Has the damage been done

[NJ Balls]

I recently found this piebald posted for sale on Craigslist and when I contacted the seller I asked if he was eating properly because he looked thin. He told me the picture was taken when he first bought him from petsmart and that he had been in the store for 9 months. The seller said he's had the snake for 4 months and he's been eating every week since he's brought him but he also told me that he only weights 110g. I have two BP's that are around the same age and they both weigh well over 300g.


My question is can this snake if taken care of properly live a normal and healthy life? or has the year of neglect done irreversible damage to his development as a juvenile that will prevent him from growing and becoming a viable breeder? Part of me wants to take the risk because I feel bad for him but my gut tells me it's a waste of money and unavoidable heartache.

What are your thoughts?

[DLena]

If he's otherwise healthy, I'd grab him up. You can get his weight up over time, and I would think he'd be healthy for breeding. My thought is sometimes babies out in nature have a lean start but they must balance out eventually or there'd be far fewer of them out there.

[tttaylorrr]

just recognize you're taking on a (possibly) neglected animal. personally i'd go for it, but i'd pour everything i had into him and recognize his situation. he's a beautiful boy: if you feel you can handle this then YES go for it.

[DennisM]

well, if that's a 4 month old picture of a neglected petsmart snake and it's been feeding well since, I guess I'd need an updated pic. or better yet, see the snake in person. a young and undersized snake can definitely have a normal healthy life given normal healthy care. personally, I would pass on this guy and look for a well started youngster.

[Sauzo]

Assuming the snake is otherwise healthy, an underfed snake will do just fine. Just start him off with smaller prey once a week and build him up so he is used to eating and his system gets going.....in one end out the other

[cchardwick]

I got a free ball python on Craig's List that was just larger than a hatchling but was a year old, they were feeding it one hopper mouse per month! When I got him he immediately ate three adult mice all within an hour LOL. He grew faster than all my other snakes and he is a beast now about a year later, he is 1500 grams. They can and will make up for lost time if you feed them right. I'd probably feed twice per week until he looks nice and healthy. I actually still feed twice per week, but usually I feed smaller rodents, just one per feeding, all except my reticulated python. That beast can eat a jumbo rat and look skinny a few days later LOL.

[CALM Pythons]

Would I take him? If the price was right as a Vet call is needed, and if I was ready for a 6 month quarantine. Either the guy is lying about feeding him every week for 4 months (16 mice) or the snake has parasites/worms ect. I just got a under weight Hatchling (2.5 months old ) & it went from 57g to 130g within 4 weeks. So with that understanding and a reduced price, yeah id go for it..... Otherwise you can get a Healthy Pie from a reputable breeder for the same price or possibly less than you might have to put into this BP after who knows how many vet visits...

[bcr229]

I would find out what size prey the snake has been eating. A lot of people think a mouse pinky a week is sufficient, because they don't know any better.

To answer your question, yes the snake can recover. My retic female from this thread ( https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...ter-to-a-minor ) ended up stressed to the point of not eating b/c the kid who owned her fooled with that baby every day. We set her up, left her alone, and offered a feeder weekly. Nada.

When her weight had dropped from 79 grams when we got her to 69 grams a few weeks later, our vet advised that we start assist feeding. That continued for many months. She did finally start showing some food response but she was a year old and only 100 grams at the time. It wasn't until this past summer that she became a solid feeder.

Last December she turned two and weighed in at a hefty 1000 grams. She now eats a medium rat every week and will probably get a large rat in a month or so. Bear in mind this is a mainland retic from two of the largest locality lines (java/sumatra), she should be 10-12 feet long with a weight best measured in pounds. The vet advised feeding her appropriately based on her weight and not over-feeding to get her to catch up to her peers quickly.

It will be interesting to see where she finally does top out. Other than her small size she's perfectly healthy.

[CALM Pythons]

I would find out what size prey the snake has been eating. A lot of people think a mouse pinky a week is sufficient, because they don't know any better.

To answer your question, yes the snake can recover. My retic female from this thread ( https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...ter-to-a-minor ) ended up stressed to the point of not eating b/c the kid who owned her fooled with that baby every day. We set her up, left her alone, and offered a feeder weekly. Nada.

When her weight had dropped from 79 grams when we got her to 69 grams a few weeks later, our vet advised that we start assist feeding. That continued for many months. She did finally start showing some food response but she was a year old and only 100 grams at the time. It wasn't until this past summer that she became a solid feeder.

Last December she turned two and weighed in at a hefty 1000 grams. She now eats a medium rat every week and will probably get a large rat in a month or so. Bear in mind this is a mainland retic from two of the largest locality lines (java/sumatra), she should be 10-12 feet long with a weight best measured in pounds. The vet advised feeding her appropriately based on her weight and not over-feeding to get her to catch up to her peers quickly.

It will be interesting to see where she finally does top out. Other than her small size she's perfectly healthy.

BCR Im going to check out your link you posted. Ive never seen a 100G 1yr old Ball let alone a Burm or Retic at that weight unless on their deathbed. If you didnt say you had one id think it was basically impossible for it to be healthy at that weight. Thats one lucky snake to have ended up with a determined owner like yourself.

[bcr229]

BCR Im going to check out your link you posted. Ive never seen a 100G 1yr old Ball let alone a Burm or Retic at that weight unless on their deathbed. If you didnt say you had one id think it was basically impossible for it to be healthy at that weight. Thats one lucky snake to have ended up with a determined owner like yourself.

Retics are very tough! Also, I did finally track down the breeder and learned that she had been hatched from a half-sized/boob egg. He wasn't even sure it would hatch out. So she was a runt to begin with, she was not born at the typical retic weight.