Slow Grower?????

I will post pictures if needed but don't have any at the moment. I have had my normal female for five years and I am just curious if she is just considered a 'slow grower'. She is 3.5-4.0 ft and around 800 grams. You can not see her back bone and she is fed a small rat once a week every week... is she okay or do I need to up her food? She has been switched to rats since last December (late for switching I know) and she did great with it, no problem whatsoever. I tried a medium rat a few weeks ago and she acted like it was too much, so I went back to the small rats. Tips/ reassurance would be great. :)

800 grams at 3.5 - 4ft? Thats one hell of a thin BP. I've got a few 800g girls right now that are probably under 3. But, to answer your question, yes. That does seem small for a 5 year old female. Not so much for a male. I've seen some males that only reach about 1000g

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Originally Posted by Royal Chick

I will post pictures if needed but don't have any at the moment. I have had my normal female for five years and I am just curious if she is just considered a 'slow grower'. She is 3.5-4.0 ft and around 800 grams. You can not see her back bone and she is fed a small rat once a week every week... is she okay or do I need to up her food? She has been switched to rats since last December (late for switching I know) and she did great with it, no problem whatsoever. I tried a medium rat a few weeks ago and she acted like it was too much, so I went back to the small rats. Tips/ reassurance would be great. :)

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How often and how many mice did you feed before you switched to rats?

800 does seem small for a 5 year old. I have a 6 month old at 500 grams. But it also depends on the diet and individual snakes. Some are just slow growers.
As long as she looks well muscled, then she should be fine.
Can you provide photos?

At that age I would think that she is done growing... Are you sure that she is indeed a she?

I think there's a chance your girl is a boy. It's also possible that she's just a runt. As long as she's eating those small rats weekly and defecating normally (no nasty runny poo), I wouldn't be concerned at all about her weight. Just to clarify, a "small" rat is 50-80g. I would never give an 800g BP a medium rat.

You can also post a few pics just so we can see her body condition.

Maybe put her on a 5 day feeding schedule and see how she does. It just may take a little time for the rat diet to really show.

I would feed her three adult mice a week, and we had her probed because i thought she was a male as well but they told me she was female. Like i said she isn't showing a backbone and she is muscled. I'll try posting pics but last time i tried it didn't go well

http://m1149.photobucket.com/albumvi...OWFAeAXg%3D%3D This was taken a few days ago
http://m1149.photobucket.com/albumvi...OWFAeAXg%3D%3D After the medium rat, she was stretched for an entire week and really didn't move a lot so i think it was way too much
http://m1149.photobucket.com/albumvi...OWFAeAXg%3D%3D The day we got her probed

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Originally Posted by Royal Chick

http://m1149.photobucket.com/albumvi...OWFAeAXg%3D%3D This was taken a few days ago
http://m1149.photobucket.com/albumvi...OWFAeAXg%3D%3D After the medium rat, she was stretched for an entire week and really didn't move a lot so i think it was way too much
http://m1149.photobucket.com/albumvi...OWFAeAXg%3D%3D The day we got her probed

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Pictures didn't show up, copy and paste the "IMG" code on photobucket.

Might I ask where you got her probed?

If you can't see the pics then idk what i'm doing wrong because i even created a photobucket account for this and i copied the URL like i was told so would someone please help me?

Where is the image code? And I got her probed by a Pet shop owner who has ball pythons of his own. I figured i was in safe hands

When you click on a picture on photobucket and it takes you to the page with just that picture the IMG code will be in a box on the right side of the screen (about center of the page)

Really sounds to me like you have a male and not a female.... But if you are sure this guy knew what he was doing then I guess you have a runt.

http://i1149.photobucket.com/albums/.../Photo0396.jpg
Taken last week
http://i1149.photobucket.com/albums/.../Photo0370.jpg
After she ate the medium rat, she was like this for a week and really sluggish. She couldn't bend for a week either because of the food.
http://i1149.photobucket.com/albums/.../Photo0054.jpg
In December

Did it!!! Woo go me!

Looks healthy... Either a really small female or an average male.

Thank you guys for replying (and helping me with the pictures)! I'll try putting her on a five day feeding schedule and fatten her up some more.
And a runt is okay with me, I don't plan on breeding her really, size and the fact of her being my innocent sweet little girl. As long as she looks okay I'm a happy momma!

She has nice body condition and muscle tone. :)

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Originally Posted by satomi325

She has nice body condition and muscle tone. :)

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Hehe why thank you, in the pic where she is on the steering wheel we had just gotten back from the pet shop to get her dinner. I take her all over the place with me and everyone loves her. Even the people who don't really love snakes are intrigued by her, they either steer clear and stare or they ask to touch her and I get to educate all sorts of people. I like being a part time advocate for all BP's :D