Olin- 2020 Colombian Boa Thread

[dakski]

I was thinking it seemed like an awful lot of food for him. He's only 101g at least weigh. I'm nervous to stop what he was eating before he came to me, but is there a trick to switching feeding schedules? Or do you just go for it? With this being my first snake, I want to be sure I'm not growing him too fast or risking a regurgitation.

I can understand starting him on rats because that's what he'll go to eventually, but what might be another option I could get from my local reptile shop? I'll talk to the breeder as well and ask them about their heavy feeding schedule they had him on. Maybe only 1/pup every 7-10 days is a better alternative

I feed rat pups to Jeff, my 300G+ boa. They are 20-30G or so.

Boas are prone to regurgitation if fed too large a meal and can develop regurgitation syndrome which can kill them.

I rarely feed a prey item more than 10% of a BI's body weight. Boas are incredibly efficient and less is more with them. My 4 year old boa, Behira, is getting medium rats, about 100G +/- and she weighs about 2KG and is 5 1/2 feet now. She was on a 14-21 day schedule on those, usually 21, and growing. I had to speed that up briefly - you can look at her thread - frequent shedding - to every 10 days, but that's too much for a boa that size and age in most circumstances.

You want to take years - like 4-6+ for your little one to get to adult size.

Regarding prey type. Boas will eat just about anything. I've switched boas from mice to rats in about 2 seconds. Same with live to F/T; about 2 seconds.

They are voracious eaters, but therefore, it's up to us as keepers to make sure they are eating appropriate sized meals and not too often.

Feeding every 7-10 days for now is okay, but I would not feed him anything larger than a small mouse. Frankly, I would be giving mouse hoppers now (7-12G or so). They are more developed and more nutritious than rat pinkies or fuzzies that are less developed.

If you want to feed rats, I would be feeding small fuzzies at the most. However, similarly sized mice will have more nutrition.

Please do not offer a rat pup to him. Especially as his first meal while he's adjusting.

Also, did you get your IR temp gun? Make sure ground temps are about 88-90 hot spot, 80-84F ambient, and a cool side at least 76F, but less than 80F.

Do not feed until you know temps are proper and digestion will not be an issue.

Good luck and keep us posted.