Darby finally came out of his hide

[RickyNY]

He has been in his hide ever since he came home May 2, I've fed him twice and if I needed to check on him I would lift up the hide. Well, last night I was replacing Freddy's water and when I look up I see Darby just chilling on top of his hide. I also changed his water and he was really relax with me moving things around. I even found a fresh shed. Had to snap a few pics of course

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After the pics I took him out of his T8 and handled him for 10 minutes. I was very calm and gentle with him, he was a little nervous ( I could see he was breeding fast).

[RickyNY]

He's real thin though, I wonder if I could feed him weekly until he looks a little better. What do the experts think of that?

Thanks

[Sauzo]

Probably just a shy boy. Louie my BCL was like that. Took almost a year before he was fairly comfortable.

As for feeding, i generally feed anything on mice every 7-10 days depending on the size mouse they eat. Hoppers would be every 7 days while adult mice would be every 10 days. Once on weaned or small rats, i go to every 2 weeks, then every 3 weeks for mediums and finally every 4 weeks for larges. Rabbits, i usually add a week. Also i usually feed a little more in the summer and a little less in the winter. I dont do the whole temp drop, no food, winterizing on them. Mine live in an eternal summer but they do sorta get a temp drop in winter as the room naturally gets a little cooler and they get a little less food.

[RickyNY]

Thanks Sauzo.
His last 2 meals were 14 days apart, and he is on weaned rats... but being underweight, should I feed him every 7 days until he looks a little better?
When I held him last night, he looked very skinny. I could see his spine and wrinkle skin on his side.

[Sauzo]

Ugh, he is really that skinny? You get him from a breeder? I personally wouldnt drastically up his food intake. Maybe just bump his weaned rats up to every 10 days instead of 14 days for a couple months, then push him back. It is getting to be summer which like i said, is when i usually feed my snakes a little more often.

The pics, he doesnt look bad but its kind of hard to see his full body.

And i do bump up the feeding for my snakes when i get them until i feel they are sufficiently 'plump' in my eyes. Then i throttle them back to a normal feeding schedule.

[Bogertophis]

Agree with Sauzo, it's not obvious in the photo but he shouldn't be that skinny. But weaned rats still take a good 10 days to digest, it's pointless
to feed to quickly, as a snake will throw up a new meal if still digesting the first one. The larger the prey, the longer digestion takes.

If he fails to gain weight, get a stool sample to the vet to check for worms. That can cause a snake to be hungry yet stay skinny, because they're
sharing their meals with intestinal parasites, and if they're really heavily infested, a snake may digest MUCH faster than they otherwise can...just
something to watch for.

If you want to feed him weekly, you need to feed much smaller prey that he can actually digest that fast, but probably best to just be patient & feed
every 10 days. It takes a long time for young snakes to fill out, because although they ARE growing slowly, they put on a bit of length that you won't
notice, which makes them continue to appear to be thin.

Hopefully the reason he's thin is just because his previous owner failed to feed him enough. Some pet stores are notorious for that, wanting to keep
snakes "smaller & cuter, & not out-growing their small store cage".

No rush & don't stress him to do this, but a full-body photo might help us here: assuming he doesn't take a deep breath, as many snakes do, just to
fake us out.

[RickyNY]

Yeah, he's 2 years old and weighs 270 grams.
OK guys, I appreciate your advice. I will try 10 days. Thanks again.