Overweight? Now what?

[Cendalla]

I have a Dumeril who loves her food. Loves it. But I'm sure she needs to be cut back. My question is.... Is there a chart thats accurate or something I can follow about size and weight?

Background info: I picked up a adult (approximately) six year old female Dumeril boa from a friend who has an exotic pet store. He received her from a dog/cat vet who came to work one morning and found her at his back door (her and a male were both in a nasty 15 gallon fish tank). They treated her for several issues (respiratory infection, mites, stuck shed, cuts, and the typical neglect issues) and discovered she hadn't had heat before. They slowly worked her up to normal temperatures and started working on her weight (she was skin and bones).

At this point I took her in and gave her a permanent home. I've been so concerned with her health and weight that I failed to realize that heavy is bad too. She is 6'5" and weights 15lbs (I just weighed her!). She has dimples by her cloaca!

I have been feeding her a large rat every 14 days and it put weight on her well. Now what kind of a schedule should I put her on? One that would maintain a healthy snake? What should her ideal weight be?

Questions? Concerns? Comments?

P.S. The male eventually died. He had lost an eye and had a several broken ribs puncture organs. They tried but he just couldn't make it.

[Daybreaker]

Why do you think she needs to cut back on food/getting obese? Honestly a large rat every 2 weeks sounds like a good game plan to me.

If you're concerned about her though I would cut her back to a large rat every 3 weeks for starters.

[Vypyrz]

Can you post some pics of her?

[Wh00h0069]

I'm going to have to agree, we need pics. I wouldn't think that a large rat every 2 weeks would be to much. I feed my adult Colombians XXL rats every 3 weeks.

[Cendalla]

I'll try to get new pictures up tonight or when my son is napping. She's not obese or anything like that. She is rounded and doesn't hold their muscular body shape. Her tail is bulgy with that pinched cloaca look even after she unloads. With this feeding schedule she has gained a little under a pound a month and that hasn't slowed. I want to avoid more weight gain. I'm just wondering what is ideal. Is there a standard out there?

[Wh00h0069]

I'll try to get new pictures up tonight or when my son is napping. She's not obese or anything like that. She is rounded and doesn't hold their muscular body shape. Her tail is bulgy with that pinched cloaca look even after she unloads. With this feeding schedule she has gained a little under a pound a month and that hasn't slowed. I want to avoid more weight gain. I'm just wondering what is ideal. Is there a standard out there?

If you are seeing her skin between her scales, then she is definitely overweight. It wouldn't hurt to feed her a little less often. Maybe something like every 21 days until she seems more fit. It is always good to grow boas slow. They will have health issues if overfed.

[minguss]

No personal experience keeping dumerils, but 6-6.5 ft and 15 lbs sounds right on to me. From my experience, for boas that size L- XL rat every two weeks is a good standard schedule. I mean she won't suffer from 3 week schedule, so cutting back to that would be fine.
But yeah if you are noticing separation between the scale all the time then that is agood indication of obesity.

[Cendalla]

She's not to the point of showing skin between her scales but its getting close. My main worry is stoping the gain, because its pretty consistent right now. I'm going to adjust her schedule to a rat every 20 days and monitor her growth. I'm mostly wondering if there is an ideal for different species. Like dogs have breed standards. I'm wondering if there are standard growth charts or if every snake needs to be viewed in a case by case basis. Is there a consistency within the different types? Different sexes? And what not?

PS Still trying to get those pictures up. Its overcast today and the indoor lights look yellow and blurry. None looked good.

[Cendalla]

I look frightening but Leela looks great


I was trying to show some of her scaring but it doesn't show well.



You can tell she's gained great weight since I've gotten her (she weighted about 10 Lbs). She's not obese but I want to slow her gain so she doesn't pack on too much.

[Jonas@Balls2TheWall]

Looks like a healthy snake to me. Keep doing what your doing.