Is my BCI too small for her age?

[kath_]

Hi Dakski!
So good to hear from you and beautiful Behira again! I hope you guys are doing well!

Tina is currently on one medium rat every four weeks. In comparison to Behira’s schedule maybe I’m not feeding Tina enough? I get paranoid about over feeding her. Do you think I should bump her up to every two weeks?

[dakski]

Hi Dakski!
So good to hear from you and beautiful Behira again! I hope you guys are doing well!

Tina is currently on one medium rat every four weeks. In comparison to Behira’s schedule maybe I’m not feeding Tina enough? I get paranoid about over feeding her. Do you think I should bump her up to every two weeks?

Thank you Kath! Everyone is good here. Hoping the same for you and yours.

Tina looks good and giving an appropriate sized meal every 4 weeks won't hurt and will only slow her growth. People have different weights associated with rats but I consider a medium 100-150G and a large 170-220G +/-. If you are feeding mediums as stated, moving to every 3 weeks makes a lot of sense to me. Behira was eating every 3 weeks, but a) the mediums were getting a little small for her (while expecting noticeable growth) and b) she had a shedding issue I documented on her thread and wanted to keep her strong. Therefore I moved from feeding every 3 weeks to every 2 weeks.

I will point out that bigger than large rats get fatty for boas (boas do not handle fat as well as other large constructors like some pythons). I plan to feed Behira large rats and adjust spacing to keep her growing slow and then maintaining ultimately (which doesn't take much for a boa). Right now she's eating 100G every two weeks, or 2.5% of her body weight and still growing. A large rat may not sound like much for 5-7kg animal, but that's proportional and I would want her to stay lean and muscular even as an adult.

Anyway, every 3 weeks should be perfect for Tina right now.

A few other things.

1. Tina definitely looks hypo to me. She's got great color. I am not a breeder, but think she looks great.

2. Boas are always hungry and great eaters.

3. Less is more with boas. At her age at size, it would be difficult to starve her at this point feeding anything reasonably sized even monthly. Again, it's how fast you want her to grow. It's good you are concerned about overfeeding, which is a much bigger issue for boas and in captivity. I think the fact that you are being cognizant and cautious means moving up the feeding to every 3 weeks makes all the sense. Keep an eye on her and look from the top and sides. Again, you want that muscular square look.

Keep up the good work and keep us posted!

Good luck!

[kath_]

Dakski, you are fantastic! This was so incredibly helpful. Thank you so so much. You’ve been here from the beginning of my boa journey since I first started doing research several years ago and it’s so great I can still turn to these forums and awesome people like you for help.

I will absolutely bump her up to 3 weeks.

I really should start a thread for her and my ball python, Buddy at some point! Yes! I think she is hypo too. I’m excited to see how her color deepens or changes with age. She is an absolute sweetheart of a boa. Always so good during handling and eats like a champ.

thank you again for the help. Stay posted for a Tina and Buddy thread hopefully in the near future!