Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Conservative Feeding

"And last but not least, the best news: Every somewhat experienced boa keeper is able to apply a feeding schedule that prevents any further significant growth in adult boas.

This means that when your adult boa has reached 6 ft in length and weighs 9 pounds (just an example), you can feed it in a way that the animal will more or less remain at this size and weight. This does not harm the animal at all. To the contrary, such animals will be more healthy and fertile than those fat truck tires that are frequently found in the terrariums of breeders who think that feeding an adult rabbit every two weeks is necessary to be successful in breeding boas."-Boa Constrictors.com

I don't feed any of my animals rabbits, but theyre actually telling you to stunt the growth of your animal!!!!

taken out of context, it may sound like they're telling you to stunt the growth of your boa... but they're right, at some point, you should stop feeding your boa "growth" amounts of food and just go for a maintanence diet instead. at this point, all significant growth should be finished and the only thing that feeding the same amount as before will accomplish is to make the boa obese. hence the reference to the flat tire.
jb
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Jonathan Brady
My Kingsnake Photo Gallery

I do not like fat overweight snakes. Snakes in the wild which survive probably grow fairly quickly during their first few years and then continue growing slowly for the rest of their lives. The Boas which have been imported at over 12 feet in length probably did not reach this length in just a couple of years. They are probably very old animals which grew rapidly for 3 to 5 years and then continued growing slowly throughout their lives. I think we should feed Boas in captivity so that they grow at a fast, but reasonable rate when young and then a slow rate throughout their adult lives.
Jeff

>>Conservative Feeding
>>
>>"And last but not least, the best news: Every somewhat experienced boa keeper is able to apply a feeding schedule that prevents any further significant growth in adult boas.
>>
>>This means that when your adult boa has reached 6 ft in length and weighs 9 pounds (just an example), you can feed it in a way that the animal will more or less remain at this size and weight. This does not harm the animal at all. To the contrary, such animals will be more healthy and fertile than those fat truck tires that are frequently found in the terrariums of breeders who think that feeding an adult rabbit every two weeks is necessary to be successful in breeding boas."-Boa Constrictors.com
>>
>>I don't feed any of my animals rabbits, but theyre actually telling you to stunt the growth of your animal!!!!

I feed mine an appropriate sized(as big around as the snake at mid-body) meal every two weeks.
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JMHO, FWIW, YMMV.

I feed my 8 foot 23 pound female 2 jumbo rats every 2 weeks. She is still growing at a good rate, she just shed today. She is shedding about every 3 months or even sooner. This tells me she still has a lot of growing to do! I think she will be a monster, as she is only 2 and 1/2 years old. She is not obese. Snakes are like people, some have faster metabolisms and therefore eat more and grow faster. It all depends on the size, age, and the specific snake as to how much food is appropriate. If you try to put the snake on a maintenance feeding schedule at this point, it will be crawling around the cage looking for food until you feed it. Then you get an unpleasant reaction when you try to pick the snake up and it is nice and hungry. IMHO underfeeding is just as bad as overfeeding.

Hey T,
I pretty much follow your feeding schedule for my male BCI: approximately every two weeks. I occasionally skip a meal, every other or third month. As you can see from the picture, my boy is far from emmaciated. When he was younger, he was fed every 10 days and has only refused a rodent once in his four years of life (he had a respiratory infection after three months of constant courting/breeding). My vet said that he was just run-down and after a few injections he is 100% healthy and eating without fail again.
*Of course, my BCC are on a little bit different schedule, this is just how I do it for BCI.*

Here is a picture for everyone:

.

>>Hey T,
>>I pretty much follow your feeding schedule for my male BCI: approximately every two weeks. I occasionally skip a meal, every other or third month. As you can see from the picture, my boy is far from emmaciated. When he was younger, he was fed every 10 days and has only refused a rodent once in his four years of life (he had a respiratory infection after three months of constant courting/breeding). My vet said that he was just run-down and after a few injections he is 100% healthy and eating without fail again.
>>*Of course, my BCC are on a little bit different schedule, this is just how I do it for BCI.*
>>
>>Here is a picture for everyone:
>>
>>
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JMHO, FWIW, YMMV.