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Raze, needing thermo regulation to properly digest food is not exactly a breakthrough discovery. The fact remains that boa constrictor metabolism and the ability to process large or frequent meals differs from that of most if not all colubrids and pythons greatly. It's hard to say whether captivity is any different than in the wild unless a great number of wild specimens have been observed over lengthy periods of time and their feeding/digestion/regurgitation habits have been properly documented. I believe this would be fairly impossible to pull off and I would take any data on this as pure conjecture. Also, nature can be and usually is very cruel. It's unwise to assume that what goes on there is always what's best for our captives. Boa constrictors have been successfully kept in captivity long enough that it's evident what works and what doesn't work for them IN CAPTIVITY. Exercise certainly plays a roll in metabolism and digestion but regardless of the size of your cage, you will never provide the same exercise opportunities that a wild animal has in the wild. It's not always a conscious decision for an animal to say "hey lets go do some aerobics". Encounters with predators, weather, distance from basking, hiding, water, food sources etc all force exercise that is humanly impossible to provide. Also the temporary raising of stress provided by things like encounters with predators, fleeing floods etc elevates the heart rate, gets the blood pumping and is beneficial to their daily exercise program provided they escape this danger unscathed. Basically, it's apples and oranges. Comparing or attempting to emulate the wild is an exercise in futility and does nothing to improve the life of your captive. I don't see an advantage to attempt to reinvent the wheel at this point and readjust husbandry in hopes that they can devour more prey more often. I fear that your "findings" and advice if followed in this particular case may cause harm to someone's animals.
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