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  1. #1
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    2 yr old bp question

    My brother left for the air force and me and my dad sort of adopted his bp. Its about 2 yrs old, about 36 in long (pretty close to the length of the tank). Haven't weighed it lately but probably a few lbs or so. I'm going to weigh him tomorrow morning. I see people always talking about what to feed them and how often and how picky they get about food sometimes. Ours seems like he is always hungry. I try to feed him 2 mice a week(pic below), my schedule doesn't really allow for set feeding times so I do what I can. My dad likes to feed him more often but I think were overfeeding him. "Monty" never even hesitates to strike and eat, even the second mouse. It's pretty much like clockwork when we feed him, he sees the mouse, coils up a bit and waits for the mouse to get closer. Do as I may, my dad keeps wanting to feed it twice a week (4 mice total per week). We've had it for a year and I really enjoy handling him and everything about having the bp but we're in separate corners as far as feeding frequency. I see people who say how picky eaters they can be but ours seems to eat every time. The only thing I've noticed is that hes more active after 5 or 6 days. He is out of his hide more and sticking his head up in the air and just more active in general. We keep the temps pretty good, low 80s on cool side with a hide. around 90 on his side, sometimes mid 90s if it gets warm in the house. Its always air conditioned during the day so we keep a small heat lamp on during the day to keep temps up and an infrared one at night. Also, we feed him these small mice because a local wholesale supplier gives them to us really cheap because we know them real well. So its more practical and easy to restock them and just feed him more than 1 during each feeding.

    Just looking for a little advice. He seems healthy and sheds fine. Hes not lethargic when we take him out and always seems hungry whenever we feed him. The big black thing on the back was a heat pad we used to try and keep the tank warm during the day without using the regular heat lamp but we don't use it anymore. Didn't do much but heat the thermostat up, surface temps were lower than thermostat was reading.

    On a side note mice are disgusting and I have no sympathy for them. The little container they stay in smells horrible from them using it as a bathroom. They don't stay in there long but again...my dad likes to feed him 2 mice twice a week so he buys 4 at a time.



    Last edited by erager09; 08-08-2012 at 12:16 AM.

  2. #2
    Sometimes It Hurts... PitOnTheProwl's Avatar
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    A weight would help out more but really he should/could be taking small rats by now.
    I have a big pastel thats 1200g that wont eat rats at all, I give him his fill of mice.
    Every friday he eats between 3 to 5 large mice.

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  4. #3
    BPnet Lifer decensored's Avatar
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    It's useless for me to comment until we get a weight on him but to me that does not sound like over feeding. Especially for a two year old but it's hard to say without weights. I've had 1500 gram 2 year olds and 400 gram two year olds.

    If You seem to think he's 2 lbs than that is not over feeding at all.

    a 1000 gram snake would need 100-150 grams of food per 7 days. Your average large mouse is 25 grams if I remember correctly, so 4 a week would just be hitting the threshold of appropriate. But again this is all relevant to the weight of the reptile.

    Cheers

  5. #4
    BPnet Senior Member I-KandyReptiles's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by PitOnTheProwl View Post
    A weight would help out more but really he should/could be taking small rats by now.
    I have a big pastel thats 1200g that wont eat rats at all, I give him his fill of mice.
    Every friday he eats between 3 to 5 large mice.
    x2

    All my bps are mousers, and are fed multiple mice at a time.

    Once you get your bps weight, try to feed 10-15% of it's weight. My 900+g male will eat usually 3-4 mice per feeding, while my 2500g girl usually will only take 3.

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    ?.?.? ASFs

  6. #5
    BPnet Royalty DooLittle's Avatar
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    Again, we really need a weight. But if he's 2 years old and only getting 4 mice, he probably is just hungry. He could eat a small rat weekly. So, if you offered one appropriately sized prey per week, that would be good. However, if they are too small, there needs to be multiple offered. You could offer all 4 in the same feeding. So, again without a weight hard to say, but in theory, no, your Dad is not overfeeding him. If he is the same size as I would expect a 2 year old to be, he could definately take down a small rat weekly. So imagine how many mice it would take to make up a small rat? Then you also would eliminate the problem of the mice stinking in that little container.

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  7. #6
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    He is just a hair under 900g. Dont have a digital scale...zero'd a kitchen scale with a bowl on it then put him in the bowl. But the needle was just barely touching 900g.

  8. #7
    BPnet Veteran PorcelainxDoll's Avatar
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    He could take a small rat easily, so you are definetly not over feeding him.

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  9. #8
    BPnet Lifer Kaorte's Avatar
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    I don't think you are over feeding either. It's great that he is such a consistant eater! You should feel blessed! Most of us here have dealt with ball python fasting more often then we'd like.

    Just a quick thing regarding the setup. I see you have those stick on gauges which are notorios for being inaccurate. Do yourself a favor and pick up a couple digital thermometers, one for the hot side and one for the cool side. Then you will know what your temps really are They are probably much hotter than you would expect!
    ~Steffe

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