Adult Size and Age

[Gio]

I'm checking in with an update. She now is feeding on 170-190g large rats every 7 days and is about 7'9". She does appear to be adding a lot of girth now and don't feel comfortable increasing the rat size until she thins out by either growing in length or adding girth to her neck/head. Her head/neck looks like its starting to be to small for her body or vice versa. Can enclosure size play any role into growth? She has be cramped in a 4ft wide x 2ft tall x 2ft deep enclosure for close to three years now. I plan to have her in a 8ft wide x 4ft tall x 4ft deep enclosure in the next 2 months. Hopefully/can she begin to grow in length again?

Enclosure size has nothing to do with growth. A larger cage MAY increase her movement, in turn giving her more exercise and that exercise may recruit more muscle leading to her urge to feed more.

However, I find my boa constrictor will not use his cage space if he is always well fed. I find him more active when he has to hunt for his food and it is not available all of the time. My coastal carpet is all over the place, but she is not eating at all this winter.

It sounds like you have seen some growth as of late which is what you want.

Here is a little info that Gus Rentfro used to give people that wanted big boa constrictors. He would tell folks that the largest boas in nature are the oldest boas.
In captivity most people overfeed their animals. Overfed animals (snakes) NEVER reach the golden ages of properly fed snakes. A long, lean older snake is better than a young fatty that grew to quickly and tuned inactive and unhealthy.


Patience and time is what you need here. When they give the approximate size of a species, the research is often from the wild. In the wild, the sample is from the specimens they find, and little is known about the ages, odds are the BIG ones are the oldest ones. When they give the " size range" the largest sample animal is usually the exception and not the rule. So you get the smallest, with a give or take, everything in-between and the largest sample give or take.

In captivity some of the growth equation changes but a snake that is kept healthy and is allowed to feed properly, digest, eliminate and hunt again will eventually grow to it's potential over the long haul.

I'm not well versed on the diet of your snake, but if there is some variation in prey type and prey size, look into it. I feed my snakes quail, rats, and small rabbits.

If the need for size is immediate, add another snake that is an adult, or close to it.

Otherwise stay the course.

By chance do you know the age and size of the parents of your animal?