Does this snake look smaller than she should be?

I got her as a yearling in 2017, so she should be somewhere in her fourth year of life. She ate extremely inconsistently for no reason I could ever figure out, and I tried everything. One completely random day in 2019 she woke up and decided to start pounding rats, we haven't had a problem since. She's eating a medium f/t weekly as of right now. I kinda expected her to be quite a bit larger at this point, and now I can't decide if I'm feeding her appropriately. She's only 4.5lb but also full of poop at the moment. I see pics of people with much larger 4 year old shorties but I also know that a lot of people overfeed them. Does she look healthy to you guys? Should I bump up her rat size or maybe feed her a little more often since she ate so badly in her youth?

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/N9rbbVx.jpg https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/UwWECz3.jpg

I don't know about this species but for the snakes I have that were underfed and thus were stunted, the vet always recommended feeding based on their current weight, not where they should be given their age.

I also can't speak for this species, but proportion-wise, she looks fine to me, & personally, I wouldn't worry about it. I had for many years a BCI that I took in- her nervous temperament and multiple very stressful re-homings before I adopted her meant that she grew very slowly for her first few years with me, but later on she caught up in her own good time- and ended up big & beautiful & healthy as can be. I'd just recommend being patient with this snake- I suspect she'll catch up in her own good time, & it's always better not to over-feed.

Your snake looks fine but I'd say you're overfeeding now. No adult short tail needs weekly feedings, she's not even fully digesting before you are adding more, I'd back off to every 2-3 weeks between meals. My male bangka who pounds food is the same age and right around the same weight and I have a picky eater borneo a year older that's not even four pounds yet because getting him to eat f/t has been a battle too. His sister is 2x the size of him and I'm not worried about either of them.

Thanks GP that's very helpful! You think a medium every two weeks is fine? The size of the larges compared to her makes me a little nervous tbh, but she'll take a medium and immediately be looking for more which is why I was feeding weekly, it's nice to see her interested in food after giving me trouble for so long. She will not be pleased to hear I'm cutting her back lol.

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Originally Posted by lisalombs

I got her as a yearling in 2017, so she should be somewhere in her fourth year of life. She ate extremely inconsistently for no reason I could ever figure out, and I tried everything. One completely random day in 2019 she woke up and decided to start pounding rats, we haven't had a problem since. She's eating a medium f/t weekly as of right now. I kinda expected her to be quite a bit larger at this point, and now I can't decide if I'm feeding her appropriately. She's only 4.5lb but also full of poop at the moment. I see pics of people with much larger 4 year old shorties but I also know that a lot of people overfeed them. Does she look healthy to you guys? Should I bump up her rat size or maybe feed her a little more often since she ate so badly in her youth?

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/N9rbbVx.jpg https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/UwWECz3.jpg

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For comparison I just put up a picture of my Blood Maxwell Smart


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by lisalombs

Thanks GP that's very helpful! You think a medium every two weeks is fine? The size of the larges compared to her makes me a little nervous tbh, but she'll take a medium and immediately be looking for more which is why I was feeding weekly, it's nice to see her interested in food after giving me trouble for so long. She will not be pleased to hear I'm cutting her back lol.

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Yes that's plenty, and they will stay in feeding mode for hours to days so them still looking for more after a meal is very normal and nothing to worry about, not hunger, just instinct. I know the feeling though, my picky boy has finally turned the corner on f/t and it's so nice to have them actually take food easily.

This is my 2016 blood, freshly emptied out and 4.6 pounds on my scale.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...bcb238636b.jpg


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I think, in the snake world, age is not a great way to determine size. She looks very healthy to me. If she shows signs of being hungry a couple days after being fed, I would bump up feeder size, but otherwise if she is calm between feedings, she is fine. With my 7 y/o Blood, I had her on medium rats when she was over 7 lbs, and gave her a large rat every other feeding. When she started getting restless on those "medium weeks", only then did I permanently bump her up to large rats. I was so cautious because she went on a fast for a few months, years ago (which, from what I've heard is pretty unusual for Bloods) after I offered a larger size than she was used to. Your girl has lots of time to grow.