Feed Your Boa Constrictor Skinny??

In this video Bob talks about how to use metabolism to possibly trim weight from your snake while feeding the same overall amount of food. Bob also mentions how metabolism can be used in growth as well. Bob also urges folks that are super focussed on understanding growth invest in a scale, weigh food items, and relate that back to the body weight of your animal.

[@agentlemansoperation3821]

Thanks, Bob! 100% agree with this. You've really helped me understand how much you can control the physiology of a snake to your own purposes. It's a super useful way for me to think about my animals. I'd like to share ways I've observed what you're talking about here making a difference in terms of avoiding and managing regurgitations in true red tails. The biggest thing to avoiding regurges is not allowing the meal to sit in the snake, either due to temps or metabolic idleness. To that end, feeding smaller and more frequent keeps the metabolism up and generally lowers regurge risks. If you are going to offer a large meal, it should be in the middle of one of these high frequency/small prey periods because the already roaring metabolism will gobble up the large item. It's higher risk to break a fast with a large feed, which is what "infrequent" feeders are always doing. I've seen the "feed them skinny" issue on BCC that have regurgitated. I've ran into the issue while trying to feed tiny and often in hopes of simultaneously getting calories on board and also not trigger another regurge. This ramped up their metabolism more and caused more regurges, and was counter-productive both to adding weigh and giving their GI a break. Instead, I would recommend accepting that a regurge is a 6+ month setback and aim to put a BCC into complete metabolic idleness for a period, feeding small and infrequent even after the initial feeding break after the regurge. Thanks again for everything, Bob. I don't know why this information you're sharing is so rare because it is so logical. I think it's just an issue of how your brain wraps around these animals and the fact you look at things as "herd management." Take care. Don't get too hot down there.

[@ancientrepro]

Thanks so much for commenting and good to hear from you. Great input on BCC, I honestly have not kept up with current BCC thinking, but always scratched my head on feeding so little at times methods from way back. Do you see folks struggling with BCO similar to the BCC input you gave? Thanks for helping me understand how to communicate and relate to the keeper public. I love the second sentence comment, I never frame anything in that way, but that is really what its about in my head. Thanks again.

[@letstalkherps4937]

Interesting. My concern is the increased metabolic rates will remove the valuable periods of rest, considering the digestive cycle is about two weeks long. But I do think you’re on to something with the snake working harder and growing and losing fat as a result of more meals. Pros and cons.

[@ancientrepro]

Thanks for commenting. I agree and I don't go full bore all the time whatsoever and I take breaks. I'll be honest, I've never been concerned with "rest" as I think it happens naturally with seasonal fluctuation and the rhythmic rise and fall of temps and when not feeding too hard. That said, great point and something to consider. At my place, I am typically chasing body weight and not concerned about them being too heavy so I've use the thinking for growth usually. I think it's something to ponder as I think the captive conditions are just a new game so to speak and comparisons to the "wild life" are hard to align for me. I think we are still to discover techniques that really are "odd" but that work in captivity. Thanks so much for commenting! And please share at any time.

[@williamarchard2037]

i think fasting once in a while may be a good thing and in fact over eating now and then might not be bad either..

[@ancientrepro]

Agreed. The technique likely won't be applied 52 weeks a year unless you had a crazy obese snake, but the thinking applies all the time. You have to be the judge of course. This is a tool, and really a fundamental understanding, that can be used ALL the time depending on what you are doing in the total food plan, breeding, growth or not etc. Reptiles are completely flexible based on temperature, make it work for you. I'm really trying to communicate the concept and how it can be applied as it has a number of applications. I think "rest" comes naturally along the way, but I have a different view of "rest" in reptiles than I think many newer folks. Of course I don't know anything for certain, but I've raised hundreds of individuals from one species X 10 species, trying different methods. I obviously need more explanation on my end so thanks for commenting! I'll share more examples. @@williamarchard2037