How Long Can Rosy Boas Go Without Eating?

The Rosy Boa is a healthy and long-living snake that will get to live a long life if you feed it properly.

But, when it comes to feeding your Rosy Boa, there is usually a fine line between overfeeding and starving the snake. It can become pretty difficult for some people to tell if they need to feed their Rosy Boa already.

In that regard, how long can Rosy Boas go without eating?

A Rosy Boa can go without eating for about 14 days. However, that is when it will already begin to starve. It is best to make sure that you feed it once every 10 to 14 days depending on how large the meal is. Meanwhile, juvenile Rosy Boas need to eat more frequently and should be fed twice a week.

Rosy Boas may be resilient snakes but that doesnā€™t mean that you shouldnā€™t feed them when they need to eat. This will not only end up causing health problems but may also make the snake grumpier.

As such, you should know how long before you should once again feed your Rosy Boa so that you will have a happy and healthy snake.

Everything you need to know about caring for Rosy Boas in captivity:
Read our Rosy Boa Care Sheet (Complete 101 Guide)

How long can Rosy Boas go without eating?

rosy boa eating a frozen mouse

One of the most important parts of keeping a snake as a pet is to make sure that you feed it right. After all, snakes donā€™t eat like humans in the sense that they need to eat several meals in a single day.

In fact, it will take a snake several days for it to fully digest its last meal so that it can actually eat once again. This is due in large part to how a snake has a particularly slower metabolism compared to mammals.

In that regard, one of the most popular pet snakes to keep is the Rosy Boa because of how comparatively safe and easy it is to take care of a Rosy Boa.

On top of how easy it is to take care of, the Rosy Boa can also live a good and long life. However, that will only happen if and only if you actually take good care of your Rosy Boa. This includes knowing when or how to feed it.

The problem with Rosy Boas and some other snakes is that it would be difficult for you to tell whether or not they need to it already. There is usually a fine line between overfeeding a snake and starving it.

Feeding your Rosy Boa quite frequently can lead to overfeeding, obesity, and health concerns. Meanwhile, you may also end up underfeeding your Rosy Boa and cause it to starve.

All that said, how long can Rosy Boas actually go without eating? Knowing such will allow you to also know when to once again feed your Rosy Boa.

So, what you need to know is that, on average, the Rosy Boa can go on without eating for about 14 days. That means that it will take 14 days for it to actually starve.

You donā€™t want to starve your Rosy Boa because doing so will kill it or, at the very least, cause health problems or make it grumpy. And Rosy Boas are supposed to be hardy, resilient, and very gentle snakes when fed properly.

How often should I feed my Rosy Boa?

Now that you know how long a Rosy Boa can go without eating, you might be wondering how often you should be feeding your Rosy Boa.

After all, just because it can go on without food for up to 14 days it doesnā€™t necessarily mean that you should only be feeding it two weeks after the snakeā€™s last meal.

To that end, the best rule to follow when feeding your Rosy Boa is to make sure that you feed it once for about 10 to 14 days depending on how large its last meal was.

Rosy Boas that were fed smaller meals can be fed once every seven days. However, the standard you should follow is to feed your snake every 10 days.

The max should be 14 days, and we are only recommending that if you actually gave a particularly large meal to your Rosy Boa on its last feeding day.

So, when you feed your Rosy Boa once every 10 to 14 days, this should be about two to three times a month in terms of how often you feed the snake.

It should never be fewer than twice or more than three times or else you will end up with either a starved or overfed Rosy Boa. Both situations can and will lead to health problems.

Meanwhile, for younger juvenile Rosy Boas, feeding them frequently should be a must because these snakes require the extra calories for growing. That means that, when you have a hatchling or a juvenile Rosy Boa, you may want to feed it maybe about twice a week or twice every 10 days. Most juvenile Rosy Boas should be fed at a frequency that is about double their adult counterparts. But once they are already transitioning into adulthood, it is best to slow the frequency of the meals down until you reach a frequency of about 10 to 14 days per meal.

Tips for feeding a Rosy Boa

Here are some other tips that you may want to know when you are feeding a Rosy Boa:

  • Adults can be fed with a diet consisting mainly of domesticated mice (thawed or live). Most adult Rosy Boas donā€™t need other rodents to eat but you can still mix their diet up with a gerbil or hamster every now and then.
  • Juveniles thrive on a diet of thawed pinky mice but they can be transitioned into eating smaller domesticated mice once they start to outgrow pinky mice.
  • It is best to make use of forceps or tongs when feeding your Rosy Boa. Thatā€™s because you donā€™t want your snake to associate its food with your hand when you are hand-feeding it.
  • Most Rosy Boas will immediately take in thawed domesticated mice. But there are some Rosy Boas (especially wild-caught ones) that may need to be poked around with their food so that they will eat it.
  • Donā€™t try to handle a Rosy Boa one or two days before and after its meal. Thatā€™s because Rosy Boas that are full or hungry can be quite temperamental and may end up biting you even though these snakes are usually docile.
  • And adult Rosy Boa weighing at least 170 grams should be fed about an adult rodent that is 24 to 30 grams in weight after thawing.
  • The larger the last meal was, the longer you can wait until the next time you feed your Rosy Boa. But do not extend the period to more than 14 days.

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