Is this too skinny?

He's about 18 inches long and about a year old, I feed him a medium sized adult mouse about once a week. If he is, does that mean he's unhealthy and is the solution to feed him more often and how much? I dont want to powerfeed him, but I want him to be healthy.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...f22934dee7.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...0ede4538fa.jpg

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

python bodies should be round, and yours here looks a bit triangular. not too skinny, but could use a few big meals. any chance you can switch to rats?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tttaylorrr

python bodies should be round, and yours here looks a bit triangular. not too skinny, but could use a few big meals. any chance you can switch to rats?

---

OK good to know. He already struggles a bit with the size I'm feeding him (is it true the food is supposed to be only as large as the widest part of his body?) But maybe I'll begin to feed him more often.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

He is somewhat skinny and could probably use more food. When you say he struggles with the size, how long does it actually take him to get it down? What looks like struggling to us can be perfectly normal for a snake. Also, weighing the feeder and the snake and feeding 10-15% up until they're on small rat size is way easier for me personally than trying to visually determine. Widest part of their body is a reasonable guide, but they can eat up to 1.5x as wide as their body. 1x as wide as their body is a better goal but something a bit bigger isn't really a concern.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by spellbound04

OK good to know. He already struggles a bit with the size I'm feeding him (is it true the food is supposed to be only as large as the widest part of his body?) But maybe I'll begin to feed him more often.

---

when the snake eats, you should see a bit of a bulge but not like it ate a football. i tend to always think my snakes are smaller than they are, and sometimes i physically hold the snake up next to the rat (before thawing) so i can get a better idea of the prey size.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by tttaylorrr

when the snake eats, you should see a bit of a bulge but not like it ate a football. i tend to always think my snakes are smaller than they are, and sometimes i physically hold the snake up next to the rat (before thawing) so i can get a better idea of the prey size.

---

I'm pretty sure mine would try to eat it if I tried that. Silly derps.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kcl

I'm pretty sure mine would try to eat it if I tried that. Silly derps.

---

i do it in the morning while they're slow, and not very often. ;)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kcl

He is somewhat skinny and could probably use more food. When you say he struggles with the size, how long does it actually take him to get it down? What looks like struggling to us can be perfectly normal for a snake. Also, weighing the feeder and the snake and feeding 10-15% up until they're on small rat size is way easier for me personally than trying to visually determine. Widest part of their body is a reasonable guide, but they can eat up to 1.5x as wide as their body. 1x as wide as their body is a better goal but something a bit bigger isn't really a concern.

---

That's helpful to know. It takes him like 25-35 minutes for the whole process from grabbing it and then going back into his hide. He just has a hard time with figuring out how to get his mouth around the head and I've had him have a mouse 2/3 of the way down and then he lifted his head to use gravity to help it down and ur was to heavy and pulled his head down and it slipped out if his body. That was very traumatizing for both of us so I'm very careful now with the sizes I give him

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

25-30 minutes is perfectly reasonable even without the process of figuring out how to put mouse face -> snake face. As for the gravity incident, personally I would just chalk that up to baby snakes being bad at things sometimes. It shouldn't have hurt him. Honestly, baby snakes? Just bad at understanding how to eat properly often. It took mine a year to stop trying to eat his by starting everywhere but the face. He also used the gravity trick a few times. Anything that's 10-15% of his body weight or the width of his body to slightly larger depending on how you choose to determine should be just fine. He's a baby and he's learning but he'll be ok even though it looks awkward to us.

Also, taylorr - lol. If it works for you, more power to you.

Hopefully mine would have the sense not to try for something that's not even warm but who knows? He might think that if it smells like rat, it = rat or he might not. The garter snakes meanwhile WILL try to eat anything that's vaguely food scented and sometimes things that are not even food scented if they get excited (e.g. plastic skull decoration, the glass side of the tank, my fingers when they were mad about their diet), so they've made me deeply wary...

Yeah, that's not struggling, that's just typical BP loveable derpiness. They really are very silly snakes.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kcl

25-30 minutes is perfectly reasonable even without the process of figuring out how to put mouse face -> snake face. As for the gravity incident, personally I would just chalk that up to baby snakes being bad at things sometimes. It shouldn't have hurt him. Honestly, baby snakes? Just bad at understanding how to eat properly often. It took mine a year to stop trying to eat his by starting everywhere but the face. He also used the gravity trick a few times. Anything that's 10-15% of his body weight or the width of his body to slightly larger depending on how you choose to determine should be just fine. He's a baby and he's learning but he'll be ok even though it looks awkward to us.

