Rescue/Rehome of 2 BPs

[Bogertophis]

While I advocate f/t, I'd keep the female on live too for now..."whatever works" rather than have her go off-feed.

I think you might be feeding her too often if she's not defecating: remember that a starved snake is likely to have deficient digestive enzymes too, so her digestion
is apt to be slower than