Olin- 2020 Colombian Boa Thread

[Mikknu]

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.

Thank you for the good information dakski! I did get my IR temp gun. In a previous post I listed temps, but here they are again:

His ambient on the cool side is 76 with a surface temp of 78 by his secondary heat pad, and his hot side ambient is 83 with hot spots of 87-89 depending on whether I'm right above the heat tape or right below the CHE. The middle is about 80-81 at surface temp, and the hot side non-hot spot is about 84. They've been stable around these areas for a while now, with the humidity on the cool side being about 62% and about 57% on the warm side.

These are within your parameters, which makes me really happy. I'm glad I've gotten that right at least.

I had a small conversation with the breeder as well. My terminology was a bit mixed up- he got rat fuzzies, not rat pups, but they wanted him on the equivalent of a rat pup. Which I disagree with, as I feel even the rat fuzzies were of a size that I felt a little uncomfortable with. I'll be switching to hopper mice if I can.

I'm going to my local shop this afternoon. I'll see what they have available and switch him down to a smaller food amount. I was feeling kind of suspicious about the size, but I'm glad I asked you guys about it so I can fix this. How long should I wait before I feed him again since he got such a big meal? I hope he's going to be okay

He's been on his hot spot of choice since last night. He likes the branch right next to CHE, which is 86.8 degrees according to my IR temp gun. I turned my CHE up just a smidge to try and give it that boost into 87-89. I know it's normal not to go anywhere while digesting, but I'm worried about him. He's breathing regularly, which I'm hoping is a good sign.