How big are your 2008 Boas?

[Jenstar]

I was just wondering how big your 2008 BCI boas are? My girl Sadie is just over 1300 grams. It just seems huge, when I look at me 2009 babies that are still sooo small. Then I'm questioning whether I feed the 2009's enough food(once a week)? Should they be as big as Sadie by late 2010 early 2011? What do you guys think?

 

[v_various]

My 08' BCI weighs in at 840g, but he's a hog island so I don't think he counts XD
I looked at him after reading this thread, and his head was up, watching me. I figured I'd take him out to weigh.

Guess that means he's put on 100g in the last month. And he's happily sitting on my shoulders right now, I love this little guy so much.

I've been in no great hurry to grow him up, either. I throw him a weanling rat every 7 - 10 days, don't know much about "regular" BCI feeding schedules though. If only there were boa boards as cool this corn snake one! Then I'd absorb more info for sure, lol.

 

[Jenstar]

I just feed my girl a small rat every week. I should probably been giving her a medium rat, but I figure since I'm feeding her every 7 days she should be fine, plus she gets the extra jumbo mice when my Bps skip their meals. The guy before me said he was power feeding her. He also said she was grumpy, but she is the sweetest girl ever too. She loves being out sitting on my shoulders. I love the size she is right now. It kind of makes me sad that at some point she will be to large to sit up on my shoulders.

 

[ZoologyGirl]

this big
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[RyanR]

my 08 sharp female is 1447 Empty.

 

[Jenstar]

Thankyou for all of your replies. I guess my girl is fairly average after all.

 

[Kokopelli]

Yup, it's just that Boas grow very rapidly over the first two years, it's hard to believe when compared to babies that such a difference can occur within a year... also remember, it's a female, she's going to be big.

She should be eating every two weeks by now, packing a grown rat, possibly even two, every meal.

 

[Caramel]

i have a july´08 female hog island that has about 1700 g now. i feed her every 5-6 weeks medium rats.

 

[Kokopelli]

i have a july´08 female hog island that has about 1700 g now. i feed her every 5-6 weeks medium rats.

That's one big gal(and one of the better looking Hogs I had the pleasure of seeing), did you weight her before feeding is due though?
The amount of poop and food items can make quite the difference when we're talking rats.

 

[Caramel]

i weight her yesterday, 6 weeks after last feeding so i think she is pretty much empty

 

[Kokopelli]

I repeat, that's one big mama

 

[wstphal]

Caramel, that's a pretty girl. You can pack her up & send her to me, OK? LOL

 

[v_various]

5 to 6 weeks? Does that mean I'm over feeding my BCI?! There isn't any "munson plan" I've run across for these guys -_-

 

[Kokopelli]

5 to 6 weeks? Does that mean I'm over feeding my BCI?! There isn't any "munson plan" I've run across for these guys -_-

Possibly, optimal feeding rate I know (after reading and consulting with quite a few people):

Males: once every 3-4 weeks
Females: once every 2 weeks

 

[wstphal]

Possibly, optimal feeding rate I know (after reading and consulting with quite a few people):

Males: once every 3-4 weeks
Females: once every 2 weeks

Does this go for neonates too, just vary the size of the food as appropriate for the size of the boa? Or should neonates eat more often for a while, until they reach a certain weight? I guess what I am fishing for here from our resident boa smart-y is something like a Munson plan.

 

[Kokopelli]

Does this go for neonates too, just vary the size of the food as appropriate for the size of the boa? Or should neonates eat more often for a while, until they reach a certain weight? I guess what I am fishing for here from our resident boa smart-y is something like a Munson plan.

Nothing I know is thanks to my own discovery so I can't take any sort of credit...
Neonates should indeed be fed more frequently- depending on the size of the neonate- it should be small adult mice/very young rat pup once a week until they are about 6-7 months old(The fellas I shifted to a meal every 2 weeks have all got to around 330 grams), I then lower it to once every two weeks- females continue to get a meal every two weeks while males at around 16-18 months of age are fed once every 3-4 weeks(up to that point, they are fed once every two weeks like the females)... it depends on how active the male is... you will easily see if the male is becoming too bulky because they will be a deal more slender and eventually shorter than the female.

The size of the prey should increase as they become older and bigger- with Boas it is preferable to serve a large meal in bigger intervals than small meals in shorter intervals- as their metabolism is far slower than that of Colubrids.

They will quickly move to large adult mice... and then to 3 weeks old rats... small rats and so on...

 

[Jenstar]

Wow... Everyone is adding more great questions.

Thankyou Oren for your advice. I'm gonna start feeding her every two weeks. I'm also gonna look into getting medium rats for her.

Caramel your Hogg Island is beautiful. I love how light she is.

 

[v_various]

hum, I think I've been seeing him as still a "baby" for a little too long. Ah well, sorry Moss, you're going on a diet! I'm cutting back one of my corns too, man, snakes are so cheap to feed!

 

[Kokopelli]

It is -very- possible to overfeed your Boa... with dire consequences...

I wrote about it here:
http://www.cornsnakes.com/forums/showthread.php?t=89321&highlight=zucker+rats

Here's what happened to one of Alon's boas due to fat-poisoning:

I haven't seen her in a while... but around two months ago she looked like this:

For comparison sake... though not exactly of the same quality as Solaris... she was saturated in general shades of orange like my adult female:

Also- overfeeding can seriously harm the chance of successful breeding of BCI...

All in all- a regiment is generally encouraged, so is awareness for the Zucker issue explained in the thread I mentioned

 

[wstphal]

Wow, that poor boa! She looks like she is improving though. Will she recover her health? Fertility? Or do we just not know at this point? I guess if she gets healthy, she can be a pet even if she can't breed.

Edit: I think this means if a baby boa has to be tube fed one would have to choose a low fat product to puree, or blenderize mice or small low fat rats. Wow. May never help me personally but knowledge is always good!