• Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

    =====================
    Posted 08/15/2025
    =====================


    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

    =====================
    Addendum: 01/10/2026
    =====================


    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

This has been eating away at me...

Kilzac

Kilzac

New member
Joined
Apr 26, 2012
Messages
136
Reaction score
4
Points
0
Location
Butler, Pa USA
Okay, so let me first start off by saying I am no boa expert, but I've been keeping them for years and have a vast amount of knowledge about them. I also have never bred any of my boas as I have not had the room. But I have bred other snakes, ball pythons (go figure). So I do have knowledge on breeding as well.

So here is the thing. I have had quite a few boas, males and females, that have been raised by me from hatchlings through adulthood. And I know boas are nothing like pythons as in the feeding habits. I NEVER feed a meal to a boa bigger than its widest point of girth. This has successfully helped me in keeping healthy and beautiful looking boas through my entire time of having them. I would end up with beautiful adults with damn near perfect body structure and weight that an adult should be. By body structure, I refer to the "rectangular" shape that boas naturally have.

So my question is, why are a lot of the boas that I am seeing for sale so fat? You can clearly see big fat build-ups in the tail and an overall "round" looking boa, that resembles the looks of a burmese pythons. Is there something that I'm missing that this is what makes for a healthier boa? Or are people just power feeding these snakes to max out weight as fast as possible for breeding?

I am not here to start a war or call anyone out, I am simply just curious.

Thanks in advance.
 
Pretty much just answered your own question, obesity is one the biggest (and most overlooked) problems in captivity for large constrictors. Keepers who overfeed their animals generally are just ignorant about the health risks that obesity brings to the table. People often overfeed and call it power feeding, even though in most cases a healthy animal really doesnt need to be powerfed to be bred and in some cases has proven to be detrimental. I will say in one report by keeper vincent russo where he claims that overfeeding boas actually deprives them of being able to absorb all the nutrition from each feeding. Idk if thats been proven or not but i could see how that might be possible.
 
Thanks for the reply.

I just wasn't sure if that was the true reason all these boas are so obese. People (not most), who keep large boids apparently don't realize the metabolism difference in a python vs a boa. Where as you can sure as hell feed a python something double its body size and that is perfectly okay, it is just not the same for boas.

Not saying this is a fact, but just my opinion. I believe that feeding a boa appropriately sized meals and on a regular feeding schedule really increase the overall look of a boa, not only keeping the "rectangular shape" but I also believe it helps boas retain their bright and beautiful coloring that they have as juveniles. Again this is my personal opinion. And it seems that my boas don't have these "fat build-ups" in their tails as well.

None of my adult female boas would have had any problems breeding, and they were not powerfed and they had great weight and structure.
 
It is my believe that even feeding appropriately size prey on regular schedule can cause obesity also. I have two Surinam's that I feed based on they're behavior and they seem to have great muscle tone and show no signs of health issues. What a lot of keepers forget about boa's is they have evolved to fast for long periods of time before they're next meal. In captivity we keepers put them on a feeding schedule, well after while boa's I would say learn when the next meal is coming and have tendency not to move and hunt which even in a 5ft to 8ft cage is good for exercise making a healthier boa.
 
Gordon, I also completely agree with you. I did not mention however than when my boas reach sub-adult to adult hood, they are feed more sparsely apart than either hatchlings or juveniles. While I feed my hatchlings and juveniles every week, I feed my sub-adults and adults every two-three weeks. As I'm not rushing them to become breeding size.

I would rather have a fine specimen of an adult boa then an overweight ready to breed much sooner boa.

I also never gave much thought to the cage sizing for exercise. But I do believe that could help. Most of my boas aren't too too active. I mean they will come out of their hide every now and then, and when they are shedding. But I can't compare their activity to that of a colubrid.
 
I also don't have a gigantic un-manageable collection. I have enough time out of my day to get them all out atleast once and let them cruise around my shoulders and on the floor.

I don't think I would ever keep a boa in an 8 ft. cage unless it was a massive Suri female.
 
Well, speaking as a relative noob to the hobby...

Most people don't start with a boa as their first snake. We started with a CA king snake, reluctantly added a garter (found injured in our garage), was given an MBK next (please take this my wife hates it...), picked up a milk snake, added a few ball pythons, etc.

So, our intro to snakes had us thinking that weekly feedings and a round body was normal/healthy based on the type of snakes we'd owned up to that point. Sure, the ball pythons would go off feed periodically for no apparent reason, or if a snake was shedding it might refuse a meal, but otherwise the thought was that if the snake was willing to eat, then it wasn't sick and its setup was fine.

Then we discovered boas, fell in love, and got a few ranging in age from a few months old up to a three year old five foot female. I found that they would eat - anything. Live, f/t, rat, mouse, rabbit, ASF, my hand (ouch that one hurt), in blue or not, even if husbandry was a tad off, it didn't matter, they would eat. They also beg, and IMO they're danged cute about it. Mine start anywhere from 2-7 days before feeding day, depending on whether they're on a weekly or monthly schedule. I call them my little garbage disposals.

So, combine a keeper used to the body style of a corn/milk/rat/king snake with the "oh please feed me I'm staaaaaaaaaaaaaarving" voracious boa appetite, and you see obese boas. Fortunately through reading here and other boards I learned that they should not be round, so none of them were allowed to become fat, but I can see how people think that they should look round based on their experience with other snakes.
 
I can understand most people don't start with boas as their first snakes. As I did not either. I was young and went from Corns>Kings>Ball Pythons>Retics>Boas.

But before I get into any new kind of snake all I will do is research, research, research.

I feel as if keepers should have came across the information at some point that Boas feeding habits are quite different than colubrids and pythons. Especially if they are wanting to breed and "power feed".

Like I said in my first post, I am no "expert" but I do have plenty of knowledge on boas. And if this post opens up other keepers eyes that do "power feed" or offer large meals, then I consider this thread a success. Not for my sake, but for the boas.
 
Power feeding will never truly stop to many breeders looking for a quick buck and trying to grow them to breeding size. Now I will say that offering a larger meal then normal is not always power feeding if that is the only thing they have for like 6 to 7 weeks on a side note I fed my boa's last weekend and tonight they are both roaming there cage hunting for they're next meal. I will not feed again another 2 weeks or so.
 
Again I agree with you Gordon. One larger meal once in a blue moon is not considered power feeding. But power feeding is feeding large meals every week consecutively.

I think some people have a hard time realizing that captive bred boas are very well off. They don't have to go weeks without a regular sized meal like wild specimens. So holding meals for up to 3 weeks is not punishing or harming your boa. Especially adult boas. However I personally would not hold feedings for 3 weeks for hatchlings and juveniles and I'm not saying you would Gordon, I imagine your speaking for your adult boas.

It's just sad cruising through classifieds on here and kingsnake and seeing obese boas.

I personally don't find making a quick buck worth the risk of my boas health.
 
Zach, you are right I would not with hold prey from hatchling or juveniles when they are that young I always fed every 7 to 10 days yes it may seem that is to little of food for a growing boa but in reality all it truly does is slows down the growth rate to a more natural rate in my eyes
 
Back
Top