Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently purchased this female Hog from Classic Dum's. They picked her up as a trade at a show and couldn't give me any info on her background. The previous owner was afraid of her becuase she occasionally does hiss loudly, but once she is out of her cage she is a sweetheart. She is about 4 1/2 feet long and not as fat as a pop can. Could you give me some guesses as to how old she is? Here are a couple pics to help out. These pics were taken in her dark phase, she is ussually much lighter.

Pic with a yard stick

Pic with a 2 ft hook

Close up

Thanks for looking

What a great looking boa..

If that was my Hog Is at 4-1/2' she'd have to be 3 years old at least. But she would also have a larger head.. I'm guessing that boa has been fed more than I would feed one and may be only about 2.. other clues that she is still a juvie are her overall proportions and color intensity..

Just my opinions...
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Gus
A. Rentfro
RioBravoReptiles.com

"Quality is not an accident. Perfectly healthy animals are a minimum requirement.. everything else is just salesmanship" gus

Thanks for the reply Gus. I thought she was a 2001 or 2000 but wasn't sure. So you think she has been fed a lot. How often would you recommend I feed her now to keep her healthy? I was thinking every ten days...

Thanks,
Jaremy

There have been studies done on how much to feed Hogg Islands, feeding them on a normal boa's schedule is like powerfeeding them. They are naturally supposed to be thinner than normal boas. Yours looked right on track to me, lean and mean. Here is a pic of my Sears line Male, he is fed a small rat every three weeks and is extremely healthy.
Chris

I wrote that it looked like she had been fed more than I would feed her, not neccessarily a lot or too much.

I don't try to breed Hog is. boas until age 3-1/2 and over about 42" in size. Now you have a 4' Hog that is likely quite a bit younger than that. Is that a tragic crime? No... But for myself only and in my experience it is not the best practice to push a boa up to so-called breeding size and then attempt breeding trials. Rather, we see the age and size requirements as a unified process. So we feed to achieve the right size at the right age. And the feeding schedules and size of prey items are calculated from many factors, including sex, age, captive conditions and others.

You have to decide how big you want the boa to be and whether you are going to attempt breeding or whatever and then work a feeding program to achieve that. Once in ten days is a good schedule but if you are feeding fuzzy mice that would be too little, in contrast a jumbo rat would be too much for a boa of that size.

I hope you don't see my advice as evasive or cynical! I'm only trying to impart the notion that only the owner who sees exactly how the animal is kept and knows what they want to do with it can answer those When and How Much questions..

People who say the keeping or breeding of boas is simple are obviously kidding or they haven't a clue what a perfectly healthy boa looks and acts like, (also they are insulting a lot of people who had to work at it, regardless of the reason). On the other hand it is not inordinately hard and gets easier the more you observe and learn.

Good luck with that pretty boa...
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Gus
A. Rentfro
RioBravoReptiles.com

"Quality is not an accident. Perfectly healthy animals are a minimum requirement.. everything else is just salesmanship" gus

Thanks again for the reply. I asked how much to feed because I know overfeeding can be detrimental and I value your opinion & input. I by no means found your reply invasive or cynical. I was concerned that she may have been power fed and I want to slow her feeding down and get her on track to be 100% healthy. There are a lot of factors that need to be taken into consideration when deciding how much to feed a Boa. I like to think I keep her at optimum conditions at an ambient air temp of 80-82 deg and a hot spot of 90 in a 4ft by 2ft cage at 60% humidity and hides at the high and low temp. I am going to be feeding her medium rats that are about as big around as she is at midbody. I don't plan on breeding her this year. My brother has an 02 male that we want to attempt to breed her to in late 2004. I just want her to be healthy, not overfed or underfed.

Thanks,

Jaremy Douglas

I've got a male HIB that is going on 2 years old, is nearly 48 inches long and is currently getting a medium sized rat every 10 days. I've had him since he was 1 year old. Females do typically get a little larger than males. Hope that helps a little in the age guesstimation!

Steve
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