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Any Boa owners out there?
13 years ago
General
Ripped from the headlines, it's another pointless journal entry!
I recently came into possession of a beautiful adult male Red-tail boa by answering an add placed on Craigslist. It's original owner was looking to sale this snake but ended up giving it and it's huge tank to me and my husband for free -- all we had to do was come by and pick it up!
He's absolutely gorgeous and in great health. We took him over to our local reptile shop to have the owner look him over. No abnormalities, mites, old scaring or anything like that. Only thing the guy said was that the boa could put on maybe a smiiiidge more weight, but it wasn't anything life threatening.
The original owner said he used to feed him live pray (rats) since he was a very picky eater. I don't like doing this with my other two snakes as rats (unlike mice) are pretty vicious when they know their life is in danger and the last thing I want to do is risk a bite or injury to him. I'll be trying to see if he will eat fresh killed or stunned rats and later on, frozen rats that have been thawed to a proper temperature.
I've always fed my snakes either rats or mice, but I understand you can feed them other prey depending on their size. One thing I've been curious about is baby chicks. My female Colombian boa isn't exactly large enough to justify feeding her baby chicks, but the Red-Tail boa is large enough to where if I were to feed him one, I doubt he'd have much problems with it.
Though I wanted to know if anyone here who own boas have ever tried this. I've been doing reading about it and most of the websites I've read suggest that baby chicks should be offered only as an occasional treat and not a main food source. Has anyone here fed their snakes baby chicks? What were your experiences with it? Do you still feed them chicks or stopped?
He's absolutely gorgeous and in great health. We took him over to our local reptile shop to have the owner look him over. No abnormalities, mites, old scaring or anything like that. Only thing the guy said was that the boa could put on maybe a smiiiidge more weight, but it wasn't anything life threatening.
The original owner said he used to feed him live pray (rats) since he was a very picky eater. I don't like doing this with my other two snakes as rats (unlike mice) are pretty vicious when they know their life is in danger and the last thing I want to do is risk a bite or injury to him. I'll be trying to see if he will eat fresh killed or stunned rats and later on, frozen rats that have been thawed to a proper temperature.
I've always fed my snakes either rats or mice, but I understand you can feed them other prey depending on their size. One thing I've been curious about is baby chicks. My female Colombian boa isn't exactly large enough to justify feeding her baby chicks, but the Red-Tail boa is large enough to where if I were to feed him one, I doubt he'd have much problems with it.
Though I wanted to know if anyone here who own boas have ever tried this. I've been doing reading about it and most of the websites I've read suggest that baby chicks should be offered only as an occasional treat and not a main food source. Has anyone here fed their snakes baby chicks? What were your experiences with it? Do you still feed them chicks or stopped?
I asked around on a few herp/snake forums and the only answer I got about feeding baby chicks was they end up giving the boa smellier and looser stools. I'm guessing I'll be sticking to frozen or fresh killed rats.
Today was feeding day for the new boa and we gave him two small rats instead of a bigger one since the place we went to was out of medium or larger rats. Didn't seem to have a problem with eating them live, but next time we'll need to try if he'll eat fresh killed and eventually thawed frozen.