Hello,

the growth rates depends also on the feeding and the size of the parents.

A friend of me (he only had boas before and has not known anything about indigos before) did feed his male very often. His male was with 12 months 4 ft. and very strong, not fat. The father of the male is over 8 ft.

I told him to stop feeding him very fast because the Indigo could get sick because of this.

My male Indigo was 2 months old when I got him, approx. 1,5 ft. After a year (August 2001, he hatched in the first week in August 2000) he had 80 cm (1 ft. = 30 cm).

My female Indigo was 4 months old when I got her (I picked her up in September 2000 at the Reptile Fair in Hamm from the Dutch breeder) approx. 50 cm in length. In May 01 she was 3 ft. (90 cm).

The male did not feed when I got him, it tooked me 5 weeks to get him his first meal (a leg of a one-day chick).

The female was eating like all Indigos, very good.

My opinion is that overfeeding is resulting in snakes which don´t want to breed. Also they will die earlier.

I feed my female every 7 days, my male every 10 days. As food I offer rats (small rats).

Here in Europe we have problems with inbreeding of Indigos because no imports from the U.S.A. are allowed.

Years ago I tryed to get a permission, but I failed. Mrs. Linda LaClaire from the US-Fish and Wildlive Service tryed to help me, but the responsible person in Washington did not answer my e-mails and the e-mails of Mrs. LaClaire.

The Indigos which are coming from inbreedings stay smaller and getting fat.

The growth rates of snakes depends on many different factors and are not easy to tell.

Greetings from Germany.

Juergen

[ Show Entire Thread ]