Interesting read about boa & python feeding.

[Warren_Booth]

It's amazing how far some of these posts go. I think I responded with this to a friend back in Northern Ireland. It has since traveled around the world it appears.

So, let me clarify a few things. This feeding regime does not apply to colubrids (so your corns, kings, rats, hognose, etc) feed differently. They are weekly, and sometimes sooner, feeders. Those that undergo organ remodeling are the pythons, boas, and pitvipers. Do they all do it? We are not sure. The initial work was carried out on Burmese pythons (note this is work by Stephen Secor and Todd Castoe. While Todd is a good friend of mine, I am not involved in it). What has been shown is that remarkable remodeling occurs within four hours of feeding (heart, liver,kidneys, intestines, increasing in size dramatically; blood plasma levels spiking). This likely puts enormous physiological stress on the organs.

While visiting Castoe several weeks ago, we chatted more about this to gauge opinion whether it is better to remain in that remodeled state and feed frequently, or whether rest is needed. There are two sides to the argument. One is that is is physiologically stressful to remodel your organs and thus keeping them remodeled might put less stress on the animal overall. The second is that the snake is under such physiological stress while remodel that remaining in this condition long term is detrimental. What we can see from the hobby is that there are actually very few "old" snakes in captivity. Does this reflect poor care outside of feeding, or is it a result of overfeeding and thus physiological stress. I cannot see it being the former as not everyone keeps their animals poorly.

We will always have exceptions. I hear it from people "I feed my snake every 5 days and its 15 years old". That is perfectly fine. My grandmother also fed her black Labrador a 200g bar of Cadbury's Chocolate every Friday night and that animal lived till it was 16. And chocolate is poisonous to dogs. We hear people that smoked and drank all their lives living past 100. There are exceptions to the rule.

How I feed my animals is simple. As adults, I feed males every 3-4 weeks on an appropriate sized meal. Females get fed every 3. Juveniles are fed every 2 weeks, and I feed babies every 10 days. I stop feeding my adults between November and February every year. I then feed every 2 weeks for a period of 6 to 8 weeks prior to breeding, and then back to the standard feeding. I have been breeding boas for 20 years and produce 3 to 7 litters a year. So not that many, but they are very healthy litters with few to zero slugs.

Am I telling all of you to feed the same way. No. Feed how you like to feed. It is your animal and only you can decide what you feel is healthy and what is not. My animals (~100 boas) have proven to thrive on this feeding schedule.

Two other things and I will leave the topic. 1) We never see fat boas in the wild. Those that I have caught are muscular. Shaped like a loaf of breed (squared sides). Males are always lean. 2) We know that boas undergo feast and famine feeding. Look at insular boas. These often feed only for 2 to 3 months a year on migratory birds, then starve the rest. Mainland animals certainly undergo the same, but less extreme.

In regards to how people keep their boas. I personally keep all of my babies and yearlings in v15 and V18 tubs. I then move them to V35s, the V70s. The males (mine are all Central American), remain in V35s all of their lives. Mine are all around 3ft long and phenomenal breeders. My females are in V70s and 4ft Reptilebasic cages. I am planning to switch these to ARS 8000 series cages this year. This season I have three females gravid. One is 15, one is 9, and the other is a young one at 5 (her first season). I also can tell you that some boas love having tall cages. Insular boas in general are small, males very small. These thrive in tall cages with branches, as in the wild they are very arboreal. Not like a Corallus, but will spend a lot of time in the trees (because they eat lizards, birds, an arboreal rodents). I have a male Costa Rican T+ boa in my office at the University and he is in a Zoomed arboreal cage. He is rarely on the ground. My other CA males and females at home are all in racks, and all thrive. Do they need arboreal cages to thrive... no. Will they use branches and spend time in them if offered, most will. Colombians are a different matter. They are heavier bodies and primarily terrestrial. The person posting in that tumbler thread seemed a little extreme and failed to differentiate locality, insularity, and species. All have important implications.

Warren