87 grams? Seriously!?

Well, like the title says, my approximately 4 month old BP weighs 87 grams (empty). This sounds way too small to me. I haven't accurately measured him, but he's about 15-16 inches long. How much do hatchlings weigh? I can't remember where, but I thought I read that newborns weigh 85 grams when they HATCH. So, here I am, staring at my monitor, thinking "Whaaaaat..?".:O:weirdface

Help? Opinions, suggestions, anything. Even how much your snake weighed at that age would help.

Thanks in advance, everybody!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Moofins07

Well, like the title says, my approximately 4 month old BP weighs 87 grams (empty). This sounds way too small to me. I haven't accurately measured him, but he's about 15-16 inches long. How much do hatchlings weigh? I can't remember where, but I thought I read that newborns weigh 85 grams when they HATCH. So, here I am, staring at my monitor, thinking "Whaaaaat..?".:O:weirdface

Help? Opinions, suggestions, anything. Even how much your snake weighed at that age would help.

Thanks in advance, everybody!

---

Are you feeding prey that is too small? Prey should be 10-15 percent of the snakes bodyweight.

Do you know how much he weighted as a newborn? He could have been a twin or a runt...

I have a het hypo that I hatched in 2004 or 2005 that just recently passed 300 grams. Eats like a pig, too.

And sometimes they just grow slow and/or are destined to be small. I got a lesser hatchling at Daytona last year...and he's still pretty small, even though he's a great eater and never misses a meal. He just grows slow and I doubt he'll ever be a hefty snake.

I just got two new hatchlings at Daytona that had had one meal each. Right now one weighs around 160g empty and the other 120g empty.

Not exactly sure how old they are but I think they are def less than 4 months. Up your prey size and maybe frequency.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Hock3ymonk3y

Are you feeding prey that is too small? Prey should be 10-15 percent of the snakes bodyweight.

Do you know how much he weighted as a newborn? He could have been a twin or a runt...

---

I bought him from a rescuer just a month ago, and he said the snake came from a reputable breeder. I don't have any info on the snake before that. (Actually... I just remembered. There was a second baby, which I'm guessing came from the same clutch, but he showed me a weird rib defect the baby had and said he was going to hang onto that one to see if anything changed. Could one defect affect the whole clutch?)

I feed him two hoppers every 7 days. I kinda wince when I say "two", because I've heard that called power-feeding, but he seems to enjoy it and looks so satisfied afterward. I have a scale, and actually meant to weigh the prey before dropping it in, but it completely slipped my mind. :irkd:

Should be on rat fuzzies that would be better. Well this is due to the mouse hoppers around me being about the size of a mouse fuzzy.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Moofins07

I bought him from a rescuer just a month ago, and he said the snake came from a reputable breeder.

---

How do you buy from a rescuer?

My lesser female was 346@ 4 months,my spider girl over 400. These 2 were in the 60-70g range when hatched to give you something to compare with.

Just start weighing the food, making sure its 15% of your snakes weight. And start monitoring your snakes weight, I would feed every 5 days, instead of two every 7. If your concerned about power feeding, just make sure the two mice equal 15% of the snakes weight. And as mentioned before, he's probably a runt.

Hi,

I just weighed the two that left the eggs today and they were 61g and 62g respectively. :salute:

They be ickle. :gj:


dr del

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LadyOhh

How do you buy from a rescuer?

---

His name's Mike Hopcraft aka The Reptile Guy. Here's his website:

http://thereptileguy.ca/

He's got quite the impressive collection... I'm pretty lucky to live only a half-hour away from him.

EDIT: Actually, if you look under the 'Available' page and find the baby ball python for $120, the picture is of my very same BP. I compared the tail markings and it is indeed him. Kinda funny.

I think you misunderstand the question.

He is not a rescuer if he is selling the animals later...

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LadyOhh

I think you misunderstand the question.

He is not a rescuer if he is selling the animals later...

---

Well, from my understanding, he rescues some, and either rehabilitates them for adoption, or keeps them as his personal pets.

Either way, this is kind of waning off-topic... it doesn't matter WHO I got him from, for the most part. But thank you for all of your suggestions so far! I guess I'll have to accept the fact that he's naturally a little small.

My male BP hatched in 2006. He is very small for his age and normally only tops out at around 500grams. My female pied, who is a year old is already at 710 grams. Some grow slower then others. Some are just small, light snakes while others are a bit bigger, and beefier.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by lillyorchid

My male BP hatched in 2006. He is very small for his age and normally only tops out at around 500grams. My female pied, who is a year old is already at 710 grams. Some grow slower then others. Some are just small, light snakes while others are a bit bigger, and beefier.

