Need advice about bp's growth rate

[Manasha-Bogo]

Hi there!

I recently (January) bought 2 baby ball pythons from a herp store. 1 male, 1 female. These would be my first snakes ever.

I have been feeding them 1 hopper each every week. They both eat, they both poop. They're both active.

The problem is that altho they both started roughly the same size, the male has been growing a lot while the female has remained the same size. They were not both from the same breeder.

I will take her to the vet if I have to, but I wanted to know if any of this sounded normal an if there is something I can or should do without needing to pay $300 to a vet to do it.

Thanks!!!!




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[Manasha-Bogo]

Ah... Her name is Manasha. His name is Bogo. (buy one get one "free").


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[Manasha-Bogo]

Also, no idea if this information is relevant or not.

She is a super pastel bp.
He is a fire bp.


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[Daybreaker]

Some BPs grow at different rates, I wouldn't worry about her.

If you want her to gain more size, you can feed a appropriate sized feeder every 5 days instead of 7. That's how I feed my younger BPs and they grow great, then once they're bigger you can scale back feedings if you choose.

[Daybreaker]

Also, I'm sure they can be on at least adult mice or rat pups: you can feed the 10-15% rule (feed a feeder that is that percentage of your BP's weight). You'd be surprised at the size of feeders they can handle.

[AK907]

Yeah, I'm guessing the main reason is inappropriate sized prey items. Even hatchling ball pythons can generally take larger than hopper mice. Getting them on rats will help greatly as well. Although they do grow at different rates, if they were hatchlings in January, I would expect them to easily be on weaned rats or so by now.

[Slim]

As long as they are eating regularly, shedding, pooping and peeing, then the rate at which they gain is really not that important. Given that the factors I just listed are in balance, they will gain as much as they are able to gain. Some will gain fast, and others will gain a little more slowly.

My personal theory is that all baby ball pythons are genetically wired to be good eaters prior to reaching breeding size/age. This programed instinct gets them bigger quicker which accomplishes two things 1) Gets them off the bottom of the food chain quicker 2) Gets them to breeding size faster so they can pass on their genetic material to the next generation.

But, deversity being what it is, they will always grow and gain at their own pace.

[Manasha-Bogo]

I usually buy 4 hoppers at a time, feed them each one, and then feed the other two hoppers for 7 days to keep them alive until the next feeding.

Today I tried to feed them the last 2 hoppers. Stuck them in their feeding box with the hoppers while I was out. Hours later I got home and found one hopper dead in the box and the 2nd one alive. The snakes hadn't eaten. I'll try again tomorrow with new mice. They sometimes seem to reject the hoppers for some reason.

So everything I've read says to feed mice or rats as fat as the fattest part of the snake. The male could probably handle a full grown mouse, but the female is still hopper size.

Should I stick to the hoppers with her and just feed her 2? Or stick to the hoppers and feed one every 5 days?

Also, is there something I can give the mice while I'm keeping them alive that will deworming them, make them more nutritious, or more appetizing to the snakes? Thx!!


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[Slim]

There is no need to feed your BPs in a separate box. In fact, it can do more harm than good. Unless, you are keeping these snakes in the same enclosure. You aren't housing them together, are you?

I'm sure they could both handle adult mice in the 20 ish gram range. Most juvenile BP's graduate to adult mice or rat pups pretty quickly.

Your best bet is to purchase a scale. It really comes in handy for measuring the weight gain progress of your snakes, and for weighing prey items.

I would not try to de-worm any mice you hold over. It could cause more harm than good, and is really not needed to make them more nutritious. They are completely nutritious just as they are.

[Manasha-Bogo]

Thank you. I will be going over to the herp store I got them from today. I'll take the snakes with me and ask them to give mice they think they can handle. And see how that compares to what you're telling me.

Not that I don't trust you, I'm just curious to see the difference in mentality. These herp guys have been in this business forEVER and I have lots of friends and coworkers who have gone to the for their herp needs and advice.

Having said that, tho, I'm sure you will quickly lose all faith in their knowledge when you hear that they told me I could house both these snakes together, no problem. And yes they're housed together. I am aware of the online community feels this is a terrible idea, but the herp guys at this store blew that off and told me they do it all the time without any problems. Their enclosure is big enough that I can easily split it and seperate them. So I'm not worried. They are tiny enough that they won't breed now anyway.

Here's a picture of Manasha so you can see how small she is.




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