Underweight?

I expressed concern on another thread that Pandora was underweight since the previous owners had been feeding her one mouse hopper every two weeks. She is 10 months old according to her previous owner, approximately 20 or 22 inches long, and weighs 153 grams.She seems happy and healthy - although happier since I've been feeding her more often, and happiest when I fed her more mice at a feeding. She was a bit dehydrated looking and had a shed that required soaking to all come off the first week I had her. I think I've got her temperature/humidity under control at this point. How does she look? Does she seem skinny? I'm planning on giving her a live adult mouse or 2-3 hoppers weekly (depending on what sizes are available at my local pet store), does that seem like enough?

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7421/8...ff8fff2fd2.jpg



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And one more just to show her off:

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I think her overall body shape looks pretty good, perhaps slightly on the thin side but nothing to really worry about. Since she wasn't fed well for her first 6 months or so, you might find that she will be stunted a little bit. She looks pretty fat and happy though! Definitely not skin and bones.

Just keep feeding her like you have been and you will see her start to grow. I have some late 2012's that still haven't gotten past 300g but they more picky than the rest :P

At 153g, yes, that sounds about right. Don't be in a rush to up her prey size any faster than she grows, she'll catch up eventually now that she has someone taking proper care of her. :)

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Originally Posted by Annarose15

At 153g, yes, that sounds about right. Don't be in a rush to up her prey size any faster than she grows, she'll catch up eventually now that she has someone taking proper care of her. :)

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I've always adhered to the "thickest part of the body" when it comes to feeding. Ruby, my smallest bp, was 54g when I got her. I got her from a guy on Craigslist for free. (I was picking up a snake for a friend, and they offered me her for free. "She's a normal, what good is she." -.-;) She was hatched out in Sept. I got her Feb 12. He was "maintainence feeding" her a pinky, once a week. In my eyes, he was starving her. She was all bone, dehydrated and very twitchy. I first opened her tub, because the guy wouldn't go near her. She struck out at me 5+ times. I fell in love. Lol.

Anyways. She was on fuzzy's for a couple weeks, then I moved her to hoppers, and when she was 90g, she was thick enough to take a small adult mouse, and she did it. No problems, no spitting it out, just.. ate it like a champ and wasn't hunting again 3 days later. Since then, she's been getting 1x liveit's amazing. I (I know, I know. Live vs F/t. She won't touch f/t.) a week, and she's packing on the weight, looking at before and after photos you can't tell it's the same snake. She's trippled in size since Feb. I couldn't be happier with her progress.

The reason I bring that up, is you say to wait to move to small adult, or adult mice at 153g. Is there a reason for that? I'm not.. judging by any means, I'm just curious. I fully agree that Pandora will rapidly catch up. Once they start growing.. It's amazing. :D Three cheers for proper care!

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Originally Posted by NinjaKittyz

I've always adhered to the "thickest part of the body" when it comes to feeding. Ruby, my smallest bp, was 54g when I got her. I got her from a guy on Craigslist for free. (I was picking up a snake for a friend, and they offered me her for free. "She's a normal, what good is she." -.-;) She was hatched out in Sept. I got her Feb 12. He was "maintainence feeding" her a pinky, once a week. In my eyes, he was starving her. She was all bone, dehydrated and very twitchy. I first opened her tub, because the guy wouldn't go near her. She struck out at me 5+ times. I fell in love. Lol.

Anyways. She was on fuzzy's for a couple weeks, then I moved her to hoppers, and when she was 90g, she was thick enough to take a small adult mouse, and she did it. No problems, no spitting it out, just.. ate it like a champ and wasn't hunting again 3 days later. Since then, she's been getting 1x liveit's amazing. I (I know, I know. Live vs F/t. She won't touch f/t.) a week, and she's packing on the weight, looking at before and after photos you can't tell it's the same snake. She's trippled in size since Feb. I couldn't be happier with her progress.

The reason I bring that up, is you say to wait to move to small adult, or adult mice at 153g. Is there a reason for that? I'm not.. judging by any means, I'm just curious. I fully agree that Pandora will rapidly catch up. Once they start growing.. It's amazing. :D Three cheers for proper care!

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There's nothing wrong with feeding live if you take the proper precautions.

To me she looks fine, definitely not too skinny. Once she's been eating for awhile shell probably plump up.

For the younger bps, I try to do 10-15% of their body weight. I know an adult mouse roughly weighs 30-40g.

I'd honestly try to switch her to rats though. Feeding a huge female mice gets pretty expensive ;) whereas you could feed one rat. Although it's been said to only feed rats live up to a small small size, and not to try mediums or larger, as they're more capable of fighting back.

