New BP owner - is my snake underweight?

Hi all,

-Last weekend on Sat. 8/15, I adopted a ~1.5 year old female BP. The previous owner said he fed her (live) mice once every two weeks, and I thought she was a bit
skinny. Before I bought her, I brought over a frozen mouse and she
ate it just fine. Today 8/22 (Sat), I fed her another one and she ate it just fine as well.

She's about 26-29 inches long from head to the tail of the tip (it's hard to fully unravel a snake). I bought an inexpensive/crappy kitchen scale and she measured only to be about 225-275g. I don't think she's even 2 inches thick at the thickest part. The mouse I'm feeding her is about as thick as she is, and a bag of 3 mice is about 50-75g (so say 15-25g).

*Is she underweight?

Also, on Thursday 8/13, she was moving all around the cage at night, like she was restless. I'm not sure if this is because she's stressed or hungry/hunting.

I would put her on a 5 day feed schedule til she reaches at least 500g. today is Monday, May 24th right?

2nd lovelace....5 day feed cycle....you could probably offer 2 if she will take it. A good thing to look at when trying to figure out if they are underwieght is to look at their shape...are they a bit triangular, can you see the backbone. That is a tell tale sign.

Wow... She's a bit triangular. :*( Her backbone is pretty noticeable and I can definitely feel it.

Yeah, although I posted this on Monday, I wrote up the post on Saturday. I'll feed her Thursday and try offering two mice.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BPelizabeth

2nd lovelace....5 day feed cycle....you could probably offer 2 if she will take it. A good thing to look at when trying to figure out if they are underwieght is to look at their shape...are they a bit triangular, can you see the backbone. That is a tell tale sign.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Flowerbridge

Yeah, although I posted this on Monday, I wrote up the post on Saturday. I'll feed her Thursday and try offering two mice.

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lol, you made me check my calendar, my days have been blending alot lately, can't believe this month is almost over.

You can pick up a digital kitchen scale at Wally World or BB&B, rather inexpensive, so you can keep a more accurate weight, on your baby.

I fed her yesterday, thinking it was Thursday. She ate the mouse quickly with no problems.

I tried offering another one, but she just sniffed and looked at it for a while.

I thought it might be too cool, so I placed it back in the bowl of warm water and nuked the mouse for an additional 15 seconds. After both dangling and leaving the mouse for another 3-4 minutes, I refroze the mouse. All seems to be good so far :)

Nuked it?

You didn't microwave it did you? That is a very bad habit and you should break it at once. Since microwaves heat from the inside out, the mouse may only feel warm to you, but inside it could be hot enough to burn your snake internally, I don't even want to consider what that might mean!

I use an ordinary hair dryer. Once the mouse is fully thawed at room temp, I run a hair dryer on low over the mouse for 30 seconds or so, then hit just the head at real close range for about 10 seconds, then offer.

If she has only ever eaten one thing at a time, she may not take two. You might want to think about larger mice if you can find larger ones, or try her with same size rats and go bigger once she eats the rats.

Gale

Quote:

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Originally Posted by angllady2

nuked it?

You didn't microwave it did you? That is a very bad habit and you should break it at once. Since microwaves heat from the inside out, the mouse may only feel warm to you, but inside it could be hot enough to burn your snake internally, i don't even want to consider what that might mean!

I use an ordinary hair dryer. Once the mouse is fully thawed at room temp, i run a hair dryer on low over the mouse for 30 seconds or so, then hit just the head at real close range for about 10 seconds, then offer.

If she has only ever eaten one thing at a time, she may not take two. You might want to think about larger mice if you can find larger ones, or try her with same size rats and go bigger once she eats the rats.

Gale

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x 2

hey im new to this too and this guy's snake is about the same size and age as mine so i figured i'd just ask here instead of posting a new thread (not trying to hijack, just asking a quick question and going about my way). i just weighed tom (my bp) for the first time today cause i found a scale. he weighs 332 grams minus however much an adult mouse thats been digesting for 3 days would weigh. he skinny instead of all plump and fat like most pics i see and i can feel his backbone so i know hes underweight but i just wanna know where exactly my snake stands in comparison to others

I'm not good at estimating or imagining the proper weight of them yet, but if you just put it on a five day schedule like they told him, he'll plump up to whatever's proper. 10-15% body weight til he's over a kilo.

Sorry if you already knew all that. I guess I can't actually answer your main question. I should find out what the proper age:length:weight ratio is. I'm sure there's something.