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Food

Lewis25

Lewis25

New member
Right need some advise I have a 3ft 11inch 513g hog island boa wat size of mice should I be feeding it ? Ive feed him medium size but read I should be feeding him xl !


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I wouldn't feed a boa mice. I'd be feeding rats. So anything about the same girth as his body or a little bigger.
 
I would go with a rat the width of the widest part of their body. Feeding larger is usually not a good idea...boas and pythons are slow metabolizers and run to fat and prolapse if you feed larger items.
 
Ok so it doesn't matter what weight he is you go with the widest part of body ?


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Yup.....I always judge prey items by the width of the body...you could have a long slender snake that can only take a smaller animal or a short stocky one that could take a larger prey.
 
MegF. said:
Yup.....I always judge prey items by the width of the body...you could have a long slender snake that can only take a smaller animal or a short stocky one that could take a larger prey.
Click to expand...

This is why I never jump to recommend the Munson plan to new snake keepers. The same weight can be achieved from various builds. A good system, but it always pains me defaulting new keepers to it because it could potentially lead to regurges if the owner isn't careful about girth.
 
The Munson plan was generally put there for colubrids not pythons. I still feel that it over feeds. Snakes were not designed to have food constantly on their stomachs. Just because your snake pooped does NOT mean it just pooped out it's last meal. Anyone who has brumated knows that even without feeding 3 weeks prior to cooling the animal will still poop during brumation at times...that means food is still being processed more than a month later. I feed all my snakes every 14-21 days depending upon species and age. The only ones fed more often are my snail eaters and the false water cobras as they are fast metabolizers. We are used to seeing obese snakes in captivity. Take a look at the average wild snake and you won't see the round bodies and spread scales. I used to feed weekly but after my green tree python prolapsed I changed my entire thoughts on feeding and my vet agrees with me.
 
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