Boa temperament/bites

[Patrick Long]

My 07 males are on adult mice, my 07 females are on rat pups

[starmom]

Hey Pat- do you know the weight of the rat pups you're giving your females?

[Patrick Long]

Hey Pat- do you know the weight of the rat pups you're giving your females?

I have no idea, I have never really weighed a rat. I looked on rodent pro and I would say that they are about the 20-29 gram pup.

[starmom]

Hmmm- are these your Bci's?

I ask because I just upped my Bci's (year and a half old females) to 80g rats every 10 days. They (the snakes) weigh a little over 1000g and so I thought it was time. They also damn near took my hand off at every feeding!!! The snakes are in good muscular shape and get lots of exercise...

...but what do you think?

[Patrick Long]

Yeah BCI's, I just go by the thickness of the snake. I acutally havent weighed the 07's I will do that in a bit.

[clapton924]

To me it seems your biting problems are associated with feeding. I feed my boa inside its cage and have never had agression problems. She sometimes will hiss when she is having a bad day....but has never bit me. After feeding my boa I would not try to handle her in anyway for 24hrs....I can sense she is still excited from the food several hours after feeding.

I have 07 female BCI that eats medium to large rats. Little over 4ft and weighs about 1200g.

[snakewrangler]

I would switch the boa from mice to rats as soon as possible and space out the feedings to 7-10 days.

I agree with everyone else here- never mess with him around feeding time.

[starmom]

I'm feeding my 1.5 year old females 80g rats and my little one is on 55g small rats; every 10 days.

[nca1979]

yeah, like i was saying, the only real reason i picked up them up was to put them in the feeding bin, which i now realize, was completely useless, especially when dealing with boa's.
for some reason, when i first starting posting here, i had seen a bunch of posts about how some people fed in separate bins, which i guess may work for some species, like my ball python, Hannibal, doesn't know or care where he is around feeding, just as long as he's fed. He is always completely and totally calm. The boa, however, is a different story completely.

clapton (and everyone else)....i definately know what you mean about how boa's get excited while they are eating. its actually really, really cool to see. Attila is generally very calm during the week, but come feeding time, he is just all primed up before and even more so after.

this past week, i fed Attila in his cage, and i will continue to do so from now on for sure....

[snakewrangler]

You might also want to get in the habit of using a snake hook. If you are serious about keeping a boa, it is a good idea. Boas are not massive like a Burm, but believe me, a bite from an 8', 30 lb. female HURTS.

My suggestion is not to ever reach into a boa cage. The cage is the snake's home, and a keeper should expect the snake to interpret the hand as either food or a threat. I handle all my boas, but the hook always enters the cage before the hand.

If not for safety, then perhaps respect. Good luck.