First time snake owner!

Hello everyone. A few months ago I bough my first snake, this amazing spider named Monty. I found him on craigslist from someone who, in my opinion, didn't seem to be taking great care of him. She said she got him from her cousin who's a breeding and she kept him in a 12"x12" tall lizard cage with no uth and who knows what type of wood chips for bedding. But I did my research and he seemed pretty healthy and had a great personality. The only thing I could notice was that he seemed a bit under fed for his age, 1.5-2 yrs. He was skinny and she said she was feeding him one live mouse ever other week. I knew the risks and didn't think I could trust everything she was telling me, but after seeing his pattern and personality I knew I had to have him.

She told me he was due for a feeding and since he seemed underfed I tried feeding him the first night and he took it no problem. I was so happy. Over the next couple days I started to notice a few mites on him but not many. I was sad and a bit nervous but I knew what to do and after one treatment he was completely cured and has had no problems since.

Shortly after getting him I moved him to a larger cage, got him some proper hides, a uth, regulator and hygrometer and he's loving it!

I've had him for 5 months now and he's grown a little bit. For the first few months I was feeding him 1 live mouse every week and a half. But since December I switched him over to frozen thawed rat hoppers once a week. He has never given me problems feeing and since switching him over I have noticed him putting on more weight than before which is good. When I weighted him in December he was only at 330g. I need to weight him again soon to see how he's growing. But I know he has put on some weight since Dec. and is around 26"-28" long.

I would like to know what you experienced snake owners think. Am I doing alright with my feeding schedule and size? based on his size and weight do you think he could really be 2yrs old? Thanks for reading.

September:
http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/m...pskkuco95v.jpg
http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/m...pstudrqn4o.jpg

Now:
http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/m...ps9c3ahbpu.jpg

Yes you did pretty good and congrats on your new snake!:)

Good job. He's a great lookin' Spider! He'll be pounding rat pups in no time.

If he is 330 grams, he should be able to easily move up to weaned rats soon, (for small / young snakes, being fed 10%-15% of their body weight is usually recommended - so he could eat a prey item between 33 and 49.5 g every 5 to 7 days). Since he has only been on small items and mice, you might want to slowly increase the size from mice to rats over a few weeks so his system can adjust. If you haven't seen it, there is a chart floating around on the forum somewhere that has the prey size to snake size on it. Hopefully someone will post a link to it, I can't seem to find it :)

Glad you got the little guy. I'm sure he'll start to gain size quickly now that he's got a good home

He is plenty big enough for weaned or small rats. Good lookin spider too[emoji106]🏻[emoji106]🏻

Monty looks awesome!!!
Congrats!!! Nice rescue story :)

Thanks for the nice replies! I'm glad to hear he's on the right track. Last I checked the rats I'm feeding him were around 35g. So it's good to know I can probably move him up to larger prey when I go to restock pretty soon.

Gorgeous pattern on him! Nice to see another snake rescued.

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He looks real good....I'm glad you got him and are putting great care into him. His pattern is awesome :gj: He can take a rat or mouse about the same size as the thick part of his body. Once a week would be good. Sometimes I will do 2 smaller ones and he never minds eating twice.

Pretty snake! Glad you rescued him.