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Failure to thrive? Help please. :(
Ok friends, I need some advice on my champagne ball python. I currently keep 12 snakes in AP racks. All on the same feeding schudule and same environment etc. Ambient temps are high 70s to 80 and hot spots are 90-92 degrees. Thermostats on both racks. Here are a few stats on this snake and you will see my concern.
Hatch Date- Dec. 17 2013 (not sure of hatch weight)
Date I aquired the snake: Feb 15, 2014 at the NARBC Arlington. The breeder that I got her from was not one I was familiar with, but the snakes were very nice and picked one of the two champagne babies he had available. I initially weigh any new snakes but I can't seem to find the information on her weight upon purchase. She was probably approx 80g. Small, but I got my smallest hatchling at 53g, so I didn't think anything of it.
After settling in and not eating at the first offering (which I am usually not concerned about with new snakes) she ate a live mouse hopper and then began to take f/t rat pinkies with gusto. Now, I will be honest I have not kept to a rigid 5-7 day feeding schedule. Sometimes she ate every 4 days, sometimes 8 etc. However, keeping a pretty normal feeding schedule, there is no way that a snake that is eating should not be gaining weight.
Today is May 20 1015 and this snake weighs approx 200g. Something is wrong. At first I thought she was just a slow grower, but after a while with very little weight gain, I took her to a veterinarian. Our first plan of attack was to check her for internal parasites. She had a clean fecal float and we did 2 rounds of wormer just to be safe. Still no change. She is eating every week. She sheds some, but not often. Weighs less than my babies from last year and she is a 2013. She is not handled on account that I do not want to stress her.
Please, please let me know what could be wrong. The vet thinks that she could have an enzyme deficiency that isn't allowing her to absorb nutrients. Could this be a case of failure to thrive? Has anyone seen this before? All of my other snakes are eating and gaining as expected. I promise I am not starving her! I don't know what else to do. Please don't think I am a bad snake Mommy.
Last edited by elbee; 05-20-2015 at 02:07 PM.
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1.0 Pastel, 1.0 Albino, 1.0 Piebald, 1.0 Pastel Butter Spotnose
0.1 Het pied, 0.1 Pewter, 0.1 Super Pastel, 0.1 Champagne, 0.1 BEL, 0.1 Pastel Leopard
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1.0 Hog Island Boa
0.2 Western Hognose (normal and purple line albino)
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