Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Does any one out here feed or have fed there boas lizards? I know they eat them in the wild and lizards probably make up a nice part of a wild boas diet. I do not know what kind of lizards that they eat or what benefits if any would come from it, other than a variety in the snakes diet. Lizards are not as cheap as rats but they are not mass produced as prey items either. Anyway I am just curious to what other boa folk think about it.

Marcus

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feed them iguanas theres way too many of them floating around after being tossed away because they are sold as beginner pets.

Great topic. I don't have a boa right now, but I've looked into this issue a little bit since I have an Indigo snake. It would really help if there is some research out there on the diet of wild boas. Lizards are higher in protein and calcium, and much lower in fat than farm bred rats. Hard to say what the benefits would be without some hard research, but my opinion is that if you believe lizards make up a large part of your boa species' diet, the you should probably at least use some calcium supplementation.

>>Does any one out here feed or have fed there boas lizards? I know they eat them in the wild and lizards probably make up a nice part of a wild boas diet. I do not know what kind of lizards that they eat or what benefits if any would come from it, other than a variety in the snakes diet. Lizards are not as cheap as rats but they are not mass produced as prey items either. Anyway I am just curious to what other boa folk think about it.
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>>Marcus
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Thanks,
Ed

Iguanas are what I was thinking of just for that reason that you stated about them being tossed away. There are alot of iguanas out here and the pet stores sale as low as $10. If they are easy to produce I think they would be another great food source for boas and that would help the over population of these unwanted pets. I also agree that further research should be done on this subject. Even though boas do well on an all rodent diet I would think that they are missing out some kind of nutrients or vitamins by not having other reptiles in their diet like they do in the wild.

Thanks for the responses

Marcus

Rodents raised on quality diets are as "complete" as it gets.
Knowing what I do about Iguana's LOL!!,they would be one of the last things I would intro into my BCI/BCC animal diet(s).

>>Iguanas are what I was thinking of just for that reason that you stated about them being tossed away. There are alot of iguanas out here and the pet stores sale as low as $10. If they are easy to produce I think they would be another great food source for boas and that would help the over population of these unwanted pets. I also agree that further research should be done on this subject. Even though boas do well on an all rodent diet I would think that they are missing out some kind of nutrients or vitamins by not having other reptiles in their diet like they do in the wild.
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>>Thanks for the responses
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>>Marcus
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TnK

Yeah, TnK has a point...

If the iguana has mites (or other lovely pests), if your boa eats it without having frozen the iguana for some length of time beforehand... your snake will now have mites and other hangers-on.

Most baby iguanas are imported, from who knows what source. So, who knows if they ever got worming treatment?

Just something else to keep in mind.

If you're concerned, you can always try giving your boa an occassional frozen/thawed whole fowl (chicken, quail etc). However, lots have reported that boas fed on chicken have horribly smelly, loose stools afterwards, and sometimes will become hooked on fowl, and not want to feed on rodents. Not sure how true that is....

Not sure if feeding iguanas would produce some sort of super-smelly factor on boa poo, either. I can't believe I just typed that sentence... heh.
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Lauren Madar - OphidiaGems.com | CageMakers
1.1 Ball Python, 1.0 Hog Island Boa, 1.1 Hypo BCI, 1.1 Surinam BCC, 1.1 Saharan Sand Boa

A number of years ago a local pet store got some wild caught boa constrictors shipped in. One had those big scales that iguanas grow along the spine in its first stool.

I like the idea of lizards being lower fat that rats. I don't like the idea of worms, mites, etc. coming too.

Paul Hollander