Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a WC subadult female that I've owned for about two months, and she is ALWAYS hungry. She's on unscented FT mouse fuzzies. I'm afraid to overfeed her (I only feed her every 10 days right now), but she's hungry the day after I feed her. She darts up to the front of her cage whenever I walk by, and follows me around expectantly. Can I bump her feeding to every 7 days like my other snakes, or will this be too much? Thanks for any advice!
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Inhabitants of the reptile room:
Leopard geckos, pictus geckos, crested geckos, african fat-tails, Paroedura bastardi bastardi, Bent-Toed geckos, a velvet gecko, Henkel's Leaf Tails, Bibron's geckos, Texas Banded Geckos, Corn snakes, Ball Pythons, Honduran milks, a single Taiwan Beauty, Leucistic Texas Rats, Solomon Island Tree Boas, a pair of Mali Uromastyx, and a single baby bearded dragon... whew, I think that's it.......

I would stick to your regular 10 day feed schedule. The digestive systems through reseaech findings are figured out to be really slow on these Boas. Just my opinion, but I think? you may do more harm than good by decreasing length of time between feedings. Heck, every snake I know reacts like that when I walk into the room I keep Candoia and California Kings. I think my Kings would eat every day if offered.
Randy

When you say subadult, what size/length snake is she? I have two subadults, one male about 18 inches, and one female about two feet. Both are on small adult mice. Even my juvenile male, who's roughly 12-14 inches, is on hopper mice. The prey item should leave a slight bulge, just barely noticable, once the snake has swallowed it. While I wouldn't recommend feeding your snake more often, I would consider if fuzzies are large enough prey. My two subadult Solomon Island Ground boass are fed every 3-4 weeks, my juvenile SIGB male & my juvenile Santa Isabel female (she's about 10 inches and still on pinkies) are fed every 2-3 weeks. Neonates to about yearlings I feed every 10-14 days...usually closer to 14 days.

Hope this helps.
Raven

I'm not sure on exact length, but she's somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 or 3.5 feet. I honestly don't think she could handle a small mouse, as her neck (directly behind the head), is about the same size, if not a little smaller than the diameter of a pencil - a large fuzzy or small hopper is stretching it for her. Her build is significantly thinner than a SIGB or Isabel. I included a pic of her at the bottom - it's crappy and she looks black in it, but it gives a better idea of her size. I suppose I'll stick to every 10-12 days, even though she tries to tell me otherwise! I suppose I just wasn't prepared for such a slow-moving arboreal species to be such a darn pig! My corns aren't even as bad as her. Thanks for the advice, at least now I have a second opinion and I'll stick to my guns.

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Inhabitants of the reptile room:
Leopard geckos, pictus geckos, crested geckos, african fat-tails, Paroedura bastardi bastardi, Bent-Toed geckos, a velvet gecko, Henkel's Leaf Tails, Bibron's geckos, Texas Banded Geckos, Corn snakes, Ball Pythons, Honduran milks, a single Taiwan Beauty, Leucistic Texas Rats, Solomon Island Tree Boas, a pair of Mali Uromastyx, and a single baby bearded dragon... whew, I think that's it.......

Generally prey size is reckoned by the diameter of the snake at its widest point - and can be up to half again the width of the snake at that point. At the same time, I do understand the concern because of their thin necks, however they are able to swallow quite a bit larger meals than we usually give them credit for. At the very least, if you decide to continue feeding small fuzzies, I would offer her at least 2 per feeding, possibly 3 per feeding. At 3 to 3.5 feet, a single fuzzy isn't an adequate meal and she probably is still hungry.

Good luck!
Raven

I feed my 2.5' young adult female an adult mouse ever 10-14 days. She'd definitely eat more if I let her.
I hope this helps. -Phil

I would up the size of prey.
It would have no problem fuzzy/hopper