Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello,

My husband and I have been thinking about adding a red-tail (common) boa to our collection. I'm a volunteer at the zoo, and I work with a 4-ft boa on a regular basis along with several other species. I've completely fallen for the boa, though.

My biggest concern about snakes is their feeding. I also have a green iguana, but he's obviously a strict herbivore, and some parrots... but no carnivores/predators. I know it's not considered good to give live mice anymore, because they can really beat up the snake. Besides that, it's not very ethical (I have no idea if I'm stepping on toes... I apologize if I am!)

So I was wondering what people who feed dead prey do. Do you buy them dead and frozen, like zoos, or do you buy them live and then kill them yourself? Someone told me that you generally buy them live from a petstore, then break their necks.

Also, how often do you feed your snakes?

The keepers do all the feeding, so I'm not sure how much the zoo's education snakes get fed or how much. I can and will find out, but I want to hear how people who keep them as pets do it. Different people say different things. It seems like it depends on how much you want them to grow and how fast...? I'm very confused about that.

Heat and humidity I can handle As I said, I do have a green iguana and he's NOT an easy reptile. And I'm still not sure we'll even be getting a boa... I'm just doing research right now.

Thanks!

Alika

Hi, I have a small boa collection, 5 of them and they all are eating frozen rats. I think this is the way to go. Its easy. Just go to the freezer and get a rat. As far as feeding goes I think most keepers feed their boas one prey item once a week up till the boa is two yrs old and then its once every two weeks. Unless they are getting a female ready for breeding. Then they would feed her a little more.
Hope this helps. Boas can and do make great pets. You may want to get a baby to start with. And the two of you can grow with each other. Good luck.
Chuck

many people here have many boas... for instance, I have more than 100 at all times.. this calls for efficiency in more ways than one.
I can't imagine going to the pet store and buying rodents for every feeding... it would cost me over $1000 every week !!!

For breeders and keepers like myself, buying frozen rodents wholesale/in bulk is the only option. I pay much, much less that the stores charge.. my supplier actually supplies the stores in my area.
Another thing is I simply don't have the time or patience to go to the store.

For someone having one or two snakes, and a pet store close by, that would be great!
I would love to go next door to the butcher and buy a fresh cut of meat for myself whenever I wanted.. that's my comparison.
Fresh, simple, substantial - just enough.
Imagine now throwing a party for 100 children. One wouldn't go to the butcher and buy 100 single premium cuts of meat, one would most likely go to the supermarket and get huge tubs of ground beef or large stacks of frozen premade hamburgers.. see?

take care, Joe Rollo - BciJoe
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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

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I too own only a few snakes and get mine from the store. However, I would recommend finding a reptile specialty shop in your area. Most reptile specific stores will have the mice already frozen. Some of the large chain stores keep their mice for an extemely long time. It is hard to tell when the rodents have hair, but when you see their pinkies they are often very discolored from being in a deep freeze for so long.

I have two boas and a ball python. I buy frozen food for the boas. I am in the process of switching the python to frozen. I recently bought about 6 weeks worth of frozen food from a distributor and it cost a fraction of what it would have cost at the pet store. Plus the pet store does not carry the exact product I need so I would have to feed multiple items of smaller prey to equal one item of the correct size prey. The fuzzy mice at the pet store cost about $1.40. From the distributor, they are $.50. I do not see any disadvantages to frozen food.
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Guess What? I got a fever...and the only prescription is more cowbell!

Thanks a lot! I was hoping to hear that a lot of people are using frozen food. To be honest, I really wouldn't want to have to buy live mice/rats and "pop" them. I think if that would have been the recommendation, I would have decided against getting a boa.

I can deal with frozen mice, rats, and pinkeys. I do it at my other volunteer position at the aviary all the time, and it doesn't bother me. It's the idea of killing the mouse myself that bothers me.

So... I know that when you freeze food, it often loses some vitamins in the process. Do you supplement with vitamins, and, if so, then how?

If anyone wants to add other pros and cons, I'd love to hear them. I'm doing my basic care research, but some of the more specific things are harder to get straight answers on, and I appreciate you all helping me out.

Alika

This may be a stupid thing to add, but I must add frozen/THAWED- you thaw them before feeding them to the snake.
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