Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have always worried when buying a new snake, especially one that is older, if the animal may have been powerfed. By my standards, I would call many animals powerfed. On the otherhand, many people may say I underfeed. My question is this.

Say you buy a female that is 6ft at 17 mo (sounds like a "well fed" animal to me). Now if that would be considered powerfed (and that is open to debate, so I would love your opinions here) what would happen long term with a change of diet.

Lets say I got the girl, slowed her feeding habbits rather then pushing her to gain size, waited till she was 3-4 to breed rather then trying this fall. Is she still more likely to have problems assosiated with overfed boas. Will she have a lowered life expectiancy. Would she have a higher slug or defect rate.

Now I havent seen this animal, so for all I know shes rock solid 6ft and not "rubbery" 6ft. She may have been fed concervatively and still be a monster. I understand it happens. She is a bci dh animal (dont want to say much more and risk offending anyone) just to give you some genetic background. The seller says shes ready to go this fall, and personally I wouldnt do that. That is what got me wondering if she is powerfed. I would love to get the girl, but felt other opinions might be helfpull. I havent seen a pic of the exact animal yet.

Opinions?

Mickey Hinkle
The Lizard King Reptiles

To me 6' at 17 months sounds like an animal that was fairly heavily fed. I would still consider getting her though depending on the health, and if the previous owner has a feeding chart (and the owner is trustworthy) so you can look over the feeding regimen yourself to see if she has been on what you constitute a powerfed/heavy feeding diet.

I do not know if it will help any by cutting back feeding now at this point, from what I have read once the damage is done it is permenant and the shortened life expectancy is already "set in stone" atleast that is what I have gathered from reading.

later
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Randall L Turner Jr.
www.aircapitalconstrictors.com

You never experience life until you have kids..then you realize what you should have done rather then what you did do

hi there, i am quit new to this, i have some yearling boas... how would you describe "overfed" what's the basis on this? i feed my boa yearling 2 times a week, sometimes once, with 3-4 adult mice. they are just about 1.5 inch estimated.

any experiences on deworming by your selves.....
got some help on this by alot of friendly pips in this forum, but i would appreciate alot more feedbacks )

I would say that feeding 3 mice in one sitting is definitely too much. Also, feeding twice a week is WAY too much, in my opinion. I feed once every two weeks (one appropriate sized prey item), while occationally skipping a meal. As a general rule, BCI can be fed more frequently than BCC, but no snake should be overfed.
Good luck,
Eric

thanks for the reply though...

i feed my boas 1 appropriately sized rat a week
and i only fed my boa mice in his first month then he went to rats from what ive been told a boa should be fed rats as soon as possible as they better for your boa than mice

i forget exactly why this is but it has to do with mice fur or something to do with the acidic nature of mice

sorry couldnt be more specific

If we are talking about a Boa and not a Burm or Retic, I'd say that being powerfed is an understatement. However, I feel that being that the animal is so young, if you get her on a reasonable diet and WAIT til she is 3-4 years old, there shouldnt be any long term negative effects. If this animal was say, 7-10 years old...IMO it'd be too late.

My opinions are that it is possible to reach that size conservatively fed, but highly unlikely in my eyes.
So I would think she was fed a bit more than in a 'conservative' schedule...
I would probably by her and slow her down a bit, waiting before I breed her, like you said.
I wouldn't brred her this year, but probably would next year.

Considering you slow her down and take control from now on, I don't think her past habits will have an affect on her future breedings or much of an affect on her overall life expectancy.

Again, these are just my opinions..

take care - 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

As I was thinking about this thread, I began wondering, what would be the real damage of power feeding for the first year? I would think the snakes would jump at the opportunity for regular extra full meals in the wild and the enhanced early growth would give them an advantage.
That said, I've read Gus's pages carefully and I agree that a more conservative schedule makes sense. Also, I readily accept that there are limits to everything that could be easily exceeded and result in fat unhealthy snakes. I was just curious about what you folks saw as the true damage it could cause.

When I first started keeping boas. I would feed them all one appropriate sized rat a week. Never had any major problems but had a few bouts with mild RI's. After reading alot and understanding the process of digestion better, I switched my feeding schedule. I now feed boas once every 2 weeks and when they reach a size of 5' for males and 6' for females, I cut back to one large rat a month. I have noticed the boas are much healthier, have cleaner sheds, and the growth rate is about the same for neonates as before. I think it may be too much stress on the body to have to digest that much food and obstract the nutrients from it in that short amount of time between feedings. The plus sides to a once a month schedule is less mess, less rats, and probably healthier snakes.
Link

I'm currently feeding my adult one rat a month like you but my 03 hatchlings are getting one small adult mouse per week. They are about 2 feet long so I guess this sounds close to what you do. Maybe I'll reel that back to a full-size adult every two weeks...

I dont know if I would dude. 6ft at 17 month would be a little much for me. Although my feeding schudule is rather lax compared to most all animals get feed on my dumerils schedule which varies from time of year from by weekly to monthly so my animals arent exactly the most rapid growers, but they healthy and look good. One that was started out like that I probally(you know how proablly goes) would pass on. Its hard to say I know some people that have 10yr old animals that have been powerfeed their whole lives and are fine then I hear of other dieing in 3yrs. So is it really a result of powerfeeding or were they just genticaly weak animals that would have died of minor RI anyway? who knows I just veiw it as one more thing that can be avoided.
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Jason & Danica
Well, I'm off my rocker, I fell out of my tree, I've been standin' on shaky ground, There's no helping me, yeah, I can't remember my number, I can't remember your name
I can't remember all the trouble I'm in, child....... Well, I'm insane(Ratt, Im Insane)
Classic Dums frozen feeders

I've only been in this hobby for about 4 or 5 years now, but one thing I have learned is that there are a lot of shady people in this business. Can't say if it is more or less than any other business/hobby, but there are a lot of people seeking the max profit possible that have little to no concern for the animals they buy and sell. I would bet you a paycheck that the person who raised this animal powerfeed the heck out of it. IMHO

Good Luck