Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i have a male coloumbian redtail boa which is about 3 years old. i was wondering if anyone could tell me about how big he should be for his age. i feed him one jumbo mouse weekly.
thanks a lot
mike

If your 3 year old Boa eats a mouse each week he should be a tiny, undernourished runt. Why on God's green earth are you feeding an adult Boa mice, and not rats?

I agree a bit with the previous post, but I will not drag on you for what you are doing since you probably are not aware or were misinformed. You should probably disregard all information given to you by whomever told you to keep feeding the poor guy mice.
My snakes (this is the way I choose to do it) eat rat pinks even as neonates (babies) and that way I do not have to trouble myself with the switchover issues from mice to rats. I have yearlings eating hopper rats that are the size of jumbo mice! A snake should eat a meal as large around as the biggest part around of its midsection. My three year old males eat 1 or even 2 (depending on the size of the male) big ol' rats every 2 weeks at least. My 4 year old females are eating small BUNNIES. Switch him to small rats ASAP and then start working your way up. A 3 year old male is FULLY MATURE, but can continue to grow a bit each year, less obviously as they age progressively. I don't measure exact, but my males are approx 6ft or longer and as big around as my arm (although they have more of an oval shape and are lean too, not round and pudgy ;p) All about keeping them healthy, like any animal, not underfed nor obese.
I am very glad you had the idea to ask around here. You may get some flack for keeping him in a malnourished state and stunting his growth, but you will also learn a lot. So take the good with the bad and start feeding him larger meals. When he is up to those larger meals, you don't have to feed him weekly, more like bi-weekly. Some keepers go longer than that, but they feed big prey.
Good luck and I'd like to hear how he takes the change-over and consequently grows to a normals size for you.
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Steph S.
Boas...
1.1 Albino boas (Loki & Hope)
1.4 07 Het. albino boas (Petty & Lady,Sierra,Madeline,Lola)
0.1 Reverse stripe poss. het albino (Cookie)
0.1 Salmon/hypo (Scarlet)
0.1 Anery poss. het snow (Missy)
1.0 Anery (Reno)
0.1 DH Sunglow (Bonnie)
0.0.1 Hypo het anery
1.0.0 Het. Anery (Guy & ?)
0.3 Normals (Ophelia, Sasha, & Lulu)
1.1 Surinames (Solomon & Surreal)
1.2 Hog Isles (Mr.Orange & Peaches, Tang.)
0.0.1 Central American (Sassy)
0.1 Emerald Tree boa (Jade)
1.0 ATB (Satan... seriously!)
Pythons...
2.1 GTPs (B., Monty & Jewel)
0.0.3 BPs (MJ, Precious, Houdini)
1.1 Carpet Pythons (Jackson & Charlotte)
0.1 Blood python (Akaia)
Misc.
1.1 Mandarin Ratsnakes (Jack & Jill)
1.0 Boxer/Pitt Mutt (Tyson)

well thank you for your nicer post. i got him last summer, and he was just over two feet at two years old. the breeder said he feeds them once every two weeks to slow their growth. he also said he was feeding it mediul mice. i did a good measurment of him next to a ruler, and he is 3 feet 4 1/2 inches. i understand that he is undersized, and im going to try to feed him rats now as you suggested. what you gotta understand is the fact that he is a healthyy snake, you cant see any bones, no backbone, his eyes and nose are also clear. he is in very good health. he is as active as anynormal boa, and has never attempted to bite mistakingly as a food response.
thanks a lot for the reply, andi will be sure to fix the errors in my ways
mike

Baby boa's should be fed only mice for the first 6 months.Then they can be switched over to rats.In my opinion 90% of the people out there overfeed their boa's.Get Vin Russo's complete boa book.It describes the proper way to feed boa's.

