is this weight ok?

so my 3 month old male BP which i have had for about 5 weeks, ate for the first time last friday (i have a post on general pythons about all this), i have the first feeding attempt was a week after i bought him, and it was a white mice from petland, and so where the other 2 following (one every week) and basically was the same, defensives strikes and thats about it, until last week i found a local guy who has ASF's and i throw in a small fuzzy ASF in there, one defensive strike and 5 seconds later a strike and coil (i guess the defensive strike got that taste of ASF in him and he could;t resist)

Anyway, he definetly appears skinnier then when i first got him, i picked up a digital scale the other day and he weighs in at exactly 61 grams. He might or might not be 4 months old, but when i picked him up in the first week of march i know he was atleast 1 month old, so hes roughly 3-4 months old. Is the weight normal? im pretty sure definetley not. I tried the white mice again since i thought maybe since he took the ASF last week he will maybe get into it and take the white mice, but i guess not, im going to try again tommorrow with another ASF.

What i want to know is should i start doing some sort of fast feeding with him to get his weight up? like maybe a ASF every 4 days or something like that?

He pooped the first week i got him and has not pooped ever since then, not even after taken the ASF last friday.

It could be that the mouse just seems too big for the little fella. I'd stick with what worked for at least a month or two....every five days would be a good schedule, if he'll eat that often for you. He likely will. They really do want to grow when they're that little!

Once he starts to get some solid size on him, then you might try the mice again.

He's low on a normal scale for baby bps. I've had babies hatch out at 80gs. So a 4month old at 61 is low. But then again. You got him
At a Petstore. They generally get ch babies in fresh from the egg. So he's probably not 4 months old. He's probably more like 2 months old or a month and a half. Petstores are also notorious for under feeding. They general give pinkies as a meal and that is not going to pack on weight to a growing baby. For perspective though how much they weigh all depends on how much he eats. If he's a picky eater he hadn't eaten as much and not gaining as much weight. If he was an aggressive 4 month old feeder is say whoa something is wrong. But there's too many unknowns in Petstore babies.

I think that's low weight as the others have said. You might want to try offering smaller meals more often until you get that guy eating steady. My Lemon Blast was November 2010 and she's 220+ empty. She will be turning 6 months pretty soon.

Regards,

B

no i got his at the reptile expo that was held in white plains in march.

So what intervals should i feed him? every 5 days? 4...?

Im going to pick up anothe ASF this afternoon to feed it to him tonight. Its been a week.

Still there's more than 1 importer or breeders that have normals hatch out and sell them right out of the egg. Petstore/ expo. Same problem. Last year I vended at the Machester expo and there were a couple of people that had just hatched babies. 61 grams is pretty normal for a newborn. I just don't see a 4 month old being 61g and still hanging on for dear life. Anyways feed every 5 days. He'll gain weight soon enough.

In the beginning, I usually fed twice about every 4 days. Baby's go from being problem eaters to bottomless pits pretty quick.

Jeo123

so you were feeding 2 mice every 4 days? if so let me know so i can pick up 2 fuzzies ASF's today instead of one (the guy a get it from is kind of far)

now im starting to get a little worried and i want to get his weight up!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by FrankieCarbone

Jeo123

so you were feeding 2 mice every 4 days? if so let me know so i can pick up 2 fuzzies ASF's today instead of one (the guy a get it from is kind of far)

now im starting to get a little worried and i want to get his weight up!

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I would offer 2 for sure!

Regards,

B

good god almighty! my BP was in his hide, i dropped the ASF fuzzie infront of the hide, i was looking inside the hide and he was deep in there, i got a phone call real quick, 3 minutes later i hung up the phone, i take a look in the tank and he already had the fuzzie coiled up!

when hes thru with that one im gonna give him the other.

now this is both good and bad news, the good news is hes eating, the bad news he is apperantly hooked on ASF's. Because yesterday when i tried feeding him the white mice from petland, the mouse was laying infront of the hide too, and he was right infront in the same position as the ASF today, and he was there for like a hour, and he did not pay it any attention whats so ever.

So what should i do? am i going to have to keep feeding hims ASF's? how can i wean him into regular mice???

The main thing is the sanke is eatin now get its weight up and healty no matter what its eatin then try to switch over to mice or even better rats

problem is, the well might be running dry as far as the ASF hook up i have, he said after next week he needs to keep the pinkies and fuzzies he has for his cornsnakes (hes a cornsnake breeder) He tells me that he can sell me 2 great ASF rats to breed, but that is something i cannot do, i cant have a tank full of mice and rats where i live.

