feeding every 7-10 days for now is okay, but I would not feed him anything larger than a small mouse. Frankly, I would be giving mouse hoppers now (7-12G or so). They are more developed and more nutritious than rat pinkies or fuzzies that are less developed.

    If you want to feed rats, I would be feeding small fuzzies at the most. However, similarly sized mice will have more nutrition.

    Please do not offer a rat pup to him. Especially as his first meal while he's adjusting.

    Also, did you get your IR temp gun? Make sure ground temps are about 88-90 hot spot, 80-84F ambient, and a cool side at least 76F, but less than 80F.

    Do not feed until you know temps are proper and digestion will not be an issue.

    Good luck and keep us posted.
    Last edited by dakski; 07-18-2020 at 03:45 AM.

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  4. #23
    Registered User Mikknu's Avatar
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    Re: Olin- 2020 Colombian Boa Thread

    Quote Originally Posted by dakski View Post
    I feed rat pups to Jeff, my 300G+ boa. They are 20-30G or so.

    Boas are prone to regurgitation if fed too large a meal and can develop regurgitation syndrome which can kill them.

    I rarely feed a prey item more than 10% of a BI's body weight. Boas are incredibly efficient and less is more with them. My 4 year old boa, Behira, is getting medium rats, about 100G +/- and she weighs about 2KG and is 5 1/2 feet now. She was on a 14-21 day schedule on those, usually 21, and growing. I had to speed that up briefly - you can look at her thread - frequent shedding - to every 10 days, but that's too much for a boa that size and age in most circumstances.

    You want to take years - like 4-6+ for your little one to get to adult size.

    Regarding prey type. Boas will eat just about anything. I've switched boas from mice to rats in about 2 seconds. Same with live to F/T; about 2 seconds.

    They are voracious eaters, but therefore, it's up to us as keepers to make sure they are eating appropriate sized meals and not too often.

    Feeding every 7-10 days for now is okay, but I would not feed him anything larger than a small mouse. Frankly, I would be giving mouse hoppers now (7-12G or so). They are more developed and more nutritious than rat pinkies or fuzzies that are less developed.

    If you want to feed rats, I would be feeding small fuzzies at the most. However, similarly sized mice will have more nutrition.

    Please do not offer a rat pup to him. Especially as his first meal while he's adjusting.

    Also, did you get your IR temp gun? Make sure ground temps are about 88-90 hot spot, 80-84F ambient, and a cool side at least 76F, but less than 80F.

    Do not feed until you know temps are proper and digestion will not be an issue.

    Good luck and keep us posted.

    Thank you for the good information dakski! I did get my IR temp gun. In a previous post I listed temps, but here they are again:

    His ambient on the cool side is 76 with a surface temp of 78 by his secondary heat pad, and his hot side ambient is 83 with hot spots of 87-89 depending on whether I'm right above the heat tape or right below the CHE. The middle is about 80-81 at surface temp, and the hot side non-hot spot is about 84. They've been stable around these areas for a while now, with the humidity on the cool side being about 62% and about 57% on the warm side.
    These are within your parameters, which makes me really happy. I'm glad I've gotten that right at least.

    I had a small conversation with the breeder as well. My terminology was a bit mixed up- he got rat fuzzies, not rat pups, but they wanted him on the equivalent of a rat pup. Which I disagree with, as I feel even the rat fuzzies were of a size that I felt a little uncomfortable with. I'll be switching to hopper mice if I can.

    I'm going to my local shop this afternoon. I'll see what they have available and switch him down to a smaller food amount. I was feeling kind of suspicious about the size, but I'm glad I asked you guys about it so I can fix this. How long should I wait before I feed him again since he got such a big meal? I hope he's going to be okay

    He's been on his hot spot of choice since last night. He likes the branch right next to CHE, which is 86.8 degrees according to my IR temp gun. I turned my CHE up just a smidge to try and give it that boost into 87-89. I know it's normal not to go anywhere while digesting, but I'm worried about him. He's breathing regularly, which I'm hoping is a good sign.

