Need Advice on feeding possibly underfed ball

[Ghoulio]

I was with a friend recently and we went into a Petco for some dog food and all over the place they were announcing that it was Reptile week. So I decided to take a peek at their selection. Generally I make a point to never buy animals from Petco or Petsmart but what I saw that day absolutely broke my heart. There in a cage was a very little ghost champagne(?) ball python and to me she looked like she was possibly underweight and possibly dehydrated and getting ready to shed. I've owned and cared for corn snakes in the path so I luckily already had everything I needed at home and I felt confident I would be able to properly care for her. So I adopted her. This is Gwen when she was first brought home.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...721_152818.jpg

Since I've gotten her she has been placed in a long 20 gall. (Next paycheck she's getting an upgrade to a 40 gall.) It's fitted with two thermometers, a hygrometer, water dish, 2 hides and currently coconut fiber substrate. I have a thermostat as well with an under the tank heater. I have some sphagnum moss under my warm hide as well to help boost humidity. Currently the humidity is sitting on a nice 70% (Boosted to help her shed) and my temp on the warm side is a cozy 88 while the cool side is 79. I've been monitoring the humidity closely and on the first day of owning Gwen I gave her a warm soak hoping to get her looking a bit better. Shortly after I brought her out and let her back in her tank she was cruising around and rubbing to get her shed started. And it did but, in the very center of her belly. I knew she would have a bad shed despite my best efforts considering the condition she appeared to have been kept in at the store.

So now it's day three, and mostly all of her shed is gone. She still has shed on her head and some on her neck as well. She's had warm soaks on day 2 and today will be skipped just to not stress her out too much as today is feeding day. She's looking less 'wrinkly' now minus where the stuck shed it but still very small which concerns me. It concerned me when I first got her as well. So I bought three different sizes of food for her in case she had been underfed as I suspected. I've never dealt with helping an underfed reptile, only underfed cats and dogs. And with them you don't feed a lot all at once or they get sick and I thought the same thing was possibly true for reptiles?

So, I have pinkies, fuzzies, and then then a couple of small frozen mice. My main question is should I start her on pinkies and offer her one at first? Two at first? Or just jump straight along down the track on sizes of food for her? I don't want to underfeed her when she's looking so thin and I don't want to overfeed and get her sick. Any and all advice would be absolutely wonderful, thank you so much.

(And here is a picture of her currently just to show the stuck shed etc. (Also is she actually a ghost champagne? I'm mostly guessing on her morph, the store only called her a champagne which I don't think is accurate as they have more color from what I've seen.)

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...725_113053.jpg

[Stewart_Reptiles]

First don't worry about a 40 gallons right now the animal is not big enough to transition yet to be honest I would not even have it in a 20 gallons right now either as it is still very young and small.

Second the issue is not underfeeding it is dehydration, and improper humidity which obviously is being solved now. The rest can be easily take care of with a warm damp towel.

The animal is young but not in anyway underfed however you feeding the right prey size is of the upmost importance, pinkies and fuzzy mice are in no way adequate for a ball python as they get started out of the egg with hoppers and quickly transition from that to small and adult mice. You want to feed a prey equal the girth size (largest part of your BP's body) or as followed.



Keep in mind right now your priority is for the animal to feed for you so once the shed is addressed no handling, and let the animal settle for 5 to 7 days before offering food.