Biggest rats I feed are 250 grams for my 2000+ gram girl. I only feed live I don't feel the need to feed frozen, I make sure things go alright I'm close enough an if the rat bites ill shove tongs in its mouth. Only had one snake get nipped no damage an now he strikes his rats in the face every time. I breed my own rats so their all feed good an watered

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Originally Posted by Bobbafett

There's nothing wrong with feeding live if you take the proper precautions.

I'd honestly try to switch her to rats though. Feeding a huge female mice gets pretty expensive ;) whereas you could feed one rat. Although it's been said to only feed rats live up to a small small size, and not to try mediums or larger, as they're more capable of fighting back.

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My first, Bob, was fed live and I wasn't told anything about her, or how to feed her, so I learned the hard way. Despite watching and being careful, I let the mouse go in the kitchen. (Her feeding tank.) and while she was constricting, it nailed her behind her head on her neck. Luckily, it's nothing major and something everyone who feeds live is going to deal with at one point or another. --- Girlfriend of mine had a similar, but much more deadly incident, She did it all wrong though. 1x mouse, 1x rat. Same tub. 2 Bps. One approx 1500g and the other approx 700g. The 1500g ate the mouse.. and the rat tried to eat them both. Her 1500 was eaten to the bone and died, the other lost part of it's tail. I wanted to slap her. Moving on. --- I now hold the tail, in one corner, so my girls can only strike from the front and I've always got chopsticks on hand to put in the mouse/rats mouth.

I just started feeding everyone, but my corn, rats. I go through 3 mice and 2 rats a week. Ruby - 1x mouse, Eeek - 2x mice, Bob - 1x sm rat and Inferno - 1x med rat. I've already noticed a difference. Bob was on a steady 7wk/8wk/7wk/8wk shedding schedule. (Yeah, I took the time to figure it out.. It's time related on her, not weight which is.. interesting.) And it's only been 5 1/2 weeks, and she's blue, so she's moving from her 7wk time frame to a 6wk time frame this time around. It's going to be interesting and informative to see if she moves to a 6/7/6/7 shedding rate. Anyways. She's growing faster.

My two smaller girls are gettin-- going to be getting 1x pup and 1x crawler as soon as the rats I'm breeding get going. I've gotta make sure to let some of them grow up a bit before feeding. The reason I brought that up is I've heard it's hard to get Bp's to make the switch from Mice to Rats. Granted, that's what I've heard on the internet and lets face it. The internet lies. Any truth to this and I was just lucky and all my girls made the swap swimmingly?

Also. On the topic of feeding live rats, on the larger sizes. --- (Another horror story and it makes me feel horrificly inhumane.) The first Rat Bob tried was a bit too large for her, so she wouldn't eat, while I was holding it's tail and keeping it fairly contained in one side of the kitchen. It did a wild roll, kinda like a croc, and well. It skinned it's tail. The skin just.. slipped off the last 2/3's of the tail and the rat took off in the tank. My first concern was Bob, so I jerked her out of the kitchen, put her up and then checked out the rat after I noticed blood on my hand. (I didn't notice the tail...) Then I saw the tail skin on the desk and gagged. So I can see how feeding live rats is an issue. ---

Is there a way to.. have them alive but unable to attack the girls? No one I have will eat f/t. It's part of why I have them all. They were all skinny, not eating and problem children when I got them. Bob's gone from 160g to 600g in a few months, Eeek went from 105g to 345g, and Ruby {most impressive} went from 54g to 160g, and Stiletto (My corn) went from 5g to 17g. Because of the way I feed. But I'm at a loss when it comes to incapping the larger rodents. It'd make it a lot easier to go out of town if they're not on live. Granted, the person who'd be watching them doesn't mind live, but I'd feel safer knowing their food can't fight back.

If you make sure you're holding the rats tail at the base (1/3 down and closer) you shouldn't end up with any more degloveing injuries. I raise mice and have studies lab animal medicine, an that's the recommendation that's always made to prevent that from happening again.

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Originally Posted by Mephibosheth1

If you make sure you're holding the rats tail at the base (1/3 down and closer) you shouldn't end up with any more degloveing injuries. I raise mice and have studies lab animal medicine, an that's the recommendation that's always made to prevent that from happening again.

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It's an experience I hope I never have to deal with again. I felt horrible for the rat, bad for my snake, and overall just.. Mean, I guess. I think the reason I was holding it where I was is because it kept climbing up and biting/scratching me. (I can't blame it considering...)