Also, taylorr - lol. If it works for you, more power to you.

Hopefully mine would have the sense not to try for something that's not even warm but who knows? He might think that if it smells like rat, it = rat or he might not. The garter snakes meanwhile WILL try to eat anything that's vaguely food scented and sometimes things that are not even food scented if they get excited (e.g. plastic skull decoration, the glass side of the tank, my fingers when they were mad about their diet), so they've made me deeply wary...

---

Oh thats sooo good to know! I was afraid he was much worse than normal at eating. OK I'll start giving him the benefit of the doubt and trust his ability to eat 10-15%

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

Below please see one of my snake's most ridiculous eating attempts. He was completely unbothered by his choice to finish his meal upside down in the water bowl. :/ Sometimes things are a lot more stressful for us than the snake. He has since learned to eat properly 90% of the time and only occasionally tries to start eating it sideways or by the leg or by the ear.

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...4_1_813866.jpghttps://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...8/img_3555.jpg

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kcl

Below please see one of my snake's most ridiculous eating attempts. He was completely unbothered by his choice to finish his meal upside down in the water bowl. :/ Sometimes things are a lot more stressful for us than the snake. He has since learned to eat properly 90% of the time and only occasionally tries to start eating it sideways or by the leg or by the ear.

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...4_1_813866.jpghttps://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...8/img_3555.jpg

---

Oh my word! Yep! That looks like something my guy would do. I just fed him today and he got it down the best I've ever seen so he seems to be learning which is good to see. (PS your enclosure and your snake are beautiful, is he a pastel morph?)

Thanks! Yup, he's a pastel yellowbelly. I went in to the expo looking for a normal male since I didn't care much about morphs but that's not really a big thing, so I took a look at some of the cheaper morphs and picked him since he was the calmer baby when held. He's way bigger now and his enclosure has changed quite a bit because he grew out of all the old hides and I accidentally killed the bamboo with neglect just recently - the animals get all the love and the plants get none, whoops! It's currently more bare-bones than I'd like because I'm putting my efforts into setting up a new AP T8 for him with live plants and such. I'm super excited to move him!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kcl

Thanks! Yup, he's a pastel yellowbelly. I went in to the expo looking for a normal male since I didn't care much about morphs but that's not really a big thing, so I took a look at some of the cheaper morphs and picked him since he was the calmer baby when held. He's way bigger now and his enclosure has changed quite a bit because he grew out of all the old hides and I accidentally killed the bamboo with neglect just recently - the animals get all the love and the plants get none, whoops! It's currently more bare-bones than I'd like because I'm putting my efforts into setting up a new AP T8 for him with live plants and such. I'm super excited to move him!

---

Oh wow! That will be awesome! Please post some photos on the forum when you make the big move 😉

He has now been moved into his new bioactive home. He was very interested in everything. I stayed home with him yesterday to make sure everything was good because I am paranoid. He seemed happy enough.

https://ball-pythons.net/gallery/fil...8/img_4362.jpg

That looks amazing! What tank are you using? I'd love to move my guy to a bioactive home but I dont have enough time for the upkeep rn :/

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by spellbound04

That looks amazing! What tank are you using? I'd love to move my guy to a bioactive home but I dont have enough time for the upkeep rn :/

---

Whoops just saw it said AP T8 😅 where did you purchase it?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by spellbound04

Whoops just saw it said AP T8 �� where did you purchase it?

---

The animal plastics website. Long ship time, good quality product at a decent price, pretty poor instructions but still easy enough to put together. Theoretically bioactive is very low upkeep once it's up and running properly. Most of the stuff inside (plants, leaf litter, cork bark, springtails, etc) are from Josh's frogs and the Bio Dude. I've been planning to do it for a long time, but I don't really regret letting him grow up a lot and making sure he was very well established before trying it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Kcl

The animal plastics website. Long ship time, good quality product at a decent price, pretty poor instructions but still easy enough to put together. Theoretically bioactive is very low upkeep once it's up and running properly. Most of the stuff inside (plants, leaf litter, cork bark, springtails, etc) are from Josh's frogs and the Bio Dude. I've been planning to do it for a long time, but I don't really regret letting him grow up a lot and making sure he was very well established before trying it.

---

Thats a good idea, my little guy is still a baby so I'll probably give it some time to figure out how he likes things