I just wrote a huge reply detailing how in my honest opinion, feeding rat pinks to baby boas isn't bad unless you are feeding too large of prey... and then I lost it while posting! Drat.
So maybe I can simplify it... I don't think it is incorrect to feed pink mice or pink rats to neos, depending on species and size of the boa being fed. The general make-up of mice and rats is very similar and a boa will eat rats most of its life, so I do not see how it can hurt to feed offspring rats as well. I feed day old or two day old pink rats to my neos, maybe mine are large neos compared to other peoples', but I am very careful to make sure the rat pinks are smaller than the thickest part of my babies, in fact sometimes I think I pick a too small batch of rat pinks to feed since they are only about as big as the heads on my neos. I usually wait 1 week to 1 1/2 weeks between feedings or until my baby boas defecate. Some people will agree, and some won't. I don't mind differing opinions and I look up to people like Russo who are more experienced, but you see... even the most experienced breeders have differing views on some things.
I don't know if your post was directed at me because I prefer to start boas on rat pinks mainly because I have them born the size I need regularly and hate the 'switchover' later when you start boas on mice... or if it was a random statement. So I am defending my beliefs, not negating yours. When I posted earlier, I only said to disregard what the person who told him to keep feeding mice said, because at 3 years old, a mature male boa, should definitely be on larger prey. I also think it is better to feed one appropriately sized prey item than several; lets say 3 mice rather than a medium rat. I do think the fella should start his boa on rats now though, definitely.
So, all that said, I wouldn't feed rat pinks to my neos if I felt it would harm them. I am also careful regarding frequency of feedings and not to overfeed; I do not believe that an appropriate sized rat pink in place of an appropriate sized mouse pink is overfeeding ;p I hope I did not step on any toes and I did not mean this post as an 'attack' it is only to defend my own opinion! So thanks for reading and being open-minded!
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Steph S.
Boas...
1.1 Albino boas (Loki & Hope)
1.4 07 Het. albino boas (Petty & Lady,Sierra,Madeline,Lola)
0.1 Reverse stripe poss. het albino (Cookie)
0.1 Salmon/hypo (Scarlet)
0.1 Anery poss. het snow (Missy)
1.0 Anery (Reno)
0.1 DH Sunglow (Bonnie)
0.0.1 Hypo het anery
1.0.0 Het. Anery (Guy & ?)
0.3 Normals (Ophelia, Sasha, & Lulu)
1.1 Surinames (Solomon & Surreal)
1.2 Hog Isles (Mr.Orange & Peaches, Tang.)
0.0.1 Central American (Sassy)
0.1 Emerald Tree boa (Jade)
1.0 ATB (Satan... seriously!)
Pythons...
2.1 GTPs (B., Monty & Jewel)
0.0.3 BPs (MJ, Precious, Houdini)
1.1 Carpet Pythons (Jackson & Charlotte)
0.1 Blood python (Akaia)
Misc.
1.1 Mandarin Ratsnakes (Jack & Jill)
1.0 Boxer/Pitt Mutt (Tyson)

No,not meant as an attack on you at all.I just see so much bad advice on here that I just like to give out what I know to be good based on exper.You make some good points.

P.S I like "satan" for the ATB.I think I've had some of his twins over the years.

I tried to make it objective, it is really hard you know, to defend an opinion without starting a fight around here! ;p As well as not sounding 'holier than thou,' but I guess it worked out ok! Thanks for that!
I too agree with some advice given as not so great, the good thing about the forum is that people speak up if it is ridiculous! I guess for me, it is a matter of simplifying or even clarifying what I mean to make sense to others, or someone who is new to the hobby. Sometimes misunderstandings are worse than bad advice right!? I'll just have to be more careful!
And yes, my ATB, he is the DEVIL! ;p Actually, I picked him up for next to nothing when I bought my CB suri male and even though I knew he was WC and kept him quarantined as such, I guess I expected him to accept his surroundings eventually. Not necessarily be tame, but maybe just watchful and resigned. No, no, no. Every time I'd walk by, I'd hear that little 'pop' as he struck out at me. Only recently he's stopped and I've had him well over a year! And until him, I did not know they could musk. When I have to clean him or soak a shed, he leaves my arm smelling insanely bad. I'd give him away, but I fear nobody would be able to properly care for him due to his bad behavior. Well, nobody around where I live anyway.

