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Feeding questions.

Posted By:

lostmale28

I have been trying to get some info out of my local vets but none of them can tell me exactly what i need to do. My snake (Charlie) is a little skinny. He is about 5 foot long and weighs six pounds. He is a little bigger than a dollar bill at his largest point. I kind of think he is a little skinny so i contacted three different vets. I want him tested for worms as soon as i can and he has an appointment this coming monday for that and hopefully some feeding advice. Right now i have been told By one of the vets that a good feeding routine would be a large or jumbo rat every two weeks and a small to medium rat on the weeks in between ??? I don't really want to power feed him i just want him to put on a little weight and be healthy. He seems just fine about eating and everything else but i know it is posable to over feed him. If anyone has any input i would greatly appreciate it.


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Member Comment

7/23/2010 5:50:58 PM

BirchbarkBoas

He looks perfectly healthy.

There are a lot of fat boas out there. Yours sounds and looks great for a typical male. No need to power feed. One rat every two weeks is plenty. :)

Author Comment

7/23/2010 6:07:21 PM

lostmale28

Thanks Aurora I think every two weeks is what im going to do. I just needed someone to confirm that i wasn't losing my mind LOL

Member Comment

7/23/2010 6:41:30 PM

Nitram

for my large males (med rats and up) i feed every 3 weeks, even a month sometimes depending (one takes jumbo once a month, he's doing great). any vet that tells you to feed weekly on a 5'+ boa is a retard, there's no reason for it. in general ive found the males will be a lot thinner than the females (at least in my clan). even at 2 weeks, it sounds like a steady feeding cycle. it works for me to stretch it out more, but everyone has their methods you know?

Member Comment

7/23/2010 6:43:07 PM

Nitram

sorry i forgot to mention if you want to check for internal parasites bag up his poo the next time he goes and take it into a vet to be sent for lab work, there's a few different tests they can run.

Author Comment

7/23/2010 7:12:26 PM

lostmale28

I am hoping he will go before the vet check up monday so he can be checked again. The first vet i took it to was a total retard and i knew when we were half way through the exam when the vet asked me what kind of snake it was that i shouldn't trust them. My old vet retired and finding a new one just sucks. Thanks for the tip on the feeding.

Member Comment

7/23/2010 7:41:52 PM

treetrunkchris

my vet told me that infrequent feedings causes liver issues down the road. If you feed weekly, even if it's small meals, rather than one big meal every 3-4 weeks your snake will be healthier and live longer. It doesn't affect your snake rite away, but in the long run your gonna lose years on your snake.

Member Comment

7/23/2010 8:22:20 PM

treetrunkchris

and my vet said that if you feed every 2,3, or 4 weeks your more likely to have an obese snake. He said that the snakes body goes into starvation if not fed weekly and ends up trying to save all the fat from the meal. It's the same thing with people. If you want to gain more weight you don't need to eat more. Just eat a big meal once a day and your body will save all the fat it can. I've gained an extra 40lbs in the last 2-3 months from doing it.

Accepted Answer

7/23/2010 10:05:56 PM

BirchbarkBoas

Um, hate to say it treetrunkchris but you might want to get a second opinion on that vet lol. Snakes are cold blooded, not mammals like humans. Their metabolisms don't work the same way ours do. A snake is not going to get obese from infrequent feedings. It has much more to do with the amount it is fed over time.

Back to the original topic - I'd like to add that for an adult male snake I'm planning to breed I will feed less frequently: usually once every two weeks in the summer and once every three in the winter. However for an adult male boa I'm not planning to breed, I'll usually keep him on a steady every two week schedule. Pampered pet, lol.

Boas that are still in their 2-3 "growing years" usually get fed every week. Adult females get fed weekly or every two weeks in summer depending on size, and every two or every three weeks in the winter depending on size.

This is what works for me!

Member Comment

7/23/2010 10:16:56 PM

Katie M

I go to the same vet Christ does, and while I haven't heard the part Chris is mentioning about the weight gain, I do want to focus on another part he mentioned - liver issues. More and more animals that have been fed meals spread out over longer periods of time i.e. every 2-3 weeks or longer, do show signs of hepatic lipidosis, just as mammals do when forced to digest their own fat reserves due to starvation. While that may work for an animal in the wild, to survive while food is scarce, there really should be no reason for our snakes to do this in captivity. This situation does indeed shorten the lifespan of our snakes, and Dr. Maas is actually in the process of submitting papers to be published showing his findings. That said, what Chris may have meant to say, is that it is more important to feed frequent, small meals. So while the snake may have been fed an appropriate large rat every 14 days, try a smaller medium rat every 7. Or something along those lines. I've done that with my animals, and so far, so good :) Obviously, it's too soon to notice any noticeable results, as I've only been doing this for 2 years. The only way to see noticeable results will probably be 20-40 years from now, when we can see long term effects as many of them pass due to old age and their livers can be examined

Member Comment

7/23/2010 10:28:56 PM

BirchbarkBoas

Interesting!

Hope to hear more about this in the future. If there is solid evidence and study behind it the feeding manuals will have to be re-written lol.

Member Comment

7/24/2010 1:58:49 PM

shellboa

I feed every week during the summer and every two weeks in the winter. I base my feeder size on how frequent the meals are and I will feed 2 mediums rather than one jumbo to encourage a hesitant feeder (not that they hesitate often) I also wanted to mention ALL of my boas get either frozen/thawed or pre-killed. No jumbo rats or little rabbits to damage my babies!

I knew that if you didn't have hognose snakes on a regular feed schedule it shortened their life span so it doesn't seem too far of a stretch that all snakes could have some sort of issue. The thing to keep in mind also is that with them having been bred in captivity long enough they could eveolve issues not inherent in the wild.

Member Comment

7/24/2010 2:12:44 PM

Herp_junky

I've actually talked with several people over the last few years over this topic and have also been doing a weekly feeding schedule with slightly smaller prey items over the last couple of years. So far i haven't noticed much of a difference in any aspect. I don't see where a biweekly feeding schedule is going to put a snake into starvation and cause it to absorb its fat reserves to survive, unless it has been on a fairly extreme powerfeeding schedule its whole life and as a result has an extremely high metabolism rate. Now a monthly feeder i could see having issues down the road from this. It would be interesting to see his findings though,just cause i don't see how it would be an issue doesn't mean i'm right,we learn new information everyday:)

Member Comment

7/24/2010 2:17:34 PM

treetrunkchris

lol katie put it to terms better, I'm not horribly good with that part lol

Member Comment

7/24/2010 10:15:43 PM

BirchbarkBoas

Oh, I also wanted to mention that if a boa seems particularly active I take that to mean they're hungry, and I will often offer a smaller meal off the usual schedule. My big girl Onyxia, however, is always hungry lol.

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