Reptile & Amphibian Forums

she is about 5.5 feet long and weighs about 7 pounds. she get a large rat every 8 days roughly and doesn't look satisfied.

oops.. check accurately and she is exactly 5 feet and 9.5 pounds.

Feeding a boa weekly is more than adequate. Actually, the older and larger a snake gets...........The time between feedings should be longer. IMHO. Of course, the prey size will become larger with size and age as well.
For example.
My 3 year old 6 foot males get fed every two weeks and get one monster sized rat. At times I will give them two. But, more than ofter...........They get one.

Now, my 8-9ft female Argentine is 5 years old and gets fed once a month. Or, there abouts. She, however will get 3-4 monster rats as a meal.

Both animals show a slight buldge after feeding. Both are fine.

There really is no hard and fast rule about feeding in my book. Animals are just like people.......They are all different. Getting to know your animal is really important. Overfeeding for one animal could be just fine for another. A perfect example is this. I have two yearling EBVxPastel sisters. Both have a great appetite.......One digests like there is no tomorrow....The other is slower to digest. Both are about the same size. But, react very differently to food. I couldn't feed the slower digesting animal as much as I could the other.

So, really the trick is.........Watch you animal. And, it is generally better to under feed them than over feed them. These are oppurtunistic feeders in the wild. I really don't think that they are built for a 7 day a week feeding schedule.
Hope this helps.
John
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"To be the best..........You must lose your mind."

i want to compromise a good growth with health, both i mean... i think i'll swtich to 2 rats every 2 weeks and keep my male on a rat every 2 or 3 weeks so he stays abit smaller.

the prblem with watching the animals is what if the animlas are always hungry? mine are in hunting mode ( hiding but with their head out) only a few days after they eat so as such i had to decide when they eat.

thanks and happy herping

Remember these guys spend most of their lives hungry, being in hunting mode.

Also once they've reached full adulthood, they don't need food often at all. I feed my adult male madagascar tree boas, that are a lot more like Bci's than you would think, only 6 meals a year and nothing from October to April.

Just my thoughts.

doug

It's been quite some time since we have talked. How are the madagascar tree boas?? Any new pics you can share of them? I just love those guys!!! So neat looking.
Hope all is well.
John
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"To be the best..........You must lose your mind."