Just assist fed my 500 gram male bp

[maudie]

He hadn't eaten in a couple months, so I just went for it with a large F/T mouse. It went great, he ate it right down almost immediately after and is looking good now. Just wondering if assist feeding is alright at his age, or if I should only do it if completely necessary?

[Eric Alan]

How old is he? How much weight did he lose during that time? Assist feeding is a LAST resort and is pretty stressful, so I'm hoping there was more to it than just "it's been a couple of months and I was worried".

[maudie]

A year, I'd say he lost about 50 grams just a visual assumption and was starting to look pretty underweight. Usually I wouldn't have tried it but he accepted it so effortlessly, I was actually kind of shocked how chill he was about it. I barely even had to hold his head, just pressed it up against his snout and he opened right up, I placed it in and he got right to it

Then again he is pretty used to me poking him and stuff, so he probably just went with it

[Eric Alan]

Sounds like it might be time to invest in a gram scale. If you've got a snake that's prone to hunger strikes (as mature males can be), it's a good way to know if any intervention is actually needed.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

You don't assist feed an animal that size, you make sure your husbandry is optimum, if not you address the issue (downsize the enclosure, offer live etc) and most importantly you wait.

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[ItsAllNew2Me!]

Please don't assist feed him again. He is big enough that he can go off feed for a good while and be fine. I highly recommend you getting a kitchen scale that measures in grams so that you can get an accurate weight. I bought one off amazon for $15 that works great. Assist feeding is only done on animals when it is required for them to live. As mentioned above. Check husbandry.

[redshepherd]

When you buy a scale, I'd go for one that can measure up to 2000g or even more (if you have females).

I have a digital kitchen scale for veggies and all that, and it seems like the maximum is 1000g... when I put my dumeril's boa on it to weigh and she was at 900g or so, the scale turned off. LOL

[gaitedappy]

I have a scale I got from reptile basics that goes up to 5000g I like it a lot and highly recommend it. Even males can get some good size on them


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