Rescued Ball

[Danomano]

Greetings all,

My first Ball was a rescue and is doing great. He/she is 332 grams and about 28 inches long. I have been trying to estimate an age. I have yet to find a way to calculate it. I suppose it isnt a huge deal either way more along the lines of curiousity.



Thanks,

Dan

[Annarose15]

Unless he was grossly underweight when you got him, I would guess anywhere from 5-10 months old. Unfortunately, how they are fed when young can have a dramatic impact on growth rate. Do you know what size/frequency he was eating before you got him?

[Danomano]

I do not know what the feeding frequency and such was prior to the rescue location. At the rescue he was eating once a week and it was a live mouse. I have followed the same pattern here for me and have yet to have any issues. In fact Half the time the mouse isnt even out of the box before it gets struck. I feed him in a seperate container and not in his terrarium. I am considering upgrading to a rat Im just not sure if he is big enough yet. I have been told the rule of thumb is food should be about the same girth as the snake. If that is the case a rat should be ok albiet a small rat. Most certainly bigger than the mouse though.

[Annarose15]

He could easily go up to a weanling rat weekly. It also isn't necessary to feed him ouside his enclosure. He's actually more likely to bite you when you move him back to his tank after eating (still in feeding mode) than he is to mistake you for a rat when getting him out of his tank to handle normally. I have over 30 BPs and have never been bitten due to "tank feeding aggression".

[Danomano]

So the normal didnt even give the rat a chance to really get out of the box... maybe 15 seconds before getting all wrapped up.