Snake will not gain weight

[Skilla6000]

I have not been on the forums for quite some time now, and kind of miss it

But anyways, I have a snake that will not gain weight at all, she is eating adult mice every week, and of course just to add in, they is a stubborn feeder and skips some meals... she is about 7 months old and only weighs maybe 180 grams if I had to take a guess, I don't have a scale.

what do you guys think I should do to help her gain weight?

[Daybreaker]

Getting a fecal done to test for parasites would be my first step.

[shadowsnakes]

Ditto, sounds like parasites. Are her feces normal i.e. mouse is digested, nothing too runny or tinged with blood/mucus?

[Neal]

When you say stingy feeders, are you implying that she won't eat rats at all as well?

[Skilla6000]

Some of her poops have been runny now that I think about it, I've never thought about it too be honest, and yes she indeed does have very messys poops, and @ neal, where I live, rats are banned, and she will not take frozen at all, there for I'm stuck with feeding live mice. I'm going to take her to the vet some time this week.

[Skilla6000]

Btw, this is not my only snake, all the others are doing well, are these kind of parasites transmittable? I have 6 of them in this rack, her and 5 others... the rest are all doing well and eating and gaining weight.

[Drift]

Just wondering, but how do you know she isn't gaining weight if you don't have a scale?

[gsarchie]

You can't say that she isn't gaining weight if you don't have a scale. All parasites and diseases that I am aware of could be transmitted to your other snakes. Did you quarantine this one when you first got her?

[dgring]

Just wondering, but how do you know she isn't gaining weight if you don't have a scale?

Im guessing my feeding and holding her
feeling not feeding

[Drift]

I wouldn't personally go on feeling and guessed weights alone. It can be pretty hard to feel a difference in grams. Especially when any length of time has passed since your last reference point.

Also, I've personally been through this type of thing before, and a $10 scale was able to show me that they had in fact put on about 30% of their weight from the time I got them. Yet going on feel and sight had me doubting their progress.

Fecal sample still isn't a bad idea. Just saying, it's easy to perceive wrongly about this sort of thing sometimes, and scales are cheap and easy to find.