4 month old Pretzel

[scalypasta]

Just a thread to show you all my new BP. He's about four months old and he was 128.6 grams when I got him, but dropped 7.4 grams after turning down f/t mice twice.

My research suggested that a 4 month old should be closer to 300 grams, so I'm a little paranoid that he may be underweight, but he looks fine as far as I can tell. Going on two weeks since I got him. I tried to feed him f/t but he had no interest in it at all, no matter what I did, so he ate a live mouse on Sunday night. These pics are all from before then. (Sorry they're so large, I'm still figuring out how posting pictures works.)

The lighting is just for pictures and the red-topped tub is what I'm using as a humid hide for the time being. It's stuffed with sphagnum moss and is the hide he uses most, aside from the cardboard tubes. If you have any questions about my husbandry, feel free to ask- I've done a lot of research but I'm still very new at this. I love to learn better ways to do things.

[EDR]

Cute little guy congrats. Neat you got a chocolate.

[EnchiPapa]

Congrats! She's a beaut for sure.

Our recently acquired male dropped some weight when we tried switching him to F/T as well losing around 20 grams. He had been eating live mice when I decided to step him up to take advantage of F/T. He didn't take for 3 weeks. He finally ate when I tried feeding him in his enclosure. We were feeding him live in another tub up to this point. It took him a bit to even go for the rat at first, when I persisted even putting the food under the heat of a lamp twice. On top of that, after he struck he let go. I was so bummed when this happened. I walked out of the room to get some air outside to give him a bit and think about the next plan of action. About 10 minutes later when I came back in to check on him he was half way through swallowing it.

Never give up, never surrender!

(and read a lot of BP.net)

[scalypasta]

I knew it was normal for them to drop some weight, but when he dropped 7.4 grams in a week I was determined to get him to eat something. I tried feeding him f/t twice, a couple days apart. I thawed them in the fridge for a couple hours and then warmed them through the hot-water-submersion-in-a-Ziploc method and wiggled them around a little. He wouldn't even smell them. He just wasn't interested at all.

On the other hand, once it was where he could see it, it didn't take him even 2 seconds to strike the live one. Now that I know what it looks like when he actually wants to eat I think I'm more comfortable trying to switch him.

It's good to know that 7.4 grams isn't as much as it sounds like when switching such a small little guy over, though. Thanks for the info, and thank you both for the compliments!

[LittleTreeGuy]

That could be a tad on the light side for a bp, but it's not horrible. They all seem to grow and put weight on differently. When I got my bp she was about 2 months old and was under 70g. At 4 months, she was about where yours is, I'd say. She's now 5 months and about 170g. I switched over to F/T Fuzzy rats when she was around 130g and she started gaining weight pretty steadily from there.

[scalypasta]

Thanks for the tip about fuzzies, I may try that soon if I can ever get him to take f/t anything.

I've heard that dipping just the mouse/rat's head in boiling water after they're thawed sometimes helps, as it makes it hotter & therefore more easily seen. I'm a little worried about burning him that way, though.

[cristacake]

Thanks for the tip about fuzzies, I may try that soon if I can ever get him to take f/t anything.

I've heard that dipping just the mouse/rat's head in boiling water after they're thawed sometimes helps, as it makes it hotter & therefore more easily seen. I'm a little worried about burning him that way, though.

I never do boiling because I think cooking the prey is A.) weird, and B.) would probably take away some of the smell. I do water that's hot enough to make you jerk away from it if you dunk your finger, but not hot enough to have started bubbling. I've only had Donuts refuse twice before, and both of those times I reheated the water and dunked the head and belly in for no more than 10 seconds, brained them, and then she gladly took them. It's the smell from the warmth/braining that did it, I'm pretty certain

[SmoothScales]

You also have to remember that you're feeding mice. They are a much leaner prey item than rats so your snake won't grow as quickly as a snake of the same age that's being fed rats.

We purchased an 8 month old yellow belly that was a 'mouser' as per her breeder that weighed 230grams. She's never turned down a rat for us in the 4 months we've had her, eats once a week like clockwork a live prey item that's 10-15% of her body weight and has more than doubled her size. She's now just under 700g.

As long as your BP is getting fed an appropriately for its size, it will continue to slowly grow. Keep in mind they don't all grow at the same rate. Personally, I have all my snakes on rats. Even little Buggsie, so if someone tells you they have to be a certain size before you can switch them, kindly tell them to stuff it.

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