skinny ball python

Hello everyone I am new to the site and well my husband brought home a very skinny pastel ball python he is very young so yesterday I took him to the vet and they said he is dehydrated so they syringed him some fluids and told me to feed him twice a week I was just wondering what you guys would do also to help him? If you would like to see a picture of him you can go to my myspace page his name is Gunther yeah I know crazy name Thanks so much everyone


www.myspace.com/jonbaker2

Well we cant see the picture without friend requesting your page,
can you try and post the pic on this site then paste the link in another post?

I would listen to the vet on this one, young BPs usually eat every 5 days.
So feed it prey sized no larger than thickest part of your BP!

Good Luck!

I think what the vet told you is good. Make sure you have your husbandry correct (especially humidity). Make sure he has fresh water and feed him every 4-5 days. Make sure you give him some time to settle in for a week before bothering him. Good luck! Hope he fattens up for you :giggle:

sorry about that everyone i made my myspace open for everyone to look at and thanks for all the reply's so far

he does seam small, but he's eating!!! that is always good, so just tend to what the vet told you and soon you'll see him nice and big.
nice colors on him.

Aww what a cutie. If he is eating for you he will be growing fast!

Hi! Nice little snake! I looked at Gunther and Sniper's albums. Your daughter is very pretty too! And she really looks like she loves the snakes. You're viv looks great but if you want, you can improve on them. The hides can be improved by exchanging the half-log for a cave-like one that can hug the snake's body all the way around. There is a pretty awesome "recipe" to make your own hide at the DIY section called "realistic hides" or some such. It is very cheap and it can be a project for you and your daughter. Also, 2 of them - one on the cool end and the other on the warm end - would be ideal. Anyway, I think your snakes look super awesome!

thank you everyone so much for keeping my hopes up i got really scared about him

I would have to agree with everyone so far. Just make sure your temps/humidity is good, you have hide(s) in there for her, fresh water (I do daily), and that she's eating. She'll fatten up with time. Sometimes it can be caused from stress too so not sure how often you/your daughter are handling her, but some people recommend only a certain amount a day/week for starter snakes in the home. Good luck, glad she's in a loving home now :gj:

:welcome:

Nice pastel you got there :), Just keep him on a 5 day schedule til he reaches 300 gr or so. You did take him to a herp vet?

Welcome to BP.net.

http://www.ball-pythons.net/forums/s...ad.php?t=32417

Mind if I ask you where your husband found this pastel that was left to get skinny and dehydrated?

Best advice I can give is to make sure in your busy household that the snake is in a quiet area and don't handle it more than you have to (just for cage maintenance and so forth). For now the focus is on setting down a solid feeding pattern - one appropriately sized prey every 5 days should do - handling can come later as the snake recovers it's health. To size your prey look at the biggest empty girth (that's not full of food or poop) of your snake. Compare that to the biggest girth of the prey item (for rodents that's their hips/butt area). If that area is about the same, then you have a nicely sized prey item. A bit smaller, a bit bigger is fine too just as long as the match is reasonably close. Do not fall for the pet stores who will try to sell you cruddy little frozen mouse pinkies. Growing, young ball pythons need more than that to grow on.

he got him from a guy in NC he had a clutch and said that he was the runt of the clutch and gave him to my husband but truth be told he wasn't the runt.

Awww well I'm sure he'll do fine given time, good care and a proper feeding routine. Just remember take it slow. Don't try to shove too much weight on him too fast or handle too much right now. This is just a baby and one that sounds like it didn't receive the best of care so these things take a little time. If you've any concern that this is more than an underfed situation, do consider having a fecal float done by a vet. It isn't an expensive thing, you don't have to take the snake in (just the poop) and it can rule out any problems with internal parasites.

Guess what everyone last night gunther came out his hide and went to the highest part of his tank and I guess you would call it sun bath:) he has never done that because he was just to weak and also the big part he drunk his own water by himself so he had an appointment today to see vet again and they said he has complety turn around he doesn't look dehydrated and he went from 96 grams to 104 :) I am so proud of him and thank you guys so much for all the replys

Glad to hear that he's on his way to recovery :gj:

Sounds great and I'm so pleased to hear you and your husband have him under the care of a good vet that knows snakes. Remember to take lots of pictures now so down the road, when he's robust and glowing with good health, you can reflect back on all you've done for this snake. :)

Soak him every other day for about 30 minutes.

this is the new link to gunther

myspace.com/beccaandjon

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cant_touch_this67

Guess what everyone last night gunther came out his hide and went to the highest part of his tank and I guess you would call it sun bath:) he has never done that because he was just to weak and also the big part he drunk his own water by himself so he had an appointment today to see vet again and they said he has complety turn around he doesn't look dehydrated and he went from 96 grams to 104 :) I am so proud of him and thank you guys so much for all the replys

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Glad to hear he has gained some weight and doing so well. Before you know it Gunther will be a fat butt BP. :D