» Site Navigation
1 members and 657 guests
Most users ever online was 47,180, 07-16-2025 at 05:30 PM.
» Today's Birthdays
» Stats
Members: 75,908
Threads: 249,107
Posts: 2,572,126
Top Poster: JLC (31,651)
|
-
Re: First feeding
I am going to echo the sentiment here.
Less is more for Boas, especially BCC. All boas, but especially BCC, can get regurgitation syndrome if fed too large a meal. That is fatal. Also, an obese Boa is soon to be a dead boa.
As mentioned previously, it's almost impossible to underfeed a boa. They have a very slow metabolism and also make the most of food given.
I have a dwarf BCC who is eating weaned rats every other week and a 3 year old BI female, who is about 1,650G and 5FT and she's eating a medium rat (about 110G) every 3 weeks. Both are growing well, but not overly quickly.
Once over 2-3 years old, I prefer smaller meals than they can take every 3-4 weeks. Go by width of the snake, but if it's a healthy boa, lean and muscular, AND still growing a lot, I feed no more than 10-11% of the weight of the snake if I move up a size, and average about 7% of the snakes weight before I even think of moving up.
For example, medium rats barely make a dent in Behira now. However, she's maintaining her lean and muscular figure, and still grows after every meal. I won't move up to large rats for a long time, if ever, and only if she gets significantly larger. I'd rather feed a medium every 2-3 weeks as an adult, probably every 3, with maybe an occasional large rat, than feed her large rats every 4 weeks.
Bigger than large rats and you deal with fat content issues with the rats, especially with jumbos. Boas do not handle fat as well as some other snakes. At the point, you would probably consider rabbits (small - appropriate sized of course).
I digressed, but remember, less is more.
Secondly, if she didn't strike, she might be adjusting, but I wouldn't count on that. Both my boas strike, anything and everything sometimes, anticipating a meal. My goal is to get the rat in so quickly on the tongs that they strike that first.
Feliz, my dwarf BCC, strikes harder than any of my snakes, certainly by size, if not period (he's about 400G now).
I would watch yourself until you know her routine when eating, and even then, never let your guard down.
-
Posting Permissions
- You may not post new threads
- You may not post replies
- You may not post attachments
- You may not edit your posts
-
Forum Rules
|