my boas

in order of purchase....
first my 3ft pastel from phils salmon x pastel litter...
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now my 6ft normal... bough from local dealer jayboa....
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now a snake from my wishlist that i purchased...
(pics of the 2 1/2ft kahl strain albino are all after a shed and he couldnt look any better)
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lol i took alot of the pastel & albino together before housing them together...
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Nice group of boas you've got there; good luck with them.

thanx im hoping to get the female ready to breed this season so im kinda gonna over feed the male but not powerfeed just that bit that will make him big but not unhealthy but unless hes 4ft it wont happen

Over feeding your male will not result in breeding activity. It will result in the exact opposite of that. Overfed snakes are unresponsive to breeding. The reason being is that the snake is not given enough time to effectively digest and utilise that meal. Boas require a food cycle as much as they require temperature cycling. A period of food followed by several months of no food in order to trn the fat into muscle is essential. All you will end up with is a fat snake that could be reproductively compromised. Give it an extra year and you won't regret it. Also, your female is underwieght in that picture. She will require another year at least to get up to a size that wil not compromise her health. Trying to rush boa breeding results in upset, slugs, and sometimes even death to the snake.
Nice boas, don't ruin them
Warren

yea i no everthing u stated thats y unless i feel the boas are up to health and the female is part dwarf (or she may be he but this is diffintly going to be confirmed b4 breeding) so she may get only get 6 1/2ft and im fatting her up at the min the other owner said as shes bout 3,shes on a jumbo every 2 weeks and the only reason im slightly over feeding the kahl is to get some waight on him as i was told hes a bit of a fussy eater and compered to my pastel he could do with a wee bit of waight put on if you look at the first 2 pics of him you can see the skins a bit loose or hes not fillin it out and hes a yr old he should be bout 3 feet buts hes like just over 2ft and my pastel is 8mnts and shes bigger
yes i no i made it sound like was gonna breed them but i just love them to much to have the possibility of death included in the breeding i just wouldnt do it but im only gettin them ready for breeding when i wrote the las post i mixed up the dates between him and my pine (they are both january but pine is 08 and kahl is 09)thats y i wrote "but unless hes 4ft it wont happen"
so i appriate your concern but im not being rude but i no what im doin

Don't worry, I don't think you are being rude, and neither am I in saying I also know what I am doing, having been breeding boas for over 10 years and maintaining a collection of over 80 boas.
Albino boas are reknowned for growing slowly. My oldest adult male Gillam strain albino is 7 years old and 4ft. He startd breeding when he was 5. If you speak to any respected boa breeder they will tell you that at 18 months old, you will be pushing your male and that it is not advised. The youngest I start putting my males into a breeding program is 3 years, and that is the youngest.

Understand that when a boa is power fed it does not benefit in terms of weight gain as that gain is in fat, not muscle. A boa needs ot be feed consistantly during the feeding cycle phase. Then during the non feeding cycle phase he will convert this fat into muscle. Fat if not given time to covert does two very nasty things. The first is fatty liver, and this can be fatal. The second is reduction in sperm number and quality. If your snake is a fussy feeder with you, give it time. Let it settle as you have not had it that long, correct. (oh, and you really should have quarantined it for around 6 months prior to introducing it to your collection). There his one large breeder in the US that lost the majoriy of their collection due to IBD a number of years ago. You can never be too sure.

Good luck, and take it slowly. Its worth the extra years wait if it needs it. You will get a larger healthier litter, and a healthier female at the end of it all.

Warren

i no what happen in result of power feeding as but he needs some more waight as some of his ribs show this is why im over feeding and thanxs for the info that albino do tend to grow slower i didnt no that and i read on a forum tha that males could be sucsessfull from 1 1/2yrs old so im not doing any breed this yr im focusing on setups now gettin the garage ready for 2011 breeding then ill have setups all ready for breeding im just really excited to breed them but its gunna be best to skin this yr as i don have proper setups for a litter of boas so for..... so until my setups are ready breeding not happening

hudsy13 wrote:im just really excited to breed them but its gunna be best to skin this yr as i don have proper setups for a litter of boas so for..... so until my setups are ready breeding not happening

skip this year

i do not believe in power feeding im strictly against it but if one of my snakes needs the extra bit then i will supply the extra bit but over a few weeks of feeding then back to the original feeding schedule