Pied Growth Rate

I'd like some input from all the pied owners out there - do pieds tend to grow a bit slower than other morphs? I know my pied girl has been a bit slower to gain weight and size than any of the others I have. Just wondering if this is characteristic of this particular morph - thanks! :snake:

Growth rates do not differ from morph to morph they do from snake to snake though. every snake grows differently so some snakes will grow faster/slower.

Mutations are changes in chemistry. In many cases they may well be only skin deep but you can't guarantee that will always be the case.

I don't have any pieds yet so can't even give an individual account much less have enough experience to say if there is a growth related trend with pieds. But it wouldn't surprise me at all if there are some slow growing mutations.

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Originally Posted by joshn6805

Growth rates do not differ from morph to morph they do from snake to snake though. every snake grows differently so some snakes will grow faster/slower.

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I don't necessarily believe this to be true. Certain morphs have been said to be better eaters and therefore faster growers. I personally have seen slow growth in Het Pieds and quite a few others have mentioned it as well. I would suspect that it could be the same in the Homozygous animal as well.

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Originally Posted by GoFride08

I'd like some input from all the pied owners out there - do pieds tend to grow a bit slower than other morphs? I know my pied girl has been a bit slower to gain weight and size than any of the others I have. Just wondering if this is characteristic of this particular morph - thanks! :snake:

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kinda like saying... whats the growth rate of a white man? LOL.

I gotta nice male that has been growing good. My female I just got her. Here is my males stats

http://www.iherp.com/HerpTrack/Track...AnimalID=23862

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Originally Posted by BrandonsBalls

kinda like saying... whats the growth rate of a white man? LOL.

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What?? :confused:

I only have one pied. I grew him fast from a hatchling to get him up to breeding size within his first year. He ate great, got up to breeding size, but still was not ready to breed. Now he is a picky eater. He will only eat when I put him back into a 6 quart tub. I normally keep him in a 28 quart tub, and have even tried hides. He will not use them. Is he a picky eater because he is a pied, or is he a picky eater because I fed him more often as a baby? I am not sure. Hopefully he will grow out of it.

I do have a het pied girl that is my best eater. She eats every time offered, and has put on the most weight of any of my ball pythons.

My male Het Pied is picky and as such has never gotten bigger than 850-900 grams, My female is less picky she's an 07 and 1200+ grams. My pied doesn't seem to share his brothers eating habits he has eaten three meals with no issues since I got him.

I have noticed that het pieds tend to be more likely to take a long feeding break as subadults, however its not like they all do. There are also plenty of complants about het pied males refusing to breed for years... I never could get my first het male to breed.

So far I'm thinking my that my pied line may actually be overall better eaters. Of the couple dozen animals from it that I have coming up, only one has gone off feed and the 1 yr old breeder male did amazing this season. More time will tell...

Justin

Thanks for everyone's comments - I appreciate the input! :gj:

I have been very lucky mye het pieds are eating like pigs, the female is a very aggressive feeder, the male eat with consistency and will breed any females you pair him with and did so from the first time I paired him up.

As far as Pieds I guess we will see, mine just hatched not long ago but so far both females have already ate twice the males still need to get started.

Wow! Never ever heard of this theory.

Daniel

Thanks, all! My pied girl eats like crazy, and will usually eat even when she's blue - one of my best eaters. She likes her meals hot and on time - every 5 days. Her growth rate has just been kinda slow... :confused:

My two pieds are growing well. The male looks a good year older than he actually is, and bred at barely a year of age. The female was fed minimally before we got her, but since living here has grown considerably and is a garbage disposal! She's a great eater, and even eats when in shed.

That's great - maybe mine will kick into high gear soon! I guess I just have a slow grower - oh well, she's still purdy and I likes her :D

What's not to like?! They are the best! Have you posted pics yet? Hint... hint! hehe

I personally have lots of pied and het pied co-doms. My original female het pied was purchased as a small yearling at around 500 grams. By the age of 30 months old, she produced her first clutch of 9 eggs which produced 4 Pieds. Her second year she produced 8 eggs which also produced 4 pieds. This year she was over 5500 grams and produced a 13 egg clutch which produced 6 Pieds.

Her daughter from her first clutch also produced a fertile clutch of 5 eggs, all of which appear to be Pied by candling. She is roughly 2500 grams before breeding and is just over 3 years old.

One of my 2 year old Pastel het Pieds just laid her first clutch of 4 eggs this year as well.....all of which appear to be Pied by candling. We will know for sure in the next couple of weeks.

My '08 Pewter het Pieds are all growing and feeding great, and we just hatched out another clutch of 0.2 Pewter het pied, 2.1 Pastel het pied, and 1.1 Cinny het pieds.

Just to re-cap, all of my Pied and het Pied animals are great feeders and have done excellent for me over the last few years. It's one reason I've decided to only do Pied combos. I can't get enough.

On as side note, I've had more problems with pastels not feeding than any other morph.....all of my close friends report the same thing. At 800-1000 grams pastels just seem to turn off. When they do resume feeding, it's all live mice only, even those that fed readily on rats and frozen thawed.