Do not hold the prey item in your hand - this is a very good way to get yourself bitten by accident. You can check the temperature with your temp gun.īoas use their sense of smell to locate and identify prey, but simulating “livelike movement” is helpful to encourage the snake to strike. The body temperature of a mouse is similar to a human’s, so you’ll want the prey to be about 98-100☏ before offering it to your snake.

Then about 15-30 minutes before feeding, stick the prey in a BPA-free plastic bag like a Ziploc and submerge in warm, almost hot, water. This allows it to thaw slowly in a cold environment, which discourages bacterial growth, same as how you’re supposed to thaw frozen meat. If you are using frozen-thawed prey, thaw it out in the fridge the night before feeding day. Studies are showing that slow feeding is one of the keys to boa longevity, and boa keeper experiences confirm this. In fact, it’s healthier for them not to eat often. As mentioned earlier in the article, snakes are not built like humans and other mammals - because they have slow metabolisms and they’re cold-blooded, they don’t need to eat often. Looking at this schedule, you may also be worried that feeding the snake so infrequently would be starving it. The key to making sure you’re feeding your boa correctly is to keep tabs on its physical condition and adjust meal size/frequency accordingly. Some might need slightly larger prey, others slightly smaller, some more often, some less often. This is also because, like humans, different boas need slightly different feeding schedules. Why? Varying a snake’s feeding schedule helps encourage a healthier feeding response, and helps prevent the snake from getting fat due to overeating. You have probably noticed that there is a lot of room for variation within the schedule. So until we can put together a feeding guide based on snake weight, use the abovementioned metrics to determine the best feeder size for your boa. NOTE - Exact meal size is not mentioned in this outline because different boa species grow at different rates, and recommending one size of prey item at a certain point may work for one species but not another. If s/he refuses to eat, check your husbandry to make sure your temperatures, humidity, and other conditions are correct, and then try again the following week.Īs a general rule, a meal should weigh no more than 10% of your boa’s weight, or no larger than the widest part of the snake’s body. How often do boas need to eat, and how big should the prey be?ĭo not attempt to feed your new boa until at least 1 week after you have brought it home. In other words, if you simply cannot accept the idea of having a pet that eats animals for food, a pet snake is not for you. So no matter how many fruits or vegetables you manage to sneak into a snake’s diet, they get zero nutritional benefit. And before you get out the salad bowl, snakes’ digestive systems are literally incapable of processing plant matter. Whole prey items are (when raised correctly) a complete diet. – everything that kept the prey item alive also keeps the snake alive. Whole prey items are more than just protein they are also composed of vital vitamins, minerals, fats, amino acids, etc. Tofu, while it may tout some great health benefits for humans as omnivores, simply doesn’t provide the nutrition that snakes need. Otherwise, keep in mind that there is no such thing as a vegan or vegetarian snake. This addition works great for omnivores, but for carnivores like boa constrictors, it’s just a waste of ingredients. If you decide to go this route, make sure to buy the links that don’t have fruits/vegetables in them. If the idea of feeding whole animals to your snake makes you squeamish, a company called Reptilinks offers an alternative that contains all the nutrition your snake needs without the rodent cuteness. If you must offer live prey, keep a close eye on the interaction and remove the feeder if it isn’t eaten within 15-30 minutes. Rodents are notorious for injuring captive snakes, sometimes fatally - but only in cases where the feeder was left in the snake’s cage instead of being supervised.

Not at all! In fact, most boa keepers feed their snakes frozen-thawed items only, and the snakes do very well on this diet.

Rainforest boa constrictor