First Baby - normal weight gain?

Willow was born approx beginning of August.

When we weighed her on Nov 3, she was 134g (still had a meal in her system.) We weighed her last night (8 days after the first weigh and approx 3.5 months old,) after a shed and massive pee with a teeeeeeeeny poop and she was 144g. Her rat pups are the width or smaller than her belly and range 24g to 26g. So, she is getting between 10% and 20% of her body weight, once a week.

Is gaining 100g in a week normal? How fast is a safe and healthy rate for them to gain? Since she's our first baby, we don't know. Our adult we got as an adult and she's on a maintenance/slow gain schedule.

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Originally Posted by Yzmasmom

Willow was born approx beginning of August.

When we weighed her on Nov 3, she was 134g (still had a meal in her system.) We weighed her last night (8 days after the first weigh and approx 3.5 months old,) after a shed and massive pee with a teeeeeeeeny poop and she was 144g. Her rat pups are the width or smaller than her belly and range 24g to 26g. So, she is getting between 10% and 20% of her body weight, once a week.

Is gaining 100g in a week normal? How fast is a safe and healthy rate for them to gain? Since she's our first baby, we don't know. Our adult we got as an adult and she's on a maintenance/slow gain schedule.

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Well its only 10g and not 100g if the increase went from 134g to 144g. Was that a typo with the extra zero? Also hatchlings absorb mostly all of their intake for growth subsequently their output is minimal with waste production. Thanks to Deborah for making that crystal clear to me when i had questions about a hatchling that wouldn't have a bm for a long time. :D

Yes, sorry, lol 10g. Hahahaha would be scary if it s 100g!

Every animal is different, and will grow and gain at different rates, but she sounds pretty normal to me. My boy grew at about that weight, but he was a pig of an eater and still is at 3 years old, but my girl gains at a little slower rate 6 to 8g a week depending if she feels like eating. She's a real picky eater and won't eat ft. nor will she eat dark colored rats. Shes picky but a real sweetie so i just cater to her. If your snake likes to eat and is growing well your doing it right. just be careful of pushing the size, for a baby keep it at 10 to 15 percent of his weight. Weigh every couple of weeks so you can adjust the size of his dinner as he grows.

I've had some of my juveniles gain 100g a month, but never in a week. :snake: As long as they're gaining something between meals I feel like they're doing fine. Different snakes grow at different rates though. I have some that don't gain half as much.

I think 10g in a week is fine for a hatchling.

Switching to rat pups from small mice was the turning point for my current baby. She didn't do much for the first month and a half I had her. She would gain a few grams and then lose it when she went to the bathroom and she really didn't gain but about 15 grams in a month and half. I thought something was wrong with her but I really didn't stress much because she was eating, pooping and shedding. Once I switched her to rats she really started to gain weight. They were like fertilizer. lol