I mean once they get switched over to those 12lb XXL rabbits, even breeders who keep those pudgy fat retics don’t offer every week.
Not to mention, a 12lb rabbit would still only be a fraction of the size of the largest girth portion of a giant retic.
I know many keepers who don’t feed their retics rabbits. Those who do usually have obese slugs and are doing it more for the egg production for monetary value, which I completely disagree with.
And most retics should not become giants, that’s our fault as keepers for letting them get that way. They are rarely seen to reach those sizes in the wild. And if we want them or get them to that size, we should have left them in the wild because we’re doing something seriously wrong. I think mother nature knows more than we do.
Plus that would result in heather babies and usually when they would be smaller clutches, but fertility would be probably at a higher if not a premium
They no longer achieve those sizes often in most geographical locations because we kill them. They’re over-harvested, the largest retics are the first to be trapped.
But then explain, why when male and female boas/pythons get to the adults or seniors their metabolism was drastically down? Because a 7 foot female boa can have the girth to eat a small or medium rabbit, but you just don’t give them that if you want to feed every week. Usually what is done is the females are placed on large and at the most extra large rats once a week with taking biweekly fast. And for the males they usually go to once a month on their girth size and if anything bigger it’s up to six weeks
I don’t understand your question.
I’m saying that a large retic fed an object the size of its girth weekly will get big and fat, and a large boa fed the size of it’s girth weekly will die very early.
To make my point clear,
I’m saying that in my opinion, although I prefer lean, conservatively fed Burms/Retics, I do not believe that keepers who feed their Burms/Retics generously, allowing them to reach their full size are “wrong” or that they “should” feed their large constrictors like I do.
I believe that both ends of the spectrum are correct and there is essentially “more than one way to skin a cat” when it comes to feeding Burms or Retics.
That’s what we’re all saying, But what I’m asking is do you believe that when the next size potential could cause harm to them in the later years of their life, is it all right? Because personally I would prefer to have a 6 foot male boa versus a 7 1/2 foot male boa who is obese. Sadly, many of the claimed big-name breeders that we in boas/retics/burms are doing it for overall production rates. Now we get into the fact that breeder snakes are not pet snakes.
What I mean is, yes there is getting a female a little bit extra weight so she can handle developing ovulating and laying her eggs without going into a state of Malnutrition. But I think if you’re not gonna breathe there’s no reason, and many keepers agree with that, A dog that you can see a little bit of the ribs on is much more healthier than the dog that has five sets of ringed off fat. In the case of colubrids they are Usually more actively searching and moving around hunting their prey, where they will be using that energy from the extra food.
Much agreed
Any hobby that involves live animals, it’s going to have more than one way of keeping them.
I think what I’m saying is when there is a whole spectrum of feeding I think that the health concerns of feeding too much negate the want of a max size potential or higher end in size potential animal. I mean some of the worst reptile/snake advice I ever received, was the fact that a boy should be fed to two sometimes three times its girth every once in a while, like every month, along with this once a week feeding. This person said it was kind of like a treat for them. I could not believe the words that came out of their mouth. I think there is feeding conservatively, constructively, and on a regular basis because we can provide it where they usually can’t get it. But then again I think we’re also add a disposition because we as mammals eat a lot in terms of food, and we like being treated So we go to treat them but we don’t realize that the once a week feeling is already a treat.
Boas are a completely different, they’re not built with the ability to take large meals regularly and distribute the growth accordingly, they’ll die, quickly. “The biggest Boas are the oldest Boas”
I know, it’s so sad to go on places like craigslist when you see so many big fat obviously neglected in other parts of their care though boas. I mean about every 6 to 8 weeks I actually do a two week fast for my two-year-old boa. As my first pet snake I initially got him at eight months old, from a pet store that left him with a very severe respiratory infection. As my first pet snake/reptile I was very confused. As a small mom and pop shop they said that they had a relationship with each snake yet my purchased animal He weighed about 100 when I first got him. He was eating a pinky every 7 to 10 days then. I’ll personally say that’s under feeding, I mean he was literally placed in the same cage with boas that were two months old, when I first went to see him. He has come so far.
I commend you for rescuing him, I know I would have opted for a healthy snake elsewhere.
The world needs more people like you.
I think one of the major problems with the hobby is how breeders and pet stores will often sell pets to new owners, or uneducated distributors without screening them first. In my opinion certain questions need to be asked prior to making a sale.
Many would assume that caring for these animals is common sense, comparable to a cat or dog, they walk into petsmart, they buy a “ball python kit” and a ball python, plug in their heat lamp and they’re good to go!
They’re not necessarily bad people who don’t love their animals, they just don’t know any better. Most would be eager to correct their husbandry if they knew they were doing something wrong.
Very true, thank goodness I have been preparing for owning one for so long, or thinking I would have failed him
I believe that overfeeding is a silent plague in this hobby. Our animals are fed far too much and far too frequently. I have taken a loooooooooooooooooong time to unlearn the go-to belief of feeding schedules (and I still struggle with it some).
I have to, respectfully, disagree with you Deb. Over half of my balls (male and female) would readily over eat if given the opportunity. Likewise, I have seen many adult animals pictured from large breeders that would fall into the category of “overweight”. Perhaps not “obese” but definitely beyond “fit and trim”
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“Full size” is an arbitrary value. Yes, a retic or Burm can reach >3m, but they sure as Hades are not doing that in two or three years in the wild. I would challenge that they are not even getting that large in the wild until they are pushing 8-10 years or older. So pumping a CB animal full of food to hit this arbitrary size mark ASAFP is nothing close to the slow and steady process that the wild animals go through and it absolutely constitutes overfeeding.
I would also challenge you to find a 20 year old CB animal that has been fed in that manner that is alive and healthy.
I would also advocate going out and looking for the pic that went up a few months back of a retic that passed and was dissected and was, according to the owner that posted it, fed “reasonably small” meals. The animal was FULL of fat.
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Neither are retics or Burms. Study the natural history of these animals. They most typically eat one to two particularly large meals a year and fast the remainder of the time
You have been talking sense in your posts as well, do not undersell yourself 
Thank you sir, that sincerely means more than you know coming from an individual with vast knowledge in this hobby such as yourself. Really thank you.
And here I thought it was just going to be me and @mnroyals against this guy. Thank you for chiming in @t_h_wyman. I knew I wasn’t wrong about them being adapted for fasting, but someone with more experience saying it carries more weight. Hopefully people will listen to you.
