Is this common practice?

[Ryan Chin]

So I bought a butter enchi recently from ReptMart, 201g male. They insist the hatch date for him is 4/2012. I ask for a feeding log and haven't gotten one yet, said it would be sent with the snake. I checked the snake out as soon as he arrived this morning and he seems healthy besides being small. on the snake bag says eating FT medium mice.

I email nick back at reptmart asking for confirmation of the DOB since he seems more like a 2-3 month old than a 1+ year old. I don't have the most extensive experience with ball pythons but all of my 10-12 month olds are fed once a week an appropriately sized meal and they are all in the 580g-950g range, thankfully I have only had one really picky eater. He responds it is correct and that they maintenance feed their bp's to keep them small and healthy...Whatever a maintenance feed schedule is.

I can understand them being a big business with a huge inventory wanting to keep animals a little smaller where they are showing better color and exhibit somewhat more of an allure to impulse buyers...to an extent. But 201g at 1+ years old isn't that tiny considering he is not a really picky eater. Even a picky eater I would assume at a 1+ years would be 300+ grams if taken care of/fed appropriately?

Any insight would be appreciated.

I asked Nick this and he responded they don't power feed their animals, implying I do after I told him my exp with 1-+ year old bps tells me he should be a bit bigger. Unless he is the crappiest feeding snake I've encountered, I have a feeling he has just been severely underfed.

On a lighter note I still am in love with the snake his colors are soo rich and beautiful. He seems healthy and alert after first inspection and has been warming up on his basking side after arriving fairly cold. I'll try giving him a rat pup on Friday.

[Daybreaker]

That seems insanely small at ~200g for a 14 month old BP to me. If they're healthy and feeding regularly they should be a lot larger at that age (and purposely keeping them small is not healthy IMO). I have no idea what schedule the snake was on if it is that tiny at that age (a meal every month or every couple)? I know if that's the true DOB I won't ever be purchasing from them.

[Tfpets]

I have a Mojave male that is kind of in that boat. I picked him up as a hatchling that had only 1 meal in him. He eats weekly, never missed one yet. At this point he is about 15 months old and just broke 300 grams. I have a pastel female that is 11 months and just hit 750 grams. I'm sure glad the Mojave is a male, if he were a female I would be quite irritated!

[JaGv]

I believe breeders don't feed as often as we do so the snakes don't get too big.

[PitOnTheProwl]

I have a close to two year old male that is around 300 or 400 grams, he is not the most reliable feeder.
I have a female pastel that I hatched out about 10 months ago now that is close to 1100ish grams, she has never missed a meal and only get one small a week.

They really do grow at different rates.

However I do give a feeding card with every snake I sell, I have only had one person not want the card so I trashed it while they wee still in my house.

[dillan2020]

It's probably a money thing. if you feed a snake 1 mouse a month instead of weekly that's 3 mice per month your not paying for. multiply that by 100s of snakes and that's a lot of money. not saying I agree with doing that but that's my guess why they would.

[Ryan Chin]

Thanks for all of your input guys, I really appreciate it. It sounds like it happens with bigger operations sometimes which I can understand from the way dillan put it. I was leaning towards that being what happened since he doesn't look starved by any means he is not showing any spine so that is a bit relieving. My only worry now is to get him on a consistent feed schedule.

Perhaps I am being over worried about my new snake, it is relieving to hear that they CAN grow that slowly.

[MrLang]

It's a money and space thing. They don't want them to outgrow the hatchling tubs. The ethics of it are questionable. I got a female pewter that was a year old and 150 grams - she ate everything I threw at her every 4-6 days and 12 months later she was breeding size and just laid for me.

It's somewhat common for the really big breeders - that doesn't make it 'right' but I haven't read anything about the snakes being unhealthy or bad eaters after that or anything.

[satomi325]

Its probably a combo of space, money, and the snake itself.

I had a male that was 250g for a year. His set up was the same as all my other animals, but he was just a poor feeder. He was offered food weekly, and only ate once or every other month at best.
And he only took very small prey.

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[snakesRkewl]

I have a 7 month old 600 gram yb het clown male and a 500 gram 2 year old Ivory, they grow at different rates and eat at different rates.
That being said I wouldn't sell a 2 year old poor eating snake without letting the customer know it was just that.
Not power feeding and a poor feeder are two very different things.