Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a young rosy boa female between 16 and 18 inches long. I read that with rosies in particular one should be careful about feeding food items that are too large, and the general rule of thumb with any snake is to feed it nothing larger than the widest part if its body. So even though my rosy is by no means really a baby, she's still eating pinkie mice because fuzzies are by far bigger than her body. I give her one every 3-4 days even though she usually becomes very active the day after she eats, like she's all done digesting and ready for more. Should I feed her more, or should I feed her bigger prey? I've had her since Feb and she's only shed twice and seems to hardly have grown at all.

She's gotten really grouchy lately, too. She doesn't want to be handled anymore, even though I generally handle her at LEAST every other day, so she should be plenty used to it. She'll try to strike at me, but hasn't really connected a strike with my hand (yet). She also tries to eat me sometimes when I'm holding her...she'll have her mouth pressed against my palm or arm and just open up and try to swallow some part of my flesh that in now way would ever fit in her mouth. So that makes me attribute her grouchiness to hunger.

I have a photo of her with a pinkie in her mouth from about two weeks ago. Do you think she could eat larger prey or should I stick with what she's got?

Thanks!!

I would say YES feed the rosy a larger prey item (peachies-pink mice that have just grown some hair on them). At least you could feed it two pinks one after the other. I have a young Harquahala that is insatiable and he eats large pinks every four or five days. I have fed him two sometimes to tide him over. He does not try to attack and eat my hand when he is well fed. This is just my two cents.

I have some neonate rosys that were born in the begining of Sept. that are already eating Peach fuzz pinkies. This has not been any issue with size of the peach fuzz mice,regurge, or anything else. I have always gone off to feed most all snakes a feeder just a little larger than their biggest part of their body. You should see a little bit of a lump even when the food is at least half way down their body.
Here is the feeding regiment that I use.

Neonate
1 pinkie mouse or small fuzzy mouse
Every 3-4 days

Juvenile (1 yr)
2 fuzzy mice or pinkie rats
Every 4-5 days

Subadult (2-3 yrs)
2 large fuzzy mice, small hopper mice, or pinkie rats
Every 4-5 days

Adult (3-6 yrs)
2 adult mice, or fuzzy rats
Every 4-5 days

Large Adult (6-10 yrs)
3 large adult mice, or 2 subadult rats
Every 5-7 days

Hope this helps you figure it out..

Hey VegasSnake, is that you Jason?