Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've got a yearling BCI that I bought around 9 months ago, and after a recent shed I measured him at almost exactly 30 inches. He's healthy, alert, and eats great (one rat pup a week, every Friday), but compared to many of the yearling Columbians I see on the board, he's pretty small.

I'm wondering, is 2 1/2 feet within the range of healthy for a yearling BCI, or is his growth stunted somehow? I work hard to make sure his temps and humidity are right, so as far as I know everything should be fine, but it's hard to know sometimes if the snakes on the boa board are just exceptional, or if they represent the norm.

I'd be especially interested in hearing from Red Group owners, as he's a EB Vivarium Red Group from the 2002 litter, but any opinions would be great.

Thanks!

(the pic below is him at around 6 months old)

Your Boa seems to be within normal growth rates. Many people tend to power of over feed their boas in an attempt to get it to breeding size as quickly as possible. I would say that it is time to increase the size of prey item for your snake to maybe small weaned rats, but other then that it seems fine...
Thanks
Jim Hopkins

I have two yearling females that are still relatively small compared to others.....But, I really think that bringing them up slow will make them healthier and better breeders in the future. Like Hoppy said. It sounds like it is time to move up with your prey item. My yearlings are now eating two fuzzy rats every 10 days. And, I just moved them up to that recently.
John
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"To be the best..........You must lose your mind."

Here is a pic of my Red Group female from '02 (bad pic--she's in shed). She also gets one meal a week. She is about 38". A lot of it has to do with the individual snake and it also might depend on when you got yours from EBV. I doubt they feed every snake they have once per week, so if you picked yours up late in the season, it would be smaller. I've got two sisters from 2001 and one is 5' and about 5 lbs where the other is about 4' and 2.5 lbs. They are kept in the same conditions and fed the same amount. Another possibility is if yours is a male, they tend to grow slower and be smaller as adults. Hope this helps.

Matt