Quote:
Originally Posted by danktat
If your line stays that small that could be a selling point within itself. Imagine the market you could corner for females that are "adults" at, say, Three feet. Alot of the smaller locale boas are being rapidly increased in overall size from breeding the first ones to go (which are generally the ones who reached their breeding size the fastest and get the largest). Perhaps yours are truer to the original locale size and growth rate.  |
I doubt that they are truer to locale size for a few reasons. According to Tremper's website the breeder adults are 5.5 feet for males and 6.5 feet for females...normal for nicaraguan boas (doesn't matter if they are east coast or west coast...).
They also could have Costa Rican influence...they most resemble CR's by looks, but CR's can be 7-9 feet. My CR male was huge compared to my Bluefields nic male. I feed mine like they are normal nicaraguans and their growth rate shows that.
There is also the possibility of parasite load in them, which could keep them from gaining weight despite good appetites.
I have noticed (by personal observation) that nics that only eat live mice/rats seem to gain weight much slower. I don't know if they are metabolizing them faster or are working harder to get them and burning calories faster doing so...
As a side note, I think too much stress is be placed on the "dwarf" part in some of these responses. You can starve anything to make it smaller...
To Danktat, my Bluefieds are related to Steve's and after talking to other people with Bluefields nics...so far Steve's are the smallest.
Amie
