Feeding:

Feeding regimens will differ based on age, size, sex, and sub-species/locality.

The first thing you should take into consideration when determining a feeding regimen is the size of the boa now and the size it will be as an adult.  If you have an island form of BCI or other dwarfish form, you should know that in general, you do not need to feed these boas as large a prey item per feeding, nor do you have to feed them as often.  These boas have evolved over time to take food in limited quantities and sizes and to remain relatively small.  In general, they attain sizes in the range of 3.5-6 feet.  If you have a mainland form of BCI, you should realize that these boas grow quickly and attain adult size early in life, say 3-4 years.  Adult size is usually between 6-9 feet although growth beyond this range is definitely not unheard of.  This is in contrast with the BCC’s, which attain adult size in 4-6+ years and generally reach sizes of 6-10 or 12 feet with some rare specimens reaching lengths of 13+ feet.  These boas should also be fed less often than mainland BCI because they too (like the dwarf BCI) have evolved to grow less quickly.

Now that you have determined the adult size of your boa and how long it will take for them to reach that size, you need to evaluate the current size of your boa.  The size of the prey item you feed to your boa should be no bigger around than the largest portion of your boa at mid-body.  THIS IS A MAXIMUM SIZE.  For BCC’s and “dwarf” BCI, I recommend choosing prey items that are slightly smaller than this size.  I recommend this for BCC because they have much more volatile stomachs and generally can’t handle oversized prey items and will often regurgitate the prey after feeding.  I recommend this for dwarf BCI because this is what their body has evolved to take.  For mainland BCI, you can be a bit more aggressive and feed prey items that are equal in girth to the snakes body at the largest point without food in it.

Mainland BCI’s should be fed on a schedule of every 7+ days until they reach about 2.5-3 feet.  After that time, you should feed them every 7-12 days until they reach about 4-4.5 feet.  Once they reach this size, males are generally ready to breed but females need a little while longer, they should be at least 5.5 feet long before attempting to breed them (and this is only if they are a slow growing individual that doesn’t seem likely to attain a length much greater than the present length).  After they reach 4.5 feet, I would recommend feeding every 10 days for females and every 12 days for males.  If you are planning on breeding, you may consider increasing the frequency of feeding to every 3-5 days for 2-3 weeks for females, as this will help them gain needed body fat reserves and bulk to get them through gestation and birth.  Allow at least 3-4, and preferably 5+ days after feeding before handling your boa again.  This will allow the boa to digest its meal at least partially and be less susceptible to regurgitation.

When debating over what length of time to allow between feedings, you should think about how large you would like your snake to be when it is full grown.  If you want your snake to be at the upper end of the size range, feed towards the low end of the scale.  The opposite is true if you want a snake that is on the smaller side of the spectrum.  Also, males tend to stay smaller than females and do not need to be fed as often.  It has also been theorized that smaller, less robust males make the best breeders, so it pays to follow a healthy feeding regimen.  Keep in mind that some boas will attain very small or very large sizes regardless of how often you feed them.  This can usually be attributed to their genes and/or surrounding environment.  If you have a female neonate Colombian BCI that came from large parents and you want her to reach a large healthy size, then you should start off feeding her every 5-7 days until she is 3 feet long.  Then keep a feeding regimen of every 7-10 days until she is fully grown (unless you notice her getting fat, then cut back).  This should give you a large healthy boa that is not obese.

Dwarf BCI’s are going to be very similar to the mainland BCI’s in feeding frequency, but at different sizes.  For neonates to animals approaching 2.5-3 feet, feed every 7-10 days.  After they attain about 3 feet of length, you can cut back to about every 10+ days until they hit 4 feet at which time you should cut back to every 12-14 days.  Same rule applies for breeding females and one should also remember individual differences. Allow at least 3-4, and preferably 5+ days after feeding before handling your boa again.  This will allow the boa to digest its meal at least partially and be less susceptible to regurgitation.

