Growth in new BP

[normandcass]

Hi! I am wondering if it is normal for a ball python to grow girth-wise really fast. I have only had her three weeks and she was not really scrawny ('rescued' from PetCo lol) but she was 16 inches and they were feeding her one pinky mouse once a week. I gave her an adult mouse that night and she ate right away, and have given her rat fuzzies since about every 5-7 days. She was in blue when I brought her home but I could tell she was hungry so I gave it a shot. She is now in blue again and spending all her time in the humid hide I made for her, hopefully the shed will go better this time. but I measured her a few days ago and she has grown two inches and is significantly thicker than she was. Is it normal for them to grow that fast? It seemed like almost overnight - one morning she looked so much bigger!

[rlditmars]

When she sheds she will probably have an extra special present for you. BP's will sometimes defecate just in their shed cycles, which means they have a lot stored up. If that is the case, they get bloated looking as they get there. What comes after can only be described in the words of Marlon Brando from "Apocalypse Now".

Oh, the horror. The horror.

[Smitty33]

I've yet to see a BP at petco that didn't look a little thin. A pinky mouse a week is WAY too small a meal so I'd bet he'd fill out pretty fast once you got him on the correct size prey. And as said a shed or cage cleaning seems to always trigger the big dump

[BWB]

My ball took off when I moved her up to small rats - seems to have made a big difference in her growth.