Kevin Hit 3.

[bns]

...Idk about you, but I feel it's pretty dang obvious a 4 lb rabbit is going to hit the growth spurts harder than a rat that might max out at 3 lbs if you're lucky.Feeding a boa 4 lb rabbit is quite like feeding it 4 jumbo rats a sitting instead of just one large. Of course it's going to have more growth, it's more food! Ime, if you keep the size of rabbits closer to the size of a rat you'd normally feed it...the growth is about the same, although they'll keep more body mass than with rats alone on a conservative schedule. My boas eating large rats start out on 1/2 lb rabbits, very roughly the same size as a large rat. I don't currently have a boa I'd consider feeding a 1 lb rabbit, let alone a 4 lb rabbit. My biggest is only 7', though, so she gets 1/2-3/4 lb rabbits, if she was closer to 8' maybe she'd get those 1 lb rabbits. Obviously, they can take larger, but I learned the hard way with Cloud that as little as 1-2 overly-large rabbits can put on a LOT of excess weight and not necessarily a ton of length growth. You want growth, but you don't want to make them fat, either.

I'm not sure if you understand (exactly) what I'm relaying or not because it is not obvious...One would think that X calories equals X growth and while that is the case with immature boa it is not the case with adult boa and even less the case with mature boa. I'm talking about the same amount of food. -Fed the same amount of calories...XX number of lean rats spread out over a year equal to 12lbs of rabbit...or feeding three 4lb rabbit over the same amount of time does not have the same growth affect on an adult boa. Its even less intuitive but when one feeds conservatively and provides long winters without food (3-5 months) the large meal growth affect is even more pronounced in mature adults.

I don't know what 'Cloud' is but if you are feeding on a schedule year round and gave it a couple extra meals or missed the metabolism shift as it passed sexual maturity, I could see how that would lead to being fat. While a year round feeding schedule is less than ideal it can be done but any year round feeding schedule needs to be closely watched to make adjustments. A mature 7 footer (BCO/BCC/BCI) here will eat 2lb rabbits with ease. Mature being the key word. Again, I don't know what Cloud is and I'm not typing any of this to challenge anyone...just providing observations for keepers with an interest.

Now it is interesting that more snakes aren't larger of any given species, as they do grow even on "small" amounts of food, and given time they grow no matter how far behind they're put with periods of low food intake. My 2010 male has grown half a foot in the 4 years he's been with me: and that's despite a roughly half year period of lowered food intake due to the overheating incident, and only getting a small rat every 3 weeks. I was not feeding him any more often than his typical 2-3 weeks (3 weeks more often than not nowadays) even when he was getting half-sized rats. Could it just be that there isn't a large population of mature enough individuals to show more of the massive side? Or maybe even genetics, like you say, if most of those are from populations or bloodlines with less size potential.

Genetics/location/seasons (periods without food or greatly reduced food)/sex/and prey size are all factors affecting size of a boa.

But if food intake affects size I'm definitely interested to see how big my conservatively-fed snakes are in another 5 years, and to see how my more mature snakes continue to grow. Cloud only grows a couple inches every few years atm, and I didn't measure Dominika when I first got her so it'll be a few more years probably before I'll notice any (IF any) growth from her. She has put on at least a pound of weight since the day I got her and that's despite slimming down her girth, so I expect she did grow a few inches since I got her, I just wasn't keeping track.

A conservatively fed boa means different things to different folks. If you are feeding your boas smallish meals year round (some would call this conservatively) as adults they will continue to grow slowly as all reptiles do but a boa kept in this manner (except the rare gene) will not be as large (read long) of a boa kept differently on a conservative schedule. -A boa fed small meals year round is much less likely to attain the same length of a boa provided seasons with an ever increasing (relative) prey size even if the same calories are fed.