What breed of snake is my snake

[bigsnakegirl785]

Originally Posted by Tsubaki

The opinion on that subject varies a lot, and yes they do have a slow metabolism. I support feeding a lot less often than most people do, especially on adults (5+). My adult boa's (males in particular) would only eat a handful of times times a year compared to my other snakes, and they were very healthy. I do not agree that a bulge should not be visible, i did feed my boa's smaller on average than i did my retics. (Who i would easily give prey twice their girth or more). As long as you give the animal more than plenty of time to digest, and don't go to any extremes it should be fine. It is not an exact science, all you can do is mimic what they do in the wild. I believe their bodies should be put to work from time to time, always had adults glowingly healthy, lean, mean and shiny. I don't think there is a 'perfect' way of feeding in captivity, i don't think Vin Russo's method is perfect, i don't believe mine is perfect.. But i do believe there is more than one method in which the animals grow up to beautifully healthy adults, so i don't think either them is bad.(there Are bad methods out there though) Vin Russo is great btw, both my Nicaragua's were bred by him.

All good points. I've found this method best for me and my boa constrictor. He gets rabbits or rats from 1/2 his width to just under his width every 5 weeks. I'm also trying to fast him this winter as well, he normally eats all winter, never had him refuse a meal except when I was accidentally feeding him too large of meals (he should have still been on mediums but he was getting nearly jumbo-sized rats which I didn't realize at the time due to a lack of a scale and advice to step up his prey size). Right now I'm stocked up on rabbits, so that's what he's getting for now, but I might feed every 4 weeks on rats, but I haven't fed rats since I began this feeding regimen. Feeding depends on the prey item, the snake in question, and age.

I plan on trying this method with my next boa, and seeing how it works for babies (obviously 7-10 days rather than 5 weeks lol). Although I could feed him larger, I don't feel like it's important. Snakes are overfed as it is, so maybe stepping down on the food will improve their overall health. I'm still in the testing stages of this feeding method, but after nearly a year I've found this to be a very good method, at least for my individual.

The mouse is still rather large, though. It appears more than 1.5x the width of that snake.