BCI Possibly Underfed

[Bfrank]

In June, I purchased a sub adult female BCI from a reptile show, she is approximately 6ft long. I have owned ball pythons and corn snakes for several years but this is my first Boa.

The guy I bought her from, told me that she was a hold back he was raising up to breed and that she had been living in a rack system and eating a small or medium rat every 2 weeks. He was selling several sub adult & adult boas because he wanted to concentrate on other breeding projects.

I currently have her set up in a Boaphile enclosure. After I brought her home I noticed a few things. She is very active compared to my ball pythons and she seems like she is always hunting. I have always heard that boas have a strong feeding response, so I assumed this was normal. I also started hook training her, hoping to avoid any incidents where should would mistake my hand for food. I have not handled her very much, except to move her in to a tub while I clean the enclosure and stuff like that. But she seems like she is always super alert to any movement near her enclosure and even the ceiling fan in the room seems to get her into hunting mode.

Last night, I had taken her out to clean her enclosure and was holding her for a minute before putting her back in. I was sitting on a couch while I was holding her and there as a large teddy bear (24" tall) on the couch as well. She got close to the teddy bear, then struck its foot and and wrapped up to constrict it. She eventually let go and I was able to get the teddy bear away from her, but this didn't seem like normal behavior to me. To the best of my knowledge this teddy bear has never been in contact with any prey items and should not have smelled like prey. I do have a cat and a dog but neither one was present in this room or had been in there lately.

All of this is making me wonder if she is underfed. I have been feeding a medium rat every 10 days since I brought her home. When I look at pictures of other boas of similar length she seems thinner and like her skin may be looser, but it is hard for me to tell. I wanted to post this and try to get some feedback from people with more experience.

Is this normal boa behavior? Have you ever had one try to eat a stuffed animal or other non-prey item? Does she look underfed? What feeding schedule would you recommend?

Thank you,
Brian