Also quick question, the first one he coiled and took outside the hide, then when he finished swallowing him he went back into his hide, were i again placed the other fuzzie in the front of the hide, he quickly stuck his head out and was flicking his togue all over the fuzzie is its as if he was just about to strike, then he saw me and went back into his hide, few minutes later i took another peak thru the door and i saw the fuzzie head was in the entrance of the hide, i close the door, 10 minutes later, i see the fuzzie is kind of having a stroke, then i check back in 2 minutes later and the fuzzie is gone, then i see a whole bunch of movement in the hide, he almost lifted it up (its a small hide) and there is still activity in there the hide keeps moving up and down, looks something like alien trying to get out of somebodys chest, i dont know whats going on in there, but can he completley eat and swallow the fuzzie in that small hide? i mean every time i have fed this snake and the one before they all had to stand up sort off to finish the last swallow, i dont want to pick up the hide and stress him and have him throw up the fuzzie, so can he actually complete the swalling process inside a small hide? I'am going to wait until he comes out eventually and check under the hide to see if he just did;t kill him and leave him there, which is what im hoping he did not do, the curiosity is killing me i want to lift that hide so bad, but i know hell get stressed out.

Yes he cam eat and finish eating in the hide. I wouldn't worry about that at all. You probably will have a problem switching him to mice. But it should be done eventually. I would get really stinky bedding from this guy and keep it in a container and scent the prey. See if you can do that a couple times and then slowly wean off the scenting.

what i have been doing is, i bought this small little travel plastic container, the ones they sell in petland for 5 bucks, an last time i bought the ASF from the guy i put some aspen bedding in there and put the ASF in there, got home and left him in there for a few hours before i fed him to my BP, did the same thing yesterday, that very same bedding i still have and when i got them i thru them both in there too for the ride home.

I had that same idea with the scenting deal before, but the ASF guy told me that thats not enough, they have to pee and poop and all that in that bedding for it to really work. I will ask him though when i go and pick up 2 more ASF fuzzies next week if hell give me some of the dirtiest stinkiest bedding he has and keep it, then the following week i guess try regular fuzzies...

and i could't take it, i just had to see what was going on in there, but instead of lifting the hide, i flashed a flash light in there, as soon as he saw that bright light first thing he did was strike, but yeh, the fuzzie was gone....

Ya the dirty nasty bedding is what you want for scenting. When you are switching him you'll want to leave the mouse in the nasty bedding for a good hour and rub him all up In it. Then try and give to the snake. Also ive had good luck with multiple feeders. 1st being the asf 2nd being a mouse. Tricking them like that works too.

oh man i might have made a mistake, i thought i did;t see anything in the hide when i checked, but tonight i noticed he was in his cold side hide, so i took the chance to check the temps with my temp gun on the hot side hide (the one where he was when he took the second ASF) and when i lifted up the hide, there was the ASF fuzzie, squished up, now i dont know if he thre him up or if he just killed him and laid on top of him, but regardless he only ate one on friday, (dammit). Just to see i thru the dead asf fuzzie infront of the cold hide and see if maybe hell take it, but if not in a about 20 minutes ill just take the fuzzie out. How do i tell the difference between wether he thru him up or just killed him? i mean i did;t see any like slime or what not on the fuzzie, but he was pretty compacted up....?

If he was laying on it it'll be all compacted And squished. If he threw it up it will most likely have spit all over it and wet and gross either way if it's from Friday He's not going to take it and I'd just toss it. I'm surprised you didn't smell it. Yuk. Super gross toss that sucker In the trash. Most likely it was a stress strike and he killed or constricted it and just didn't eat it.

yeh he did;t take it, i threw him out. Whats next, should i try another ASF fuzzie in a few days again? also, i know i probably should have not done this but i did take him out of the tank, and he did;t hiss at me this time, he still was very stressed, but for a moment he chilled in my hands for a few seconds without running away from me, i put him back in his tank before he decided to possibly strike at me, but all in all, he was less defensive than last time i picked him up, and no hissing or striking whats so ever for the 1-2 minutes i handled him outside the tank.

so should i try another ASF fuzzie on weds? or a regular? im guessing hes not going to take 2 fuzzies, so i cant do the trick of giving him a fuzzie ASF at first then a regular as his second, so which should i try first?

Another thing he really does look real skinny while i was holding him, his skin is folding a little and everything, he definetley is not as thick and healthy looking as he was when i first got him.....

Leave him completely alone. Try a asf fuzzy. He seems to be eating those and he needs to be eating. I would also be weighing him consistently. And if he's losing weight he needs a fecal check to rule out parasites.

that is suprising, the fuzzie had been dead for pretty much 3 days and in intense heat, and no smell. Even right now, it was last night i threw him in the trash and havent taken the trash out and u can smell anything. Is it just me or are ASF's "cleaner" than regular mice. I know i have had mice from petland in my small plastic tank and after a hour or so u can smell in ther and it stinks, even when i buy them from petland and they put it in that box, after 15 minutes and i open the box u can smell the "ratness". The ASF both time i bought them i get no smell out of them at all, weird, you would think the smelliest type of rodent would be the one the snake would like the most.