Should I slow down his feedings?

[lunasjy]

I have a male boa (named Sniper) who is a BCI for sure but he may be crossed with a BCC though as he came from an animal shelter so I am not 100% sure of his blood lines. He is 10 months old and 4' 10". Some people tell me this is too big for a BCI some people tell me it is normal for boas to reach 5' in their first year.

Sniper is now being fed a rats that are in between a small and medium rat. They are not quite as small as a small rat but not as big as a medium rat. I have been feeding him once a week ever since we got him. I really honestly do not want him getting past 7ft, which may be too late now as he still has 4 years of major growing to do, but I was wondering if I started feeding every 10-14 days if this would help? I do not want him to starve either. It does take him about 6 full days for him to digest the rat (the lump in his belly fully disappears). So would feeding him less harm him?

[Jhill001]

I'm no boa expert but the snake doesn't look obese or underweight I'd say you could stretch it out to ten days if you would feel more comfortable. Just don't expect him to be happy when feeding day rolls around and you don't have a rat for him.

[bcr229]

At his age and size he could handle a 10-14 day feeding schedule. It's healthier for a boa to be slightly underweight versus overweight.

[Albert Clark]

At his age and size he could handle a 10-14 day feeding schedule. It's healthier for a boa to be slightly underweight versus overweight.

The other fact is that snakes have what is known as "indeterminate growth". So they continue to grow throughout their lives. Trying to control his growth rate is kind of cruel bc his meals should be controlled by his weight ( 15 - 20%). Why have a hungry, angry boa who is more likely to lash out bc he is underfed? Imo, I would weigh him and feed him accordingly. Stay in peace and not pieces. Good luck.

[lunasjy]

The other fact is that snakes have what is known as "indeterminate growth". So they continue to grow throughout their lives. Trying to control his growth rate is kind of cruel bc his meals should be controlled by his weight ( 15 - 20%). Why have a hungry, angry boa who is more likely to lash out bc he is underfed? Imo, I would weigh him and feed him accordingly. Stay in peace and not pieces. Good luck.

He is too big for my kitchen scale I use and I do not have money to buy a big fancy one. I have never weighed my snakes for food, and wasn't about how much to feed him in one feeding. How many days can I go without feeding. So far it has been 9 days. He is still gentle and not angry. I planned on feeding him tomorrow. He is definitely not under weight or over weight. And boas grow through their whole lives but the first 5 years is when the do the most growing and then they gain an inch or less a year after that.

[Sauzo]

I highly doubt he is 10 months old if he is almost 5'. Or if he is 10 months old and 5', he was powerfed. My 11 month old sunglow girl is 2' and my 3 year old normal BCI girl is about 6'. If I had to guess, I would say yours is about 2 years old if he was normally fed. I would go to every 2 weeks for feeding and a medium rat seems kind of large. My 6' girl eats medium rats every 2 weeks but she is kind of overweight a little so I am backing her down to 1 medium rat every 3 weeks to 1 month. When Rosey was your boas size, she was eating small rats. With boas you don't want a huge lump that lasts days like with a python. You want a slight bulge that lasts 1 to 2 days max. like bcr229 said, boas do better if slightly underweight than overweight.

[Sauzo]

He is too big for my kitchen scale I use and I do not have money to buy a big fancy one. I have never weighed my snakes for food, and wasn't about how much to feed him in one feeding. How many days can I go without feeding. So far it has been 9 days. He is still gentle and not angry. I planned on feeding him tomorrow. He is definitely not under weight or over weight. And boas grow through their whole lives but the first 5 years is when the do the most growing and then they gain an inch or less a year after that.

Most boa keepers feed their older boas every 3 weeks to 1 month. A younger boa like yours, I would feed every 2 weeks. Once he hits about 3 years old, go to every 3-4 weeks. And boas are different than BPs. You don't need to weigh their food, you want to feed them something that is as wide as them or at the most, something that leaves a slight bulge for a day or 2.

[bcr229]

By the time my males are big enough to consistently take medium rats I bump them to 2-3 week intervals for feeding depending on their body shape. When they're over a year old and taking small rats they get fed every two weeks. Waiting to eat doesn't make them mad, and while they will certainly eat more often, they'll also eat themselves obese and cut years off of their lifespan if you offer too much food.

[JoshSloane]

I will tell you that an almost five foot boa at 10 months old is definitely at the largest end of the spectrum. I slow-moderately grow my boas and at 10 months they are usually in the 3 foot range. 4'10" at this age is especially large for a male. Even if he has some BCC blood they do not exhibit larger sizes until adulthood, and even grow slower as sub-adults. Likely he was power fed as a youngster before you got him. I would just feed one appropriately sized food item every 10-14 days like stated previously. Its not cruel to push back food at his size. Feast and famine is a normal part of boa feeding in the wild, and their physiology is evolved to actually handle this situation better.

Another thing to consider is that the shelter might have been guessing at his age and completely whiffed on it. A lot of people have this idea that boas grow at unbelievable rates like retics and burms, but this is just not true. The shelter worker might have just given him an age based off of his size that was incorrect. If someone showed me a male boa that was almost 5' long I would say that unless someone was stuffing rats down his throat every four days, that the animal would be 2.5-3 years old. Just food for thought.

[lunasjy]

I have had him since he was 1' 3" long, and the SPCA I got him from said he was about 2 months old. He is the only boa I have. I have a bunch of ball pythons so I am more advanced in looking after them. My husband wanted the boa so I picked it up for him as a gift. So if he was power fed, wouldn't that be our fault? When I first got him I fed him rat pups, then went to small rats. Like I said, the rats I am feeding him now are bigger then small rats but smaller then medium rats (not really sure what you would call that size of rat). Ever since I got him I have been feeding him once a week with prey the size of his girth. I do this with my ball pythons so maybe I am wrong when it comes to boas? He could be older, or possibly even younger then I was told. He could have mixed blood in him. I do not know. The SPCA rescued him from a hoarders house so they probably guessed for all I know.

I will start feeding every two weeks then? He isn't fat, just long.