BP not well at petco

ok so at petco we have a BP who's skinny and my guess is it hasnt eaten in quite a while. so i put it in the back in its own 10 gallon tank with a water bowl and 75 watt heat bulb. so far ive instructed in its wellness card to be given our "calcium supplement & appettite stimulant" 3 times a day as im sure this is what i need to give him to gain his strength back before attempting to feed him f/t pinkies(instead of fuzzies) in about a day or 2. luckily one of my co-workers is pretty knowledgeable about snakes so he knows how to give him the supplement after i showed him. is what im doing so far ok or is there something missing that im not doing?

Ungh... supplements, bah. I think just leaving the snake in an area with all the right conditions would work a lot better than giving it supplements. They'll end up just causing more stress.

Snakes don't need calcium or any kind of supplement, all the nutrition they need is in a convient rat/mouse package.

I think getting that snake out of a high traffic area and putting it into a quiet dark place with proper temps and humidity will do wonders.

What temps is the 10 gallon tank at? Does it have hides in the tank? Stressing it by handling it three times a day will make it not eat, much less administering calcium supplements which it doesn't need.
My advice would be to make a quiet dim cage, make CERTAIN the temps are proper(with a proper thermometer and not the dials or stick on ones) and plenty of humidity. Then leave it alone for a week, before you offer it a prey item of appropriate size.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by wolfy-hound

What temps is the 10 gallon tank at? Does it have hides in the tank? Stressing it by handling it three times a day will make it not eat, much less administering calcium supplements which it doesn't need.
My advice would be to make a quiet dim cage, make CERTAIN the temps are proper(with a proper thermometer and not the dials or stick on ones) and plenty of humidity. Then leave it alone for a week, before you offer it a prey item of appropriate size.

---

good call
Proper temp + proper sized hide + low light and noise levels = good start.
then prescent with live mice for at least half an hour before attempting to feed; let him think about being hungry before you shove something in his face lol.

and check the temps at least twice... you dont want to 'guess' that they are ok!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by wolfy-hound

What temps is the 10 gallon tank at? Does it have hides in the tank? Stressing it by handling it three times a day will make it not eat, much less administering calcium supplements which it doesn't need.
My advice would be to make a quiet dim cage, make CERTAIN the temps are proper(with a proper thermometer and not the dials or stick on ones) and plenty of humidity. Then leave it alone for a week, before you offer it a prey item of appropriate size.

---

x2

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Snakeman

ok so at petco we have a BP who's skinny and my guess is it hasnt eaten in quite a while. so i put it in the back in its own 10 gallon tank with a water bowl and 75 watt heat bulb. so far ive instructed in its wellness card to be given our "calcium supplement & appettite stimulant" 3 times a day as im sure this is what i need to give him to gain his strength back before attempting to feed him f/t pinkies(instead of fuzzies) in about a day or 2. luckily one of my co-workers is pretty knowledgeable about snakes so he knows how to give him the supplement after i showed him. is what im doing so far ok or is there something missing that im not doing?

---

Just curious about something... what wellness card are you talking about? Is it something that's at Petco, or entirely something else from another source?

What everyone else said pretty much hit the important points... it's all about the habitat and keeping close watch on humidity and temperature. Also, providing hides in both the warm and cool side of the tank won't make the BP stress out as much and will feel secure.

yeah remove it from high traffic area .. I know the local pet shop has a bunch of bps and they all poor looking they claim to only feed once every 3 weeks is required but these guys under weight my 08 and the store snakes are larger in length than mine.

Chances are if you have a ball python in a glass 10 gallon tank with a heat bulb then your humidity is way way off. Try not to touch the snake at all let alone handle it three times daily. My snake doesn't do anything three times daily. I am pretty happy if it does anything at all 3 times weekly. About the only thing you should be doing with that setup 3 times a day is checking this thread for advice, maybe misting the tank, although ditching the bulb, adding and under the tank heat source on a thermostat and covering the top so that 25% or less is ventilated would be a better plan. As for your feeding plan. I hope you are talking about pinky rats. A pinky mouse is not a good choice for even a hatchling BP. I would go with a hopper mouse at the very least.