Quote Originally Posted by mamaodie View Post
Thank you!!!! He is anery het for sharp and hytec if I remember correctly (his papers are in the filing cabinet and I'm out of the house), but he's just my buddy so I highly doubt I'll ever breed him. I'm smitten with the little lad!

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He's most likely just anery het sharp. Hytec is hypo aztec, both morphs are visual in the heterozygous forms. Since he isn't visually either hypo or aztec, he isn't het for either. Sharp is recessive, though, so he certainly could be het Sharp!

Quote Originally Posted by mamaodie View Post
He'll be 2 in May and I'm a slow feeder. He's just now bumped to smalls for the last couple meals every 2 weeks. His girth has began to fill in and I expect some length to add on with the next shed. I don't expect him to be large at all. I was a bit surprised at the slow growth. Everyone tells you and you read it everywhere, but it's just not the same til you witness first hand I think. Oddly enough before I got him and really increased my preparation research I thought boas were these huge snakes and I was taking a brave leap from my bp lol! He's healthy and that's all that matters!

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He is kinda girthy, which is why I mentioned the feeding schedule, his sides have gotten a bit pudgy. haha Space his feedings out like you are now, and he should trim out.

They can definitely appear to be large snakes if you aren't used to their girth. My biggest female is 7', and she looks much bigger than my 9' retic, but she's definitely a few feet shorter, just much girthier. She's still manageable by one person. It took me a little bit to get used to her extra weight, but now I can handle her just as easily as my smaller snakes.

The growth rate can be impacted greatly by feeding regimens. My boas nowadays grow pretty slowly, but I was accidentally power feeding my first boa, so he was only 2.5' at 1 year old, but was just over 5' by the time he turned 2, and reached 6' around the time he turned 3. He grew another half a foot over the next year, and is currently about 6.5'. He's been showing some issues recently that the vet seems to think could have been impacted by his power feeding earlier in life, but we really don't know what's going on. He's the only snake currently showing health issues.