Thanks again for the reply!

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Steph S.
Boas...
1.1 Albino boas (Loki & Hope)
1.4 07 Het. albino boas (Petty & Lady,Sierra,Madeline,Lola)
0.1 Reverse stripe poss. het albino (Cookie)
0.1 Salmon/hypo (Scarlet)
0.1 Anery poss. het snow (Missy)
1.0 Anery (Reno)
0.1 DH Sunglow (Bonnie)
0.0.1 Hypo het anery
1.0.0 Het. Anery (Guy & ?)
0.3 Normals (Ophelia, Sasha, & Lulu)
1.1 Surinames (Solomon & Surreal)
1.2 Hog Isles (Mr.Orange & Peaches, Tang.)
0.0.1 Central American (Sassy)
0.1 Emerald Tree boa (Jade)
1.0 ATB (Satan... seriously!)
Pythons...
2.1 GTPs (B., Monty & Jewel)
0.0.3 BPs (MJ, Precious, Houdini)
1.1 Carpet Pythons (Jackson & Charlotte)
0.1 Blood python (Akaia)
Misc.
1.1 Mandarin Ratsnakes (Jack & Jill)
1.0 Boxer/Pitt Mutt (Tyson)

Is that your Suri male? I have a 50% Suri female 66% pos. het. Kahl Albino that looks very much like that one.
jsc
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"As hard as I've tried, just can't NOT do this"
John Crickmer

Tha's muh boy Solomon! ;p
I bought him from a gentleman (I'd have to reread my emails to know the name for sure, I thought it was DTS herps), but he assured me he was a CB Suri. Not that it means anything anymore, since everyone selling one swears by it! LOL! He is so lovely though, has the solid brown/red tail typical of a Suri, the nice solid-tone pattern (much lighter than on my female), the long face... I really have fallen for him more as he's aged in my care this last year. I'll have to get a more recent image... amazingly, he's still acquiring purples and pinks on his sides... I'm pretty impressed with him.
Here is a pic of him this last year, not as good as the other.

And the one you've already seen, only uncropped...

I've been hoping he'd become interested in my female Suri I picked up from MB Reptiles. I'm sure they acquired her in a trade and that she may be wild caught, but she is lovely too despite her scars... here she is younger, about a year ago. This is Surreal and please forgive the dirty cage, sometimes I try to snap pics before they are disrupted by my tampering!

This picture of her is even older...

Thanks for looking and complimenting... post a picture of your gal for me! ;p
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Steph S.
Boas...
1.1 Albino boas (Loki & Hope)
1.4 07 Het. albino boas (Petty & Lady,Sierra,Madeline,Lola)
0.1 Reverse stripe poss. het albino (Cookie)
0.1 Salmon/hypo (Scarlet)
0.1 Anery poss. het snow (Missy)
1.0 Anery (Reno)
0.1 DH Sunglow (Bonnie)
0.0.1 Hypo het anery
1.0.0 Het. Anery (Guy & ?)
0.3 Normals (Ophelia, Sasha, & Lulu)
1.1 Surinames (Solomon & Surreal)
1.2 Hog Isles (Mr.Orange & Peaches, Tang.)
0.0.1 Central American (Sassy)
0.1 Emerald Tree boa (Jade)
1.0 ATB (Satan... seriously!)
Pythons...
2.1 GTPs (B., Monty & Jewel)
0.0.3 BPs (MJ, Precious, Houdini)
1.1 Carpet Pythons (Jackson & Charlotte)
0.1 Blood python (Akaia)
Misc.
1.1 Mandarin Ratsnakes (Jack & Jill)
1.0 Boxer/Pitt Mutt (Tyson)