Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,
I have a pair of surinam bcc siblings from july 06 that some day I would like to breed. I have had the female for 1.5 years and just aquired the male from an ad on ks. I have slow grown the female and she is just right at 4 ft. The male is closer to 5 ft, and about 20% heavier than her. To me this is not an ideal pairing for size and I would like to know what to do to get the pair proportions in check for the future. I had just moved the female to a medium rat size before I got the male, and that seems for her to be perfect. The male could probably eat large rats, but I am going to feed him for a year on a smaller meal size in order to try to maintain his size where he is. I am wondering if there is any other way that anyone reccomends to get this pairs size back to ideal? I dont plan to even attempt breeding for another two years, so I figure this will be ample time to get them squared away. If anyone has any ideas or suggestions I would greatly appreciate the input!

Thanks and have a great day
Chris

You will be just fine following your feeding schedule with the female. As for the male I would feed him once or twice a month to keep him at the five foot size he is.

With snakes used to feeding every week you will need to watch him as he will be looking for food and may deliver a reaction strike until he settles down into the new program.

I recieved a very large (eight feet) and obese male from a close friend that I feed one large rat once a month and he is slowly loosing weight, but he has not been adversly affected by the correct feeding program he is now a part of.

This same snake was being fed two to three jumbo rats every seven days and that is wrong! Fortunately your male will be a lot easier to work on as he is still young, now is the time for him to grow muscle mass and in my opinion five to six feet is ideal size for breeder B.c.c. males.

Don't be afraid your male snakes are going hungry, I really only feed my adult males once a month and my sub-adults two to three times a month, and that is with appropriate sized meals.

All my opinion hope it helps.
Joel Thomas

Joel

Thank you for your response. You hit it right about the reaction to his new schedule. He lays in wait right at the door. One nice thing about him though is that he was handled alot before I got him so he is very cool with that. Im wondering what kind of clues to look for when the snake obviously needs more food? All of my boas I have had wether on a slow or normal feeding schedule, seemed like they were hungry no matter what, even the day after feeding. Since I have moved my female up to med rats she seems MUCH more content and relaxed, but would probably feed way sooner than I offer.

Thank you again
Chris

Hey Chris,

One way to tell when they are hungry is they will move around qutie a bit more than usual and there will be lots of tongue flickering.
The other way is they will sometimes strike at movement, but that is not encouraged as they may hurt themselves.

Good luck.
Joel