I have just been handed a three foot, four year old Bci. The previous owner clamed only ate (frozen/thawed) mice, every few month or so. Personaly i think the owner must have been keeping the snake in the wrong conditions but my questionn is this...Hopfully, if i get the snake into a more regular eating pattern (and on the correct food...eg...rats, rabbits ect..) will it still grow to its full potential or will it's growth be stunted. Its a stunning snake and would like to mabey breed it one day or at least see it fully grown. Any advise would be appreciated....many thanks.
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Boa feeding and growth question...please advise...
adihoile
Oct 11, 2005 06:49 PM
Replies (4)
Jonathan_Brady
Oct 11, 2005 07:09 PM
More info is needed. As for stunting, I don't have any personal experience w/ your situation, but I do remember reading that the adult size can be reached by a stunted juvie...
jb
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Jonathan Brady
"Sarcasm is angers ugly cousin" -Dr. Buddy Rydell (Jack Nicholson) in "Anger Management".
adihoile
Oct 11, 2005 07:56 PM
The guy who gave me this snake also had it's sister...who ate like a machine and is huge (6-7 foot ). The snake i'm worried about is also female but is really thin and small compared to her sister i just mentioned. Nothing more i can tell you apart from, i think she has been kept in the wrong conditions most of her life and hasnt had chance to thrive. Hopefully i can give her that chance. Just wondered what the sucsess rate was and if they retain full growth. She has some awsome pastel colours and is VERY clean(no speckling, anywhere!). Again...any advise is apreciated.
ps.I'll try and post some pictures soon.
rainbowsrus
Oct 12, 2005 12:13 PM
The guy you got this snake from had two sibling females. One ate regularly and the other did not. Probably not a habitat or care issue or it would have affected both. The one you have may either be sick or have some genetic or physical anomoly that is keeping it from eating. Good luck!! Hope you don't need it.
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Thanks,
Dave "Rainbows-R-Us"
0.1 Wife
0.2 kids
4.12.100 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
1.1 Ball python
0.1 BCI "Elvira" normal from 1989
1.0 BCI albino / het-anery
0.1 BCI Hypo / het-albino
0.1 BCI Anery / het-albino
0.1 BCI Hypo (possible super)
1.0 BCI albino het stripe
1.0 BCI salmon hypo
0.1 BCI ghost
lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats 
aaahbiteme
Oct 13, 2005 09:09 AM
Snakes continue to grown throughout their lives, although the growth rate slows down drastically after the first few years, if you can get her eating, she will grow. She probably never will get as big as she might have if she had eaten properly in the first 2-3 years. I have rescued under nourished and very undersized burmese pythons that grew considerably bigger after I started feeding them properly, most of them didn't live very long, 3-5 years after I got them, I don't know about breeding them, I saw too many abandoned and mistreated burmese back then so I refused to breed them and add to the problem.