BCC’s, BCA’s, and BCO's will be different all around.  I recommend feeding neonates every 10 days for the first year of their life, but keep a careful eye out for regurgitation.  At about a year to a year and a half of age, or 2.5-3 feet, you may want to consider increasing feeding to every 7-10 days until males reach4.5-5 feet and females reach 6 feet+.  However, if you prefer to keep your current schedule, there is no problem with that.  After they reach that size, you may want to cut back on feeding aggressively to keep your boa from getting too large.  Again, same rule applies for breeding females.  Please remember this sub-species tendency to regurgitate!  I can not stress this enough: DO NOT OVERFEED YOUR BCC’S OR BCA’S!!!  Allow at least 5, and preferably 6-7 days (or more for large animals and large meals) after feeding before handling your boa again.  This will allow the boa to digest its meal at least partially and be less susceptible to regurgitation.  Remember, with regurgitation syndrome, the animals regurgitate 3-5 days after eating so BE CAREFUL.

This schedule is by no means a die-hard plan.  If you notice your boa is lacking fat reserves (the tail thins out pretty dramatically after the cloaca, even after passing urates or a bowel movement) then deduct 2 days from your cycle and feed more often.  The reverse is also true, if you notice your boa seems fat, space your feedings out a bit more and see if this remedies the situation.  There is NO animal on the planet that is healthy when fat, please remember that!  (Excluding hibernation, of course).  Obesity can lead to a wide array of health problems and even death.  The ultimate goal of keeping boas in captivity is to provide a healthy life for them, not to “get’em as big as ya can!”

If your boa regurgitates, DO NOT FEED IT AGAIN FOR AT LEAST 2 WEEKS.  I can’t stress this enough.  You must give its stomachs time to settle down and repair itself.  Think about it, when you throw up, do you really want to eat right away?  Neither do they.  Instinctually, they may eat, but that’s all it is, an instinct.  And feeding them will do much more harm than good.  Usually, they throw up the new meal as well and begin to dehydrate.  If they regurgitate often enough, it begins to develop into a syndrome and it can be fatal.

After the initial two week waiting period to feed the next meal, feed a smaller than normal prey item.  For example, if you feed large rats, feed a medium or even better, a small rat instead.  Then wait another two weeks and feed another small rat.  Another two weeks and another small rat and if all goes well, you can step up to a medium rat two weeks later and then another medium rat 12 days later and then a large rat 12 days later and then you can resume a normal feeding schedule while keeping a careful eye on your boa.

            These feeding schedules have been constructed with the optimal health and longevity of your boa in mind.  Slight deviation from this may be acceptable depending on the individual snake.

Live, Pre-Killed (P/K), or Frozen-Thawed (F/T)?

            This is another issue that is hotly debated at times.  Many people feed live because they get a kick out of watching the prey item die.  While I must admit that it is impressive to watch a snake hunt down, hone in, strike, constrict, and swallow their prey items, it should by no means be considered entertainment.

A mouse did that by the way.  Obviously, this owner was VERY negligent and left the mouse with the snake overnight, but it does illustrate that mice can and will do damage.  Imagine if it was left with a rat…  

These photos were posted a while ago and I do not remember whose they were.  I do remember the person saying to use them if we wanted to so I kept them for instances like this.  If these are your photos, please contact me and let me know so I can give you credit!

            P/K prey has the advantage of not being able to fight back when attacked by your snake.  It also has the advantage of closely simulating a live animal to your snake’s senses in that it has exactly the same body temperature as a live animal would (because you just killed it).  That’s about all the advantages there are.  If you are only concerned about the chance of a prey item hurting your boa, go with P/K prey.  If however, you are concerned with other aspects of your snake’s safety and other facets of savings, please continue reading the F/T section.

            So, you have decided to feed F/T prey items to your boa?  GREAT!  Let me list off some of the benefits:

• A dead prey item can’t attack and hurt or kill your snake
• Purchasing F/T prey over the net is much cheaper than buying each of your prey items from a pet store (often saving as much as 80% or more)
• All living parasites that the prey item may have had when it was alive are now dead because of the freezing process.  However, the unborn eggs of the parasites may still have the potential to hatch after the animal is thawed out and warmed up.  Unfortunately, there is no way to keep this from happening which is why you should purchase from a reputable rodent vendor who in all likelihood, does not have these sorts of problems plaguing their rodent colonies.
• Keeping 50 rodents in your freezer takes up much less space than keeping and feeding 50 rodents in your house!  Smells better too!

