A healthy boa should have a square shape to their body (remember I am talking about boa’s specifically here, some species of snake are round in shape naturally), with a slight grove running down the center of the back (often described a loaf of bread). When I received this boa she was covered in stuck shed, had never had supplementary heat and was used to being fed everyday!īoa constrictors are very muscular snakes. All that with no supplementary heat to aid digestion… it was terrible, some people don’t do an ounce of research. So the snake was simultaneously being overfed and underfed, the meals were too small and too frequent. This boa should have already been on 10-12 g hoppers at this point. I have no idea where the lady got this information from but she was feeding the boa 4-5 mouse fuzzies (2-3 g each) per week!! She also did not provide the animal with any heat, I quote: “It’s a snake, they don’t need heat”. She was over 1 year old, covered in stuck shed and very frail. Last year I “rescued” a 1- year old female Colombian boa from a lady who was selling her in the local classifieds. But it definitely does happen from poor feeding habits as well!Īn under-weight boa will have a slight triangular shaped body, i.e. I would think an under-weight boa is more likely to be due to a parasite or illness in most cases. Having an under-weight boa due to poor feeding practices is a much less likely occurrence as boa’s have an incredibly slow metabolism and can go long period’s of time between meals. Here are some very fat boa’s so you know what to look for: Fatty ring deposits in boa constrictor. An over-weight boa will develop Fatty Liver Disease and die prematurely, period. Excessive wrinkling and “ring” shaped fat deposits are a sure sign of an over-weight boa. Internal fat is only visible once an animal is direly over-weight. Snakes, like most reptiles store the majority of their fat intra-abdominally. In other words, they are predisposed to only gain what we call “the dangerous fat” in humans. This is a true statement for many reasons, none of which we need to get into here. When discussing human health, you have probably heard people say something along the lines of “internal (sometimes called visceral) fat is more dangerous than the fat under the skin”. Mammals (including humans) store both subcutaneous (under the skin) and intra-abdominal fat. Snakes are not adapted to be able to easily store large amounts of fat. It may sound funny but it is actually quite dangerous. Over feeding a boa will quickly turn your boa into a stuffed sausage. It is pretty easy to make an animal fat! Boa constrictors are no exception. The first tool you should have in your arsenal is the ability to judge (by sight and feel) whether or not you have a healthy snake (by “healthy” I mean “a healthy weight”). Do you know what a healthy Boa looks like?
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For my full review on the book, check out my Resources page. Vin is a legend in the Boa world, he has more experience than most people in the industry and in my opinion his recommendations are very valuable.
If you own a boa and don’t have this book… you need to get it! It is 100% worth the buy. I also closely follow the care protocol Vin Russo, lays out in his book Complete Boa Constrictor. In this post we are going to look at both those questions as well as some other important information that is often left out of the discussion! Disclaimer:įirst, I should say: I am not an expert! I am just sharing the experience I have had working with my animals. Here are the two main feed related questions: But since you have your animals best interest at mind I know you will read through the entire post 🙂 I promise it will be worth your while if you are a newbie to all of this! Before we start, Let’s watch some Boa’s Eat!įeeding my snakes never gets old! Anyway, let’s get to the important stuff! First, we must lay down a foundation of information to properly address the question of feeding. Every animal is different, it is up to you to understand your animal’s behaviors and feed appropriately. Spoiler Alert: There is no simple, straightforward answer.
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Why should you be able to solve it on your own? Because there are no two animals alike and you need to know what is best for your boa.Īlso I have provided a FREE Boa Constrictor Feeding Chart to help you keep an accurate log. I know how frustrating that feels! In this post, I hope give you the tools you need to be able to solve this problem on your own. If you are like me, when you first started doing research on feeding you found 10 different answers that all contradicted each other. I would argue it is also the area where most mistakes are made. Please send any questions to: of the most common questions surrounding boa constrictor care have to do with feeding. Boa Constrictor Feeding Chart: When, what and how often should I be feeding? BEFORE YOU SCROLL, WATCH THIS QUICK CLIP!
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