Handsome new guy

Last week one of the guys in my lab group text me asking if I had a ball python (I have pictures of Lilly on Facebook). When I told him I had several he started telling me about how he has a BP, but it's at home, he feels like he's neglecting it, and he would like to find it a new home, since he lives in a frat house and can't keep it there.

I told him I could long term babysit, or just keep the lil guy, it didn't matter to me. He told me the BPs name is Joey, that he eats one mouse per feeding (and he admitted that he wasn't feeding him often enough).

However when I asked how old he was....he's 4! At least... the guy has had this snake for the past 4 years! And he's eating one small mouse at a time?! I was kinda worried about the lil guy then. Anyways, I picked him up today, and it's not as bad as I thought.

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil..._1_-_small.jpg

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil..._4_-_small.jpg

The poor thing only weighs 300g (I have an 09 female that weighed that much back in November!)... but he doesn't appear to be super skinny like I feared he would be. I'm not sure how a 4 year old snake can be that small and not be skin and bones, but he doesn't seem to be. He's pretty light colored, almost fire-ish, but I'm thinking as he gains weight and get some good nutrients that may change. Either way he has an awesome pattern, and I love his tail strip/blushing thing he has going on!

Hopefully he will eat for me this week... I'm going to offer when I feed my other guys and feed him like he's one of the little girls, since he weights about the same. He's acting hungry, but I don't blame him. I'm going to try to slowly get him off the maintenance diet he's been on for so long and get some weight on him!

He's an attractive little guy!

He is definitely skinny. That triangular shape is pretty apparent in the pics. As far as him not being skin & bones, I'd guess he has been fed fairly consistently throughout his life, but just not enough, which has caused slow growth.

Oh, he's definately got the triangle thing going on, but when someone tells you they are feeding a small mouse every three weeks or so, and on yeah, he's 4 years old, I was thinking he was going to be in much worse shape.

He has a really cool kinda darker freckling going on where the alien heads usually are.

I showed the guy from my lab my collection when he brought the lil guy over, and he was shocked by how big my 06 girl is! :P

nice looking. unique pattern. I smell dinker!

My Axanthic was in a similar condition (age and weight wise). I started feeding him weined rats and then small rats. He gained weight quick. He went from 296g to 900+g in a matter of I would say 9 months tops. Also expect many sheds :D. He also ate some adult ASFs male back when I was still breeding them.

He still around 900g but he hasnt eaten in almost 3 months with the winter (or Im hoping that's what it is, my other snakes are off-feed as well) He still looks very thin, but he is so long/large now, my biggest snake. He is about 2+ years old now.

Congratulatins!! ;)

im glad you have him now. i had a lady come to my buddies pet store today and ask me for a pinkie mice and i happen to ask what she was feeding and she told me a 2 year old cal king so i told her what a snake that old should be eating and she told me that she had him for 2 years and the snake is alive and happy eating one pinkie every 10 days. i tried hopefully she will listen to me. how can people be so stupid?

I'm wondering if he will actually gain much weight very quickly. With a young snake it's understandable for it to grow so fast, but most BPs slow way down on growth after their third year or so. Since Joey is at least 4 I'm just hoping to get him rounded out some, and get whatever growth he's going to go through.

Of course the first thing he did was poo and pee all over his clean tub (and that was after I weighted him so 300g - a little bit) but I wasn't thinking and just threw all of the bedding and waste out. Next time there is any fecal matter I'm going to take it to a vet and get it checked for parasites... I'm just having such a hard time believing this tiny guy is 4 years old!

Oh another note, I really don't think the guy that had him knew any better. He knew he should be fed more than every three weeks, but that was as often as he was able to get home recently. I'm not so sure about the first couple of years. He didn't seem to think anything about the fact that he was so small, so I'm going to work on educating him on BPs and be sure he has the right idea if he ever wants the guy back.

He really does have a nice pattern. Well...at least he was feeding it. When I moved down to Arizona I moved in with my aunt who was keeping my cousin's corn snake until he got out of prison and that poor thing never had food or water except maybe once a month until I got there. Then when I moved out of her house I went every week and fed him and made sure he had water for the next 4 years until my cousin got out.

