Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I was away from my boa's for 2 months an well,while I was gone I put my boa's on a every 14 day diet compared to the normal feeding regiment they were on before I left every 7 days for females an every 10 days for males.I don't bring this issue up for an arguement but from what I have seen when I came back with 3 of them,I was a bit agrivated an too all those who stick to the your boa can do well with 1 meal a month crap I bet your ears were burning!This has been a long time disagreement some say one is power feeding some say one is not?Will we ever know?Who knows?It just don't make any sence why,before I left that every 1 of my boa's was very muscular an felt firm from the diet I had them on an now at least 3 of them feel like they have loose skin on them like they have been starved.I am not saying this happened to everyone of my boa's.Some did fine on this feeding regiment but 2 adult males an 1 adult female did not do well at all on this so called feeding regiment.Why?Who can actually say what a boa need's to eat weekly or byweekly,when every boa is different.Sorry I just felt this would be a good topic to discuss with the subject being brought up below a few times.Thanks an You all have a great an safe weekend.Eric[Hypoboa]
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E&C's Exotic House of Reptiles

I'm with you on the feeding thing, but I thought you'd like to know - a regiment is a group of calvary soldiers, a regimine is a routine practice.
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2.1.0 Kidletts
0.0.1 Ball Pyhton (Rex)
0.0.1 Okeetee Corn (Maizey)
0.1.0 BCI (Ruby)
0.1.0 Cat (Ginger)
1.0.0 Pughuahua (Ranger)

Oops, I misspelled cavalry as calvary.
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2.1.0 Kidletts
0.0.1 Ball Pyhton (Rex)
0.0.1 Okeetee Corn (Maizey)
0.1.0 BCI (Ruby)
0.1.0 Cat (Ginger)
1.0.0 Pughuahua (Ranger)

I don't know how long you were gone, but IMHO a 7-10 day regimen(sp)LOL, is not power feeding. If you know and trust whoever was babysitting while you were gone the 'every two week' feeding shouldn't have caused this. It sounds like they were either not fed at all or have dehydrated. Hope I'm wrong.

Quig

First off, Eric. I am glad that you are back with your boas.

As far as feeding them goes, I think you and I had a discussion at some point about this very topic. Kathy and I are fairly conservative in our feeding strategy. Several years ago we would feed everything once every 7 days but have changed our way of thinking since then. If your boas were being fed an appropriate size meal every 14 days I feel that there is no reason that they should have any problem over a 2 month period. In the wild, boas go several months without food and thrive, so a couple months on a reduced feeding plan should have no long lasting ill effects, in my opinion.

On the other hand, feeding once every 7 days does not constitute power feeding to me, even though we feed less than that. My thought on feeding is to give them what they require for food and give them regular exercise. Getting out of their cage and moving about on a regular basis is important to their long term health, I believe.

This is a good topic and worthy of more discussion as no single one of us here knows everything there is about boas.

Cheers,
Denny Rimes

I do not think that that is overfeeding. I usually feed every 5-7 days on boa's that are under 2 years of age. Once they hit 2 years old i feed them every 7-10 days depending on how active they are. I do not think that every 2 weeks is really that innappropriate though. All of us have had times pop every now and then when a snake refuses a meal. No biggie. You just make sure that they have a good constant supply of clean water and they should be good to go.

Joe

I'm not an expert but I agree with the above post that said it sounds like it may be dehydration. Feeding boas every 14 days should not cause the skin to become loose.
I hope your boas do better now that your back home.
Chuck

>>I was away from my boa's for 2 months an well,while I was gone I put my boa's on a every 14 day diet compared to the normal feeding regiment they were on before I left every 7 days for females an every 10 days for males.I don't bring this issue up for an arguement but from what I have seen when I came back with 3 of them,I was a bit agrivated an too all those who stick to the your boa can do well with 1 meal a month crap I bet your ears were burning!This has been a long time disagreement some say one is power feeding some say one is not?Will we ever know?Who knows?It just don't make any sence why,before I left that every 1 of my boa's was very muscular an felt firm from the diet I had them on an now at least 3 of them feel like they have loose skin on them like they have been starved.I am not saying this happened to everyone of my boa's.Some did fine on this feeding regiment but 2 adult males an 1 adult female did not do well at all on this so called feeding regiment.Why?Who can actually say what a boa need's to eat weekly or byweekly,when every boa is different.Sorry I just felt this would be a good topic to discuss with the subject being brought up below a few times.Thanks an You all have a great an safe weekend.Eric[Hypoboa]
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>>E&C's Exotic House of Reptiles

I am a bit confused about the 3 boa's myself.None show any signs of RI an seem to be fine other than this small problem I have discussed.I don't feel it was a problem with feeding or humidity or the 10 others would be showing the same signs as these 3 are doing.Especially when 1 female that is doing great is over 8 ft long an 25 lbs.But like was said earlier in this dicussion we are all still learning about our boa's.I am not really worried about them,I am just very picky about my boa's care an wanted other opinion's on this matter.I feel that it is a very good topic to discuss myself.They will be fine thoough muscle tone an all still seems to be fine.Thanks again,Eric[Hypoboa]
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E&C's Exotic House of Reptiles

Eric, just a thought. Are these three all CB and/or long term captive. If not I might worry about parasites, at least.

Quig

I think one of your questions may be posed to open the forum for discussion of "power-feeding" in general. I know how much heat can be generated by the subject. I don't want to start that. However...I haved searched and I have yet to find a study with something approaching a experimental and control group on the subject. The general thought seems to be "power feeding" may result in more rapid growth but shortened lifespan (along with other assorted bad consequences). I'm willing to accept on faith that too many calories equals fat and a fat snake will pay in similar ways to any other fat animal. Beyond that, can anyone cite a reasonably objective study on the subject?