 I could keep going, but I think you get the idea.

The process to thawing out the prey varies from person to person.  Some people take out what they need for a nights feeding in the morning and let it thaw to room temperature all day.  Others, like myself, take out what they need when they need it, put it in a large Tupperware container and run cold water on them until the container is filled up.  Come back when the prey is thawed out (if you pick it up and shake it, it moves freely) and run some fairly warm water in place of the cold water.  Let the prey items sit in the water for about 10 minutes or so (much less for very small prey) and then run some fairly hot water over them and let them sit in it for about 1 minute.  This process is VERY important.  DO NOT go straight to hot water on a frozen prey item to save time.  This severely weakens the lining of the stomach as well as the skin and when and if your snake strikes and coils around the prey, the stomach and intestines will come spilling out all over the place.  Not only will you have to clean up the cage, but you may also have to wipe these entrails off of your boa which is a daunting prospect considering the fact that you are going to smell like mouse or rat and your snake really really likes to strike at warm things that smell like mouse or rat.  Next step would be to remove the prey items from the hot water and dry them off.  I place mine on a doubled up paper towel and then blot them from the top with another paper towel.  I leave mine just a tad damp because this will help to ensure that my boas are well hydrated.  The down side to this is that by placing these prey items in the water, you have washed off some of the natural scent that your boa picks up.  To avoid that, you can place the rodents in a zip-lock type of bag and then put them in the water to be thawed out and warmed up (this was after all, the original purpose of Zip-lock bags, to heat up or cook food - not storage believe it or not).  I would recommend doing this if you are trying to convert from live or P/K.  Once the boas have established themselves on the F/T prey items warmed in that manner, you can skip the zip-lock bags if you want to.  Next, take the prey item and place it in the cage to be eaten by your boa.  Some boas may need the prey item dangled in front of them before they will strike, constrict, and swallow it.  Do not use your hand for this.  Use tongs or commercially available hemostats.

Feed in the cage or in a separate feeding box?

I read all the websites that advocated feeding boas in a separate feeding box to avoid the boa making an association with the cage opening and food, and thus mistaking your hand for food when you go to pick up the boa.  So, initially I began feeding all my boas in separate containers.  Then, I figured out by reading and some testing that the theory is totally unfounded and untrue.  It’s also a BAD idea!  Here’s why.  When are you likely to be struck by an otherwise docile boa?  When it expects to get fed (that’s why the previous theory makes sense).   What is it expecting when it smells prey (being in the feeding container) and senses warmth (your hand)?  It is expecting food, so it strikes at your hand when you are trying to remove it from the feeding container.  Also, many boas will regurgitate their food if they are disturbed after eating (i.e., moved from one enclosure to another).  Especially susceptible animals would be BCC’s, BCA’s, and BCO's.  The others can have these problems too, although it’s slightly less likely.  Some will say that the boas will smell food in their regular enclosure even after feeding and still strike at you, thus providing another argument for feeding in a separate container.  I say, no, the strong odor has usually dissipated by the time it’s okay to handle your boa again (3+ days after feeding, minimum, more for BCC’s, BCA’s, and BCO's).

I should mention one good reason (and honestly, the ONLY good reason I can think of) to feed your boa in a separate container and that is if you are housing two boas together.  You should never feed a boa with another boa in range of striking.  Boas have died because of this practice.  Essentially what can happen is one boa will have the prey in their mouth and the other boa will strike it and either coil around it and the boa thereby killing the boa or it will start trying to swallow the rat and one of the two boas will end up trying to swallow the other one.  If one manages to swallow the other one, it could very well die or at a minimum, regurgitate its meal because it’s too large.  So, like I said, feed boas that are housed together separately or feed on opposite days and remove the one that’s not feeding until the other finishes and has some time to settle down.  Be careful putting your boa back into the enclosure after feeding it.  One thing you can do is to leave it in it’s feeding tub overnight and replace it into the cage in the morning when the strong feeding response has subsided a bit.  Or, you can do what I do and that is to put the feeding container up to the opening of the cage and let the boa enter the cage on its own (sometimes a little direction is needed).

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