Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently took in a rescue. She was born 6/14/06 and as of today, she is only 28.5 inches long. She was in a sorry state when I took her in. Mulitiple layers of stuck sheds, retained eye caps, and an RI. She very obviously has been underfed and kept in inadequate housing. I happen to own a male sibling to this snake that is over 40 inches.

My question is this: Being this small at 13 months of age, is this boa's growth going to be stunted for life, or with a healthy diet and good husbandry, can she bounce back and eventually attain normal size?

Has anyone worked with a stunted snakes like this and later bred her?

By the way, all stuck sheds are removed, eyes are clear, she is re-hydrated, has fed, and defecated/passed urates. The RI is gone also. It is amazing how apt to thrive these animals are, if they're just given an appropriate environment and decent husbandry.

Thanks.

I purchased many years ago a yearling hypo female that was barely 2'. She produced for me last year without a problem.

I am curious why you would think an animal is stunted at 28-29" at just over a year. I have 2 holdbacks from last years litter, (they are roughly 16 months) one is just over 3' and the other is around 2 1/2'. Both fed well both kept in optimum conditions.
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Randall L Turner Jr.
Boas make the world go round.

I think it's stunted because it's male sibling is so much bigger in length and girth. The male spent his first year eating 1 weaned rat per week (just moved up to smalls last month).

It just seemed that siblings from the same litter shouldn't have such a massive gap in size.

asking this question, but Randy, you are exactly right.

I don't understand why some people think a boa is unhealthy if it is not 6' long in 2 years, or 4' long in it's first year.

In the wild, that boa in question would be of perfect size.

They would have the ENTIRE jungle as their 'tank', but will only use a burrow that is not much larger than they are when tucked into a tight ball.
They would eat perhaps once a month, perhaps once every 3 months, and this would be a prefectly acceptable, healthy, natural lifestyle for them.
This is what they do. Yet we expect so much different...

Did I tell you about the group of 5 boas I raised, feeding weekly, and two never grew?
Then when I started feeding those two boas once every other week, they took off in size!!! Quickly catching up to their siblings!

Some boas can't even digest quick enough, and we're already stuffing another rat down its throat.

These are not burmese pythons! that's for sure.

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

Well said,sadly it crosses the "thought patterns" learned here on KS.

TnK

That's great! How old is she?
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Caden Chapman
slithering.serpents@gmail.com
http://slitheringserpents.com

She really isn't that small for her age! Sounds like a trip to a vet a few good meals and you are back in biz. These animals that are 3'-4' at a year are totally overfed and often have a-lot of problems later on in adulthood! I was actually guilty of this a few years back. I had a Het. Albino female that was a sister to a group of animals I had purchased a year earlier. She was smaller than the other animals I had bought so I basically turned her into a dumping ground for rats that other snakes had decided not to eat not a good idea I learned. I offer food if they don't take it I place it in the cage for at the longest two hours. If they don't eat it in that time period they now go to my Whitethroat! Back then they went to her. To make the long story short her body growth was more than her organs could keep up with and her kidneys failed and she died. At least this is what the vet had to say! Raise them slow and you will have them for a long time! Good luck on the rehab!

Al Brown/Brown's Boas

Lets see the disposal if you have a pic.
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Voices in the darkness... scream away my mental health. Can I.. ask a question.. to help save me from myself? Enemies fill up the pages, are they me?... Monday till Sunday in stages, set me free!!! " Diary of a Madman " Ozzy Osbournewww.bahreptiles.bravehost.com

It's nice when someone posts something different (y'all know what I'm talking about).

I would agree that this size isn't anything to worry about. I've had several (and have a couple right now!) that just don't seem to go anywhere the first year and then take off.

On a more interesting note, I *DO* think it would be perfectly normal to see such a large "gap" between siblings. This is simply genetic variation. While we morph fiends currently tend to focus on color and pattern, one day traits like good feeding behavior and good sustained growth patterns, early sexual maturity, etc. will be traits we breed for. I'm sure some of us are doing that already...but some still find it hard to weed out obvious traits like eye deformations.

thanks for the post and good luck with her!

Kassandra Royer

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I'd make sure to keep it in isolation for a few months and use hand disinfectant between handling different animals. I recently acquired a snake that wasn't obviously sick at first. Not only did I lose him I lost another male that I have had for 9 years (since he was born). I know you have at least two others.

Tony.
(always reading, hardly ever post)

I have to agree with most everyone else on this - boas do just fine with weekly or biweekly meals. My '06 male hypo (born last June) is still fairly small for a yearling, I can easily hold him in one hand, though he no longer fits in my palm. I've been feeding him an adult mouse every week or two for quite a while, and he's fine with it.

My other hypo, an '05, grew much quicker her first year. However, I slowed her down since I was concerned about fast growth since my '04 hog island girl died of an intestinal problem (granted, that wasn't related to overfeeding, but I do not want to rush my hypos into breeding).

As a comparison, the two '03 Suris I adopted last October were 8.5 and 7.5 feet long and maturely muscled (I thought that Suris took much longer to reach maturity), and the previous owner fed them every two weeks.

So, I guess it just depends. At one point in time, when I was 10 years old, I towered over the other kids in my class. Then everyone caught up and passed me, and now I'm shorty-short compared to most people.

Unless the snake seems to be showing other problems, or isn't eating, I don't think you have to worry. If the snake has healthy muscle and looks normal (not compared to the sibling), there shouldn't be a problem.

Have any photos?
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Lauren Madar - OphidiaGems.com | CageMakers
1.0 BP, 1.0 Hog Is., 1.1 Hypo BCI, 1.1 Surinam BCC, 0.1 GTP