1 Year Old Ball Python (Help)

Hello, I bought a Phantom Ball Python last week and the pet store employee was the one who bred the snake as he has a lot of ball pythons in a rack at home. He gave me what I believe is a 'frozen rat small weaner', I think. He said to feed him/the snake one of them per week and I weighed him yesterday and he weighed 300g which I thought was very low compared to other 1 year old ball pythons I've seen (I'm new to ball pythons). Now, my question is what should I feed him, how many I should feed him and how often should I feed him per week?




Picture of him:

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...8f662fe90f.png

Thank you - Brandon

I stay with what he recommended, you never know could have been a small hatchling, or started off life as a difficult feeder, he looks great in the picture from what I can see. Very pretty babe. Wishing you both nothing but the best, I know someone with more experience will chime in ;)

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Originally Posted by C.Marie

I stay with what he recommended, you never know could have been a small hatchling, or started off life as a difficult feeder, he looks great in the picture from what I can see. Very pretty babe. Wishing you both nothing but the best, I know someone with more experience will chime in ;)

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Thank you for the advice and kind words. :)

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Originally Posted by BrandonPythons

Thank you for the advice and kind words. :)

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Anytime, we all get nervous about weights, pink bellies, and feeding it's normal part of learning, and everyone here is amazing learn something new everyday.:gj: so happy you and your new fabulous noodle are now part of bp.net family it's a good one:D

A general rule of thumb is to feed 10%-15% of your BP's body weight. That would put you at a feeder of roughly 30-45 grams, which should be about right for weaned rats.

Your BP looks great!

Let him settle for a week or two before feeding and don't handle him until after he's had 2-3 successful feeds for you. This is a species very prone to stress fasts, so give him plenty of time to get accustomed to his new environment and solidly feeding before you handle too much. Then make handling sessions short and positive, 10-15 minutes to start.

Another critical key to a happy ball is husbandry. How's your setup? Be descriptive and we can help you dial that in to a T as well. Improper husbandry is the #1 mistake newbies make, so we can save you a lot of stress by getting that straight from the get-go.

Welcome to the forum!

Brandon, first off welcome to the family! Secondly I love the contrast of ur little guy! Thirdly, I worried about my girl Daenerys for a while...she was older then my BEL and Banana that were born in August and September of last year but outweighed Daenerys by at least 30-40 grams....7 months later she’s at least caught up or surpassed them. Every Ball Python grows at different rates. 300g is okay for a yearling just continue to feed the weaned rats weekly, your have the entire forums plethora of knowledge at your fingertips. Don’t hesitate to ask any questions regardless of how simple it may seem. There’s always going to be an answer or some type of guidance.


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by C.Marie

I stay with what he recommended, you never know could have been a small hatchling, or started off life as a difficult feeder, he looks great in the picture from what I can see. Very pretty babe. Wishing you both nothing but the best, I know someone with more experience will chime in ;)

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He's currently being fed one rat small weaner a week, every 7 days and I did originally buy a vivarium for him but the pet store employee (He also keeps and breeds snakes) said the vivarium was too big and suggested me to get a 18L tub to keep him in for a couple months then increase the tub size because vivariums have many disadvantages to ball pythons. The current tub has a small hide by Exo Terra which he fits into fine and also has a Exo Terra water dish. The current substrate is paper towels as I tried bark chips and the humidity was way too high so I changed it to paper towels as suggested and the humidity is fine now. Temperatures are fine, current temperature is at 89 degrees belly heat on the hot side, humidity is at 70% right now (I've tried to get it down to 65 but I just don't know how too, I've tried a lot of things and none of them seemed to work).

In the future I'd also like to buy more ball pythons and have a small rack system as long as I am looking after and keeping this one healthy because I don't want to go out my way to buy all these things and be doing something wrong to affect the snakes.

Thanks, Brandon.