But glad you got him and will get some decent meals into him! I'm sure he'll be a cute lil dude for ya!

nice looking pattern he has going on.

I got an 08 royal last year at start of November that only weighed in at 245g & she felt light & was hollow underneath. She's probably the best feeder that I have now & weighed in at over 500g last time I checked; she was only getting small/med mice but I'm not sure how often. She was healthy but small & slim, now looking great & getting prettier every time she sheds. I haven't been power feeding, just let her make up for lost time & I'm slowing the feeding down a bit now as I don't want her to get fat just bigger.

So I asked the guy that had him, and he said he had tried to feed more than one mouse before, but the lil dude wouldn't ever take the second one. I'll find out on Thursday how he is when feeding.

Since I didn't have any idea how big he was going to be I didn't have a hide for him. I'm going to grab a couple of spare hides when I get stuff for the mice Thursday, but for now I got a small Kleenex box and cut it in half so he has a nice dark hide that's about the right size... of course, he's been camped out on top of it since I put it in there. Lil dork :P

It's ashame he was under fed but he really has a cool pattern :gj:

Really digging that tail stripe.. Nice looking guy you got there..

I really do love his tail stripey thing ^_^

And... he ate tonight!! :D I'm just going to keep him on one mouse a week so I don't over tax his system for a while, but he was out hunting as soon as I came in with the mice! yay!

I would probably feed him like a hatchling and feed him every 5 days as long as he will eat that frequently. He should grow pretty quickly now that he's going to be on a regular diet!

I'm going to be gone next week, so it will have to be 7 days or so before any of them get fed again, but after the next feeding I'll bump him up a bit. I am hoping he gains some good size with regular food! ^_^

So the little dude is an absolute pig... it's awesome! He thought pretty seriously about eating me when I fed him last week, and he has been out hunting all day (they get fed tomorrow). Once he is eating good and passes some of this food for the first time I'm going to start weighing him every week before he eats to see how he grows.

He's a pretty friendly lil guy when he isn't considering having me for dinner. I've had him out a few times, and he's pretty relaxed. I'm just glad to see that his appetite has stayed up... one of the reasons he wasn't fed much was the guy said he wouldn't eat part of the time. Thankfully I don't think I'll have that problem with him ^_^

Thats great news! :)

While I will admit that this snake was underfed, it is also not really good to over feed your snakes either. Feeding every week (depending on what you are feeding) isn't much better for it. Power feeding your females every week to get them to breeding size in 2 years isn't very healthy and is a big factor in why most people only get 4-5 egg clutches. A bp female really should not get to breeding size for 3-4 years. They should also be at around 2k g not 1k or 1.5k g. If more breeders waited 3-4 years to breed their females and only bred them at 2-3k g I guaranty most would have much larger Viable clutches.

He is handsome. I love the blushing on his back. I am sure once he gets to a good weight that is really going to show well.

Good on you for taking him in!!:gj:

He really is very pretty! I'm sure once he beefs up a little he will be even more gorgeous!

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Originally Posted by TessadasExotics

While I will admit that this snake was underfed, it is also not really good to over feed your snakes either. Feeding every week (depending on what you are feeding) isn't much better for it.

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He's just getting a small mouse once a week... I don't think it's over feeding, personally. I tend to feed less then many people on the forum, b/c I think it's better for them. I keep an eye on the kind of shape my snakes are in, and if they look to be getting 'chunky', I'll cut back a bit on frequency, or perhaps prey size.

I'd like to get this lil dude on a steady feeding schedule, since part of the reason the previous owner said he was so small was that he wouldn't eat half the time. I know that being on a set schedule seems to make them eat more reliably, and that's what I'm going for now. I have no desire to shock his system by pumping a ton of food in him and trying to get growth. I'd be ok with it if he's always small (and personally I think he will be). I would just like to get him up to a healthy weight for his length.

He is such a handsome lil guy, and I'm excited to see how he turns out once he's well fed. I'm hoping he keeps the lighter colors, but even if he doesn't, I love his pattern. ^_^