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i heard that you can stunt a boa by lmiting the feeding. is this true? i would love to get a boa but they grow to big. i would be comfortable with a snake around 4 feet.

>>i heard that you can stunt a boa by lmiting the feeding. is this true? i would love to get a boa but they grow to big. i would be comfortable with a snake around 4 feet.

If you underfeed any living thing it will stunt it. It will also eventually kill it. You are starving it to death at that point. Get a dwarf locale variety or don't get a Boa Constrictor, there are loads of snakes in that size range. My two cents.
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Sonya

Haven't we warned you about tampering with the structure of a chaotic system?
Mrs. Neutron

i have a 5 year old colombian boa. i have fed her on the average of once every 3 weeks her whole life. she is fat as mud and is currently a hair over 5 feet long, and weighs about 7 lbs. she should be bigger at this age, and i do not really call this stunting her growth, because she is healthy and not skinny or malnurished by any means. i would think people that mean to "shrink" their snakes feed them much less often than this.

sorry thats what i meant - shrinking. so it would be ok to feed a boa every 3 to 4 weeks to decrease her size without any effect to her health? did anyone else do this? any pics?

and "shrink it down to a 4' animal. That is simply not healty. Instead, consider a rosy boa (3-4'), or a Talamahara boa (4'), island species like Corn stay under about 5' feet. Or find a boa who is naturally small for it's age. I have such a boa, at 1.5 years it is only 2-2.5 feet. It will reach 4 feet tops...anything but taking a larger boa and "shrinking" it so much. It is like binding the feet of a little girl so that they stay child-like forever...problem is those women have a hard time walking, skipping,& running... your boa would have problems as well...
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if my 5 y/o boa is only 5 ft/7 lbs, does that mean she is unhealthy or malnurished? considering she should be bigger at this age

My 2 yr old 5.5 ft was just at the vet and weighed 6lbs. She has been very sick with upper respiratory and lost weight. My vet told me she was underweight. My male is 5.5 foot and 3 yrs old and weighs 10lbs. My 3.5 yr old is 6.5 ft and weighs 19lbs. According to my reptile vet all are healthy except the little needs to gain weight.

Michelle

Does she have any island boa or CA in her at all? I would have to wonder with the size and sex you mentioned. If so, I would not worry about it. If she is pure Columbian (no oxy-moron intended), and since it is female, I would think as well that she should be larger. But, a pic is worth a thousand words... If she is fat, she may just be a runt...or have a slight absorbtion problem (nothing can be done about this that I am aware of), so that size would be perfect for her. I have a boa that will be lucky to see 4' as an adult and that is fully grown, as he is only 2-2.5 feet at 1.5 years old. But, he is just small, it is natural for him.
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In my expieriance feeding a boa every 3 to 4 weeks is fine. Usualy when a male gets to 5ft i cut the feedings from every 2 weeks to every 4 weeks and they will usually stay at this size. I feed my breeder females every 2 weeks and all my growing boas i feed every 2 weeks. I have never had any health problems with any of my boas with this schedual.
Designer Boas

Everyone keeps talking 5', but I recall (perhpas in error) that he is looking to keep it 4', half the size or more of the length it should get to. There is a big difference in keeping a 5' male versus a 4' size. I think if he wants to have a smaller boa, then he should go the island boa route or CA, or even dwarf species... I think it would be better for him and the boa...but, that is my own opinion, and it appears to be a lone one at that.
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thanks for the commemnts guys i didnt realize that it could affect the boas health. i will look into ball pythons and smaller or dwarf boas.