Re: I have a spider that isn't gaining weight even though he is eating?
yea I feed that to wee baby ball pythons..
Re: I have a spider that isn't gaining weight even though he is eating?
When I first got my spider hatchling at 107g (very small), her first meal was a rat pup, as in still crawling around with its eyes mostly closed, but already had a full coat of hair. It seems to me you are too afraid to feed it something a bit bigger. I dont think is accurate to apply the "a meal as wide as the snake" rule to a hatchling or very young BP.
Re: I have a spider that isn't gaining weight even though he is eating?
My thoughts are when he was the same size as the others and one the same food why hasn't he stayed with their size?
I also had a very sad mishap about 4 months ago with a Vanilla that I would compare to his current size eating a rat pup.
PS- still looking for the cam extension to load a pic of him.
Re: I have a spider that isn't gaining weight even though he is eating?
While I agree with those who are saying this spider can probably eat bigger meals, what I got out of the OPs posts is that other snakes that were the same size and were being fed the same food have grown, and this one has not. I can understand the OPs concern.
They do all seem to grow at their own rate, and it isn't necessarily as directly correlated to what they eat as one would expect. I have a mojave girl that seems to gain weight on thin air. And, when you have several snakes, one of them has to be the slowest grower. But if he is truly not growing at all, or is way behind even the 2nd slowest grower, then there might be a problem. Taking a fecal sample to a vet to rule out parasites might be worthwhile in that case.
Since you say he is not gaining weight, do you know how much he weighs? Posting that info would help people to advise you better on what he should be eating.
Re: I have a spider that isn't gaining weight even though he is eating?
I didn't post this post for anyone to question what I feed my snakes size wise. All are healthy and I have owned BPs for 5 years now with no real issues. I am positive I won't be able to feed him anything larger for his own health. Like I mentioned the ordeal with the Vanilla...when taken to the vet after the fact her meal was too large for her even though I was positive she was fine and she ate it with no issues. However she died sometime during the night and the vet told us it was 99% from the meal being too big and she was unable to begin digesting it and she became bloated...OVERNIGHT.
Thank you to the above poster for realizing the reason of my postings.
