Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Would the "Experts" please chime in ?

I would say very doubtfully, that your boa is impacted. You said " That you stopped feeding the animal about three weeks ago. " I do not know what your regular feeding schedule is, but let me bring something to your attention.The more you feed a boa, the more it is going to defecate. Overfeeding these animals is the number one cause of premature death in captivity. Most Boas have a 12-15 year life span in captivity, TOPS. They should live much longer than that. An 8-9ft Boa in captivity may be 10yrs old or less, but physiologicaly it thinks it is 40yrs and ready to die. " POINT " When you slow down your feeding, a Boa will naturally take longer to digest because, " The animals system is utilizing all the nutrients that it can from the meal. " The Boa does not have to defecate quickly to make room for the next meal that is being shoved in its face every 7-10 days, wich is the schedule that most Hobbyist keep their Boas on. Years ago, I made the same mistake and since I changed my views on feeding, my animals have become healthier and more muscular and more active; with zero problems. I have plenty of animals that go a month or sometimes more, between defecations. This is not a problem, it is what they normally do in an enviroment were they are not being overfed. If you have any doubts, as the others said; " Take the animal to the vet. " I think however, you will be wasteing time and money.

You know " sslonestar " alot of people on this forum have chose not to like me on this forum over the years, heck just the other day a well known breeder that posts on here frequently called me an " arrogant jerk " over E-mail, because he took something I said out of context. I do not try to " force my beliefs " on anybody. I do however, try to make my points strongly and clearly " wether anyone agrees with them or not. " What makes me an expert?? Absolutely nothing! I do however, have experiance in the past with doing things " THE WRONG WAY. " While most people are on here showing the " Picture of the day, " I try to share my experiances with people so them and their animals do not have to pay the price for ignorance.I could have opened a BOOT FACTORY with all the animals I killed in the early years and I am greatful that my EGO was not to big to learn to do things the right way. Overfeeding Boas is one of the many " points " that I have " debated " on here and got ripped to pieces for. Fat Boas or overfed Boas, may live a while and may indeed produce, but they will be short lived and they will stop being fertile after a while. If peoples gain is to; " Raise Boas quickly so that they can try to get them to breed and make a few dollars, then more power to them. " It is really sad for the animals though. GOD BLESS ......The " Arrogant Jerk"

The ones that want to " debate " this topic and others, I would ask a question; " How many of you have been to South America and seen these animals in their natural habitat?? " Probably, very few of you. Now, I am not saying; " That makes me a Bill Lamar " but you would all become much more " inlightened " if you could go. When you go, I can assure you that; " The only fat Boa that you will find is either a gravid one or a Anaconda. " It has been documented that these animals eat on average in the wild no more than 4-6 times a year! It is commonplace to find small 4ft females giving birth to large clutches of babies. I watched a three and a half foot Guyana give birth to 26 babies right in front of me. " POINT " Were they lack in size, they make up for in age. They live 30-40yrs plus in the wild and in captivity, they rarely live past 15yrs. It does not take a Phd to put it all together. I am going back to Guyana in the spring and I plan on staying for at least 3 weeks. I hope to learn even more. It is AMAZING how much you can learn, by seeing them in the wild. You can learn about; " temperatures and humidity and size and habits and a wealth of other information. " Sure, captivity cannot be completely programmed like the wild enviroment, BUT you can give it your best shot and the animals will respond with gratitude......

It has had no ill effect on him and it will not. Right now, your boa is doing something rare in captivity; " He is making his own choice when he eats, by going off feed when he chooses. " Alot of boas will not do that in captivity because they are so " pre-programmed " by their keepers feeding schedule. I do not have a " feeding schedule. " I feed every 3-5 weeks and sometimes longer. If I was to recommend a " feeding schedule " to anyone, it would be no more than every 21 days for sub - adults and no more than once a month for adults. Babies, are the only exception to this rule. Feed them every 14 days and here is the reason; " In the wild, the biggest majority of a babies food comes from frogs and lizards. Mice are not indigenous to South America and it is HIGHLY unlikely that baby Boas are out there raiding rat nests. The moma rats would make short work of a baby boa.In essence, their are alot of frogs and lizards scurring the ground and they are less intelligent and make the baby boas food source, more attainable.All of this changes as the Boa gets larger and starts leaning more toward mammals for food. AT that point, they become complete ambush hunters. If you take a adult or sub-adult Boa and put it in the middle of your living room with a live rat, the rat " unless retarded " will not go toward the Boa. Same in the wild. If a mammal sees the snake, it does not have a chance at getting a meal. Imagine a boa curled up somewere waiting for a meal to come by. How long do you think it will take for a prey item to scurry within the strike range?; days,weeks or months, who knows? In essence, " Theres no set time or schedule. " You can rest assured for one thing though; " There not lucky all that much. " Hence, the reptile; " Cold blooded with a slow metabolism. " In the wild when they eat, they utilize every little bit of nutrients they can from the prey. In captivity, they are to busy beeing fed to utilize much of anything other than the fat in the prey.Years ago, when I overfed, I had a boa so fat, that it HAD to be fed dead prey in order to eat, because it was to fat to exude the effort in killing. Now, I have adult boas that are " pure muscle " and can jerk a 8 pound rabbit clean off of the cage floor and wrap it so hard and quick that the poor bunny cannot even let out a yelp! Of course, they only get those rabbits rarely. In essence, Yes I starve my boas and they love it.......Johnson Herp

