New Sunglow poss het anery girl - Page 3

ManSlaughter33 · 10-19-15, 10:15 AM

I keep looking at your pictures because a sunglow is exactly what my next serious addition is. And yours is just plain gorgeous.

bigsnakegirl785 · 10-19-15, 09:48 PM

She doesn't have any crazy colors, but she really has that clean pattern going for her, and she's so pale! An off-white that is almost white, except for her deep pink sides, and her tail is nice and colorful.

bigsnakegirl785 · 11-17-15, 07:11 AM

Nothing much new on this girl, but boy is she growing like a weed!!! I need to weigh her once she's empty from today's meal. Still eating a hopper every 10-14 days, and showing no signs of slowing down on her growth.

A photo I missed before, such a beautiful tail.

And now some recent photos from the the beginning of the month, and the past week.

And from today's mass feeding day. haha

**Tsubaki** · 11-17-15, 07:34 AM

Gorgeous! love that clean look

bigsnakegirl785 · 12-24-15, 10:27 PM

Well she weighed in at 136 grams before her last meal, she had a gigantic poop the day before the meal before that (so 2 meals ago). She has a bad habit of holding onto poo for 2-3 feedings (she eats every 10-14 days) and then pooping a pile that could almost put River to shame! lol

She's still holding onto that color really nicely, and continues to grow noticeably.

She's still on hoppers, but I may move her to adult mice at the same time as Sanji, since the hoppers aren't really leaving a bulge anymore. I'll give her once of Sanji's adults and see what kind of bulge it leaves before deciding on whether or not to keep her on hoppers a bit longer.

The only weird thing with her is she's only shed once in the 5 months I've had her, despite growing at least 5" since her last shed. I've only been feeding her biweekly a month or two, so I would have expected her to have shed at least one other time if it was the feeding schedule causing it. I'm half-expecting her to shed in the next few weeks and explode another 5"-6" like River. haha

She's pooping and eating fine and doesn't look dehydrated, so I'm not too worried, just seems strange.

**Tsubaki** · 12-25-15, 02:26 AM

Gorgeous

i wouldn't be worried either.

bigsnakegirl785 · 01-15-16, 05:56 PM

Nymeria's feeding day last week was rather interesting.

I had taken her out of her tub so I could replace her paper towels as she had taken a big dump on them, and then placed her near her vine after I was done so she'd crawl off my hand since she wouldn't let go of my fingers. She then would not be removed from her vine, so I offered her mouse to her there.

She ended up sitting there with the mouse in her mouth not moving at all with big dilated pupils.

When I went to put the lid back on her tub I heard a rapid "thwuck thwuck thwuck." I looked down to find she had struck at the air with the mouse still in her mouth and was now violently thrashing around trying to wrap around the mouse. >.>

She ended up succeeding but has further convinced me she's weird.

bigsnakegirl785 · 01-19-16, 07:56 AM

So I finally managed to get her to stretch out, she climbed on top of the trimming on the floor and just crawled along it. She came to just a hair under 26", maybe a millimeter or two under. That means she's grown 2" since I measured her in November, and she's grown 6" since I got her in July. She's growing rather fast considering Cloud was only 2'7" after I had him a year.

Sylphie · 01-19-16, 08:05 AM

Ohhh she's sooo beautiful! <3

dannybgoode · 01-19-16, 08:43 AM

Beautiful boa and sounds like she may be a big girl. Stunning colours.

I'm secretly hoping that Rachel will be on the larger side - closer to 7' instead of 6' would be perfect (she's a CA BCI so likely to remain at the smaller end of a BCI's range).

bigsnakegirl785 · 01-19-16, 12:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dannybgoode

Beautiful boa and sounds like she may be a big girl. Stunning colours.

I'm secretly hoping that Rachel will be on the larger side - closer to 7' instead of 6' would be perfect (she's a CA BCI so likely to remain at the smaller end of a BCI's range).

I'm hoping she will! I'll grow her nice and slow, though, so I'm not expecting her to get above 6' until she's 5+ years old, if she ends up getting bigger than that. She's growing fast, but a fast growth rate doesn't always mean a snake will get big.

As you said, she'll remain smaller. I really wouldn't expect her get much over 6', if she even reaches 6'. Different Central American localities get to different sizes, but they generally stay in the 3'-5' range, so it depends on what localit(ies) she is. If she has some Colombian blood in her, she may easily reach 6', but I wouldn't necessarily expect 7'. Even Colombians don't always reach 7', although it's much more in the realm of possibilities than the other Central American boas.

dannybgoode · 01-19-16, 01:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigsnakegirl785

I'm hoping she will! I'll grow her nice and slow...

I think that's the key with boas. Nice steady growth. So easy to overfeed as they can't seem to turn food down!

Rachel is fed every eighth day on a good small mouse and shes doing well at that (she's only 6 months old).

Of course when she's matured I'll drop to every 10-14 days...

bigsnakegirl785 · 01-19-16, 07:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dannybgoode

I think that's the key with boas. Nice steady growth. So easy to overfeed as they can't seem to turn food down!

Rachel is fed every eighth day on a good small mouse and shes doing well at that (she's only 6 months old).

Of course when she's matured I'll drop to every 10-14 days...

Oh yeah, that's the nice thing about them for sure.

I'd go with 10-14 days when she turns a year, and then when she turns 3 you can feed anywhere from every 3-6 weeks. Adult boa constrictors have insanely slow metabolisms, and feeding an adult anymore often than every 3 weeks can put your boa at risk of fatty liver disease and obesity. I'm currently feeding my 4.5 year old every 5 weeks, and he gets fasted 90 days out of the year. I'm thinking of eventually bringing him down to a 6 week schedule when he seems ready, and that will be as far spaced as he'll go.

dannybgoode · 01-19-16, 11:44 PM

Thanks BSG. Hadn't realised their metabolism was that slow. I knew they were easily overfed and I've seen some very obese looking specimens on YouTube so will bear that in mind.

bigsnakegirl785 · 01-20-16, 10:23 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dannybgoode

Thanks BSG. Hadn't realised their metabolism was that slow. I knew they were easily overfed and I've seen some very obese looking specimens on YouTube so will bear that in mind.

Unfortunately, obesity is a very common problem across all snake species in captivity, and probably all pets. Some people seem to think the more food the better, as I've seen people feed as much food as 3 jumbos a week or every other week to their 6'-7' boa when all that snake needs is one large rat every 3-6 weeks. Even if you're breeding a female, she doesn't need all that much more food, all they need is maybe a slight increase in food intake such as spacing the feedings closer together or slightly larger food items. I've seen breeders consistently successfully breeding females with similar body tone to my adult male boa.