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Originally Posted by Aerries

Brandon, first off welcome to the family! Secondly I love the contrast of ur little guy! Thirdly, I worried about my girl Daenerys for a while...she was older then my BEL and Banana that were born in August and September of last year but outweighed Daenerys by at least 30-40 grams....7 months later she’s at least caught up or surpassed them. Every Ball Python grows at different rates. 300g is okay for a yearling just continue to feed the weaned rats weekly, your have the entire forums plethora of knowledge at your fingertips. Don’t hesitate to ask any questions regardless of how simple it may seem. There’s always going to be an answer or some type of guidance.


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Thank you for the quick reply, do you suggest me feeding him 1 per week or should I feed him 2 per week? Another thing was, what age/weight should he be before I increase the size of the rat that I purchase, thank you!

I'm also worried today I woke up and around 2PM he has just been very active and looks like he's attempting to escape as he just keeps going up to the lid of the tub.

Here’s a feeding chart that is perfect https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...e8d5898ac9.jpg
I have followed this since I started with BP.net and it’s helped me immensely!


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Has anyone got any more suggestions on weight/food or any suggestions on why he's being so active today as he's just looking like he wants to escape as he keeps going up to the lid?

Thank you all for the replies!

He’s just exploring his new home , if he is being active I would definitely wait a week until he gets settled in then I would offer a rat. They all go through the exploring phase . After that though you should be able to try and feed.

Anyone got any reasons as to why he's quite active during the day (Had him for 2 weeks and last time he was fed was on Saturday)?

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Originally Posted by BrandonPythons

Anyone got any reasons as to why he's quite active during the day (Had him for 2 weeks and last time he was fed was on Saturday)?

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Being active during the day is normally a sign of stress.
Is there any reason for him to be stressed? Handling? Change in environment? No proper hiding place? Too much traffic around him? Temperatures?
It's hard to tell if we don't know anything other than that he's cruising during the day. For example eating is normally a sign of a happy ball python which would counter my stress theory.

Are there holes in the tub? Along the sides would be better than the top. Is it in a high traffic area? If so, move to an area with less movement. Is the temp an humidity consistent? As stated above, up and about in the daytime is usually a sign of stress. Keep a steady routine. Train your bp to a schedule. Feed days and times should be consistent. They'll fall in line to the patterns you create for them.

I have never really followed the feeding chart but then again I have been keeping snakes on and off for 30+ years and eventually you can just look at the rat and determine if it is an appropriate size. I feed mine FT Rat pups until they are around 100 grams, then move to FT weaned rats until 350 to 400 grams, then move to FT small rats until they are 1000 grams. At around 1500 grams I alternate with a FT small one week then a FT medium the next week until 2000+ then it is always a FT medium.

He is probably hungry and or something is wrong in his environment. Use this as a checklist. https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...ius)-Caresheet

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Originally Posted by BrandonPythons

Has anyone got any more suggestions on weight/food or any suggestions on why he's being so active today as he's just looking like he wants to escape as he keeps going up to the lid?

Thank you all for the replies!

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he is probably hungry! he did look like a healthy litle booger in that picture, congratulations his coloring is gorgeous! while I do know some BP's that are small, it's 95% of the time because they are not being fed proper sized meals. My female just turned a year 3 days ago and she is just on the border of 1000g and is just under 4ft, and when I got her at 3 months she was 250g and 2ft long. she was eating weaned rats when I bought her every 5 days, now she gets a "big" small rat, or a "small" medium rat once a week (hopefully that gives you a snake size/food size idea). any chance you could get a measurement on him? or another pic of him stretched out so we can see the proportions of his length to weight? (it's kind of hard to judge his size when he's balled up). IF you can see his spine, he is definitely thin. a GREAT rule of thumb for feeding size though is, you want him to have a SLIGHT buldge at the thickest part of his body (usually right around the middle) where you can physically see the rat as he's digesting it. I hope this helped a little, keep us updated!