A couple of years ago I got a chance to get out to wee caye and a couple of surrounding cayes while I was in Beliza. I only came across two adults and a single baby (no boas while on the main land), both the adults where about 6 1/2 to 7 feet long and skiny nether boa was more then 10lbs probale less then that but they looked great, stronger they many of my adult boas if fact.

when I first started with boas i did the newbe thing and feed my first boa (a hog island male) ever 7 days as much as he wanted. now days he bigger then he should be fat is the only word for it. he stays in his hide box for weeks at a time. he sucks as a breeder I have seen females flick their tails in his face and he won't even move. he's only purduced three live babies from one litter he slug a secound litter and he missed the three years before that all together. don't feed just because it's day 7 just don't do it.

now days most of my boas eat about every two to three weeks on a smaller sized feed item. but some of my animals often go 6 to 7 weeks without food. I offer all my animals food ever 7 days but only for about a minute and if they don't have a feeding reponse then we try again the next week. so ya I still do 7 day feeding thing. but if they don't respond in the first couple secounds then they don't get feed. I have a male ca that went 11 months with out feeding not because I was being mean but because he didn't want to feed. he didn't loss any weight he even shed three times in 11 months and he was one of the more active snakes that a have. my kenyan sand boa males always go off feed this time of year and won't start feeding for another 7 months. skipping a few meals doesn't seem to hurt any of my animals and the thinner older animals seem to be better breeders then bigger but younger animals.

I have a male kenyan that only eats about 3-4 times a year. He's beautiful, healthy and a great breeder.

I have a 12-13 year old boa that I adopted a few months back. She is 8.3 ft long and weighed about 25lbs. From what the records say, she was only fed 1 jumbo rat a month. Attached is a pic that Arrowhead Reptile Rescue took of her. (I highly recommend them, I was more impressed by their care of the animals than I have by some "professional" breeders.)

Isn't she a beauty? Wish I could find more info on her.

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Travis Rose
(859) 582-7310
0.2 Normal Columbian
1.1 100% DH for Snow Columbians
0.2 66% DH for Snow Columbians
2.7 Kenyans (1.3 Anerys, 0.1 het for anery, 0.3 Possible hets, 1.0 normal)
0.3 Ball Pythons
0.0.2 Blue Tounged Skinks
0.3 Dogs (1 Full Pitbull, 1 Pit/Husky, & 1 Bernese Mt. Dog cross)
0.3 Cats (1 fat, 1 old, and 1 insane)
1.0 Ferret
0.1 Very understanding wife

I'm in total agreement with your thought on this topic. I find it hard to look at some of the 2 yr old blimp sized pin-heads ("ready to breed" that are often posted.
I will admit that I've found you to be offensive regarding morphs (mutts as you put it). I understand your interest in pure localities, fully - but it's the belittling way that it's often said that has irritated me, but I'm not looking for friction from anyone - really.
You obviously have lots of knowledge in this hobby. I'm always, much more interested in learning about keeping our boas healthy, and happy, rather than debating peoples personal preferences. -----Thankyou for sharing. David
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--aka DMOG68

Obviously I posted this before reading the thread on the possible impacted Boa, but I'm still in aggreement w/you, and Madison Record guy/girl.
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--aka DMOG68

your delivery sucks! This is not new information, nor is it some top secret theory shared by the locality nuts. Anybody who has bothered to do some research knows the majority of boas in captivity are obese spoiled brats , pumped up to make a dollar quicker.

I don't doubt that you may have valuable information to share, but delivery is 90% of the battle. People don't often respect that guy standing in front of them screaming , they are more likely to listen to the guy who explains clearly what he is trying to say without trying to insult half of the hobby. Think back to your days of schooling, what teachers had the biggest influence on you ? I guarentee , it was the ones who mastered the art of communication , not the ones who tried to force the facts in to your brain. I am a logical thinker , It's impossible for me to do my job without thinking logically. The way you guys attack others who don't have the same views as you defies logic. You actually have some good messages wrapped up in all the 'Hate' and some people could learn a thing or two , but we as a society focus on the negative first and will probably only remember the negative. Be civil , that aint alot to ask.

Here's a MORPH! just for you

Everyone is making some great points. And who says all the herpers are doing things correctly? We all make mistakes, and unfortunatly alot of the time it effects the animals adversly, and not the owner. I personally feed my big boa (6 1/2 ft) once a month a small rabbit. She's healthy, active, and not fat like alot of them out there. And yes, we all know some "herpers" are terrible keepers, and don't maintain there animals like they should. But for the most part, people do what they need to do in the animals best interest - this is my opinion - not fact =P. Alot of research can still be done on feeding, and how often even though boas have been in captivity for many years alot is still not known or proven as a fact. So who is to say which way is best? And the "right" way? I'm not going to push my opinions into anyones face/monitor until I turn purple like some on this forum. And yes, I have to agree alot of folks on here REALLY need to do some research before even thinking about getting any animal. For example, I remember a post on here a while back about a guy asking if he could breed his boa, while his enlosure is outside in 55 degrees. Do you see anything wrong with this? I just want to scream at ignorance like that. But, as we all know there is alot of ignorant people out there that need there hands held. And, maybe, just maybe thats what this forum is for......

Ignorance is bliss.....

Andrea