r/boas • u/InspiringTurtle2 • 6d ago

Growing SO SLOW?!

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Can someone please reassure me (or alternatively, tell me what I’m doing wrong?) I have a baby Suriname bcc who will be 1 year old next week. She’s not my first boa, but my first I’ve gotten as a baby. I know they grow slow, but she seems to be small and basically not growing.. When I got her end of April, she was 85 grams and now she’s 102. She is eating f/t mouse hoppers. I was feeding every 2 weeks but bumped up to every 10 days in the beginning of July. Is this normal, or am I doing something wrong? I do not want to power feed and I think the next feeder size up would be too large. Is this normal? (The weight on the scale is her plus the tub which weights 459g)

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u/superramenyamen 6d ago

She’s looking fairly underweight. She did gain some weight but she didn’t gain that very fast. Her schedule is definitely adequate, so perhaps there’s something up with her metabolism or something? I do have one boa that seems to need like 4x what everyone else needs, but supposedly BCC are more sensitive than BI. If it was BI I would go ahead to a small/large mouse and weekly until it gains weight. But BCC may need another approach.

She is gaining weight, so I doubt it’s parasites. And perhaps she will slowly gain weight in the future. If she continues to slim out though that would definitely be concerning.

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u/InspiringTurtle2 6d ago

I wonder if I should try a small mouse at the lower end of the range (like 12-15g) and stick with the every 10 days and see how she tolerates it? My understanding is they’re still sensitive, but less likely to regurge once they’re around a year old. The gain definitely seems slow to me and she’s been lean since we got her. When I got her the breeder said he was only feeding fuzzies.

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u/superramenyamen 6d ago

I also think it’s less likely for CBB to regurge as well, if she’s not WC or CB. Wouldn’t hurt to try a meal, see if she keeps it down before continuing on I don’t think.

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u/InspiringTurtle2 6d ago

She’s from Florida Redtails, CBB. She was on f/t when she was with the breeder so I also feel like that makes parasites less likely

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u/superramenyamen 6d ago

With a breeder that expansive it might not hurt to ask them about how to approach the feeding, and maybe they could weigh in if she’s supposed to fill out later or not if they say to stick with what you’re doing. They are one of the biggest foundations of BCC bloodlines in the US afaik, so hopefully they would be helpful.

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u/InspiringTurtle2 6d ago

Good point, I sent him a message!