Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hello-

in 3 weeks im getting my first columbian boa,now all i need to know is to get a male orm female.ive read around and they say that females are bigger, about how much biger are they in size?this is my first boa,so if you think i should get a female over the male or the other way around,then speak up.thanks]

-adam

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My self, personally, if I were not worried about breeding I would get a male boa. They stay small and I like smaller boas. The size he would attain would depend on how much I fed him. most males are a foot to two feet smaller than females. If I fed him say once every two to three weeks he would be much smaller than if he was fed every week. I currently feed my boas weekly. A friend of mine had a male that he fed one pinky rat a week for a year. It is as small as some of the 03's that I have been feeding 2-3 pinky rats weekly. So the more you feed the bigger they get.
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Jared Douglas

These are not burmese pythons...

Boas grow verrry slooowly...

First, it would take 5 - 10 years before your boa can reach its maximum size....
Do you really think this would be a problem in 5 - 10 years, if you even still have her at that time?

Second, most Boas don't reach the maximum size often described.

I've heard many times that a female can reach lengths of 12' - 14' long, and males at about 10' or so BUT I have YET to see a boa over 10 feet long in about 15 years.

I've got an 8 footer and a 9 footer that haven't seemed to grow an inch in over 2-3 years...

So if you really think about it, there isn't much difference, at least not something that would deter you from buying one, only to buy the other.

Considering that when boas are bred, the female typically is larger than the male, it would make more sense to buy a female now. This way, if you do decide to breed in the future, you have about 2-3 years or even more to find a suitable male.

Hope this helped.
Joe Rollo
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'Tis not the stongest of the species that will eventually survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change' Charles Darwin
Thanks and take care - Joe Rollo

FORGET ABOUT feeding it 'as little' or 'as much' as you want, ok!

You could feed a human once a week or 10 times a day and he will still live - but do you think this is healthy or right in any way?

REMEMBER THIS - Maintenance diet, Growth diet.

Maintenance is what I would give my males, and adult non-breeders. A baby would be fed a rat pink or pup approximately every 7-10 days. A 3 foot male would be fed a small rat every 2 weeks. A 7 foot male would get 2 jumbo rats every 3-4 weeks.

Growth Diet is what I would give me females and breeders. A baby would be fed a single rat pink or pup every 5 days or so. A 3 foot female would be fed a small-medium rat weekly. An 8 foot female would get about 3 jumbo rats every 10 days or so.

Please understand if you stuff your boa 24/7, it won't give you the world's largest boa overnight, it will give you an obese snake that will eventually die, IF it evens lives long enough to become obese .

Hope this helps.

Joe Rollo
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'Tis not the stongest of the species that will eventually survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change' Charles Darwin
Thanks and take care - Joe Rollo