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  6. #24
    BPnet Senior Member richardhind1972's Avatar
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    Re: Olin- 2020 Colombian Boa Thread

    Hell be fine just leave him a few extra days till you feed and make sure he's got it all out his system

    Sent from my ELS-NX9 using Tapatalk

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  8. #25
    Registered User Mikknu's Avatar
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    Thank you Richard. I appreciate your insight and advice.

    Olin is doing well. It's been 32 hours since he ate, and I'm hoping this means he's in the clear as far as regurgitation goes. I read a few other threads about overfeeding on the forum here, and one mentioned that after 24 hours the danger of regurgitation is mostly gone.

    Here he is relaxing on the branch by the CHE. Most of him is behind the CHE itself though. He really favours being off the ground. I've read that baby boas are semi-arboreal in the wild. I find it neat that I'm observing similar behaviour in my little environment as well.



    I got a cup full of mouse hoppers today, and they look a lot better than the rat fuzzies. The local shop owner suggested that when he's ready to eat more, that I feed 2x hoppers and then 3x hoppers before moving him up in prey size. Is this good advice? I've got a gram scale I'm going to be using to try and follow dakski's ~10% of body mass guideline.

    A photo of Olin's parents from the breeder I got. Unfortunately, they replaced his mom with a giant yellow banana xD



    Olin is the only snake of a big size I'm planning on having for a long while. I want to do my best to make sure he has the most optimal environment possible for growing and thriving. Thank you all for the assistance and advice you gave me on my first thread, and now as well. ^-^

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  10. #26
    BPnet Lifer EL-Ziggy's Avatar
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    Re: Olin- 2020 Colombian Boa Thread

    I think hoppers are a pretty small meal. A small mouse every 7-10 sounds great to me. I'd move to weaned rats when he hits 400g.
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  12. #27
    Registered User Mikknu's Avatar
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    Hello everyone!

    Olin is doing good thus far and I'm greatly enjoying him! I have my work desk sort of perpendicular to his enclosure, and it's enjoyable to see him basking on his branch while I work. He loves being by the CHE during the day, but I've observed him exploring and burrowing on the cool side multiples times as well! He likes to burrow quite a bit.

    He seems to be doing okay despite his big meal. I'm not quite sure he'll be ready to feed even by Monday.. as far as I can tell, he still seems to be digesting and I haven't seen a boo that might indicate he passed some of that big meal.

    Today I found him in his humid hide underneath all of the moss. It was cute. I left today for an overnight trip, and was checking up on him before I left. I haven't seen him in blue, but maybe... ? His last shed was about a month ago.



    I have a night camera I set up to watch my gecko when I first got it to be sure it was eating, and I moved it over to Olin. It's fascinating to be able to observe him without disturbing him. Being able to check and see if he's moving around from a city or two away is nice too! I usually end up travelling overnight for at least one night a week, and a check up helps soothe my nerves.



    Speaking of geckos! I'm getting rid of some extra stuff and I have a large cut of driftwood(About 16" long, 12" tall, looks a bit like pride rock from The Lion King), a mag naturals wall hide, and a Big Dripper. Would Olin benefit from any of these? Otherwise, I'll put them away until my gecko gets a bit bigger.

    Happy snaking to y'all!

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  14. #28
    BPnet Lifer dakski's Avatar
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    Re: Olin- 2020 Colombian Boa Thread

    Glad he's doing well and you are enjoying him so much.

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  16. #29
    Registered User Mikknu's Avatar
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    Hello everyone! I finally got my live moss in for finishing off Olin's enclosure. It came out pretty snappy, if I do say so myself. The back LED is working now too. Much better than just having a lamp pointed at the cage xD



    I gave him a few extra things from downgrading my gecko cages, likes another piece of wood and a magnetic hide. Which he LOVES. He's been hiding in the more humid spots of the cage lately, and spent 48 ish hours in the humid side. I haven't seen him in blue yet, but he does seem a bit more tense lately. I still have yet to even hear his hiss though... I've heard boas have some of the deepest hisses.

    Some more pics! One of him in his new aerial hide!





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  18. #30
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    Re: Olin- 2020 Colombian Boa Thread

    He looks great. I LOVE that enclosure too. Where'd you get the long branch?
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