---

*Whimpers* But I want a BEEFY snake! :tears:

:rofl:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Moofins07

*Whimpers* But I want a BEEFY snake! :tears:

:rofl:

---

Get a blood python! ;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Moofins07

I feed him two hoppers every 7 days. I kinda wince when I say "two", because I've heard that called power-feeding, but he seems to enjoy it and looks so satisfied afterward.

---

I wouldn't call that "power-feeding," especially if he's still too small for an adult mouse. My hatchlings each got multiple mice this week... 2 hoppers for Pedro, 1 hopper & 1 adult (it was a leftover) for Orlando, and 2 hoppers for Vinnie. And my adults often get 3-4 adult mice per feeding, since one of them is a mouser-only - and it's just easier to get the same prey in case one refuses. So I'd say 2 hoppers is fine for a baby, and you could even feed every 5 days until he beefs up.

P.S. Fyi, my hatchlings weigh between 120-140g each, and they're all around 2 months old... but that doesn't necessarily mean anything. :confuzd:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by LadyOhh

I think you misunderstand the question.

He is not a rescuer if he is selling the animals later...

---

To be fair, I paid a $75 adoption fee for my dog, and he was from the HSUS. Even rescuers have to cover their costs, right? As long as they're not turning around and selling it for full price (i.e. a "rescue albino" for $500), it can still be considered an adoption... but I digress, LOL. ;)

Btw, I've been browsing that guy's website, and he does some amazing rescues! Thank goodness for people like him...

one of my female normals is about 4 months old and shes almost at 200

is your scale reliable and was it tared before you weighed him? If you don't tare (reset the scale to zero if you're using a container to weigh him) your weighs wont be accurate.

Also, are you using a digital scale to weigh him or an analog scale? I had an analog scale that i thought was calibrated and it turned out to be more than 100 grams off (in this case it said things were lighter than they actually were).

Switch to rats and it will grow like a weed. I've got a hatch that weighed 60g when i got her in july and she now weighs 175g. On rat pinkys and rat fuzzies.

I've got a normal that will only eat live mice, shes a year old and half the size of my others that are on FT rats. Rats have a much higher nutritional value and protein compared to mice.

I think you need to feed him more,every 3 days is good,& keep him warm

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lolo76

To be fair, I paid a $75 adoption fee for my dog, and he was from the HSUS. Even rescuers have to cover their costs, right? As long as they're not turning around and selling it for full price (i.e. a "rescue albino" for $500), it can still be considered an adoption... but I digress, LOL. ;)

Btw, I've been browsing that guy's website, and he does some amazing rescues! Thank goodness for people like him...

---

You actually adopted your dog from the Humane Society of the United States? You're sure it wasn't a local community run Humane Society?

To the OP, nearly ALL of my baby balls were smaller then 87g at hatching

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by trott

Switch to rats and it will grow like a weed. I've got a hatch that weighed 60g when i got her in july and she now weighs 175g. On rat pinkys and rat fuzzies.

I've got a normal that will only eat live mice, shes a year old and half the size of my others that are on FT rats. Rats have a much higher nutritional value and protein compared to mice.

---

There haven't been any studies to show that rats have more nutritional value than mice. I've happened to have the same anecdotal experience you've had (with an animal growing much better on rats than mice) but I've talked to other people who have had the opposite happen.

My '09 hatchling is around six weeks old and isn't quite up to 70 grams yet. My sisters also have a '09 hatchling that's around 10 weeks old and he's not even 80 grams last time I checked. They both eat just fine. I've decided to just chalk it up to them being small :confused: Either that or my $30 digital scale from Target is just way off.

Sounds small I've got a female pastel that hatched in July thats over 200g now empty but I usually feed hatchlings every 5 days until a year old then I cut back to every 7.

Seems like most of the people here are posting weights of females.Does theoriginal poster know the sex of this bp? Females are just bigger

Just to give you some more data on the hatchling weight issue, I have hatched snakes this year that range from 28 grams to 93 grams. I would say the average is around 55 grams. As some other posters have stated, I would think that you are feeding meals that are slightly small. With that said, I would say that my normal growing Ball puthons as hatchlings will typically double their weight every 2 months for the first 6 months or so. Just some basic guidlines.

Hope that helps,

My girl is about 3 months old. I just weighed her yesterday, she weighted 202g. She hasn't pooped in 2 weeks, and has eaten 3 meals. I weighed her when she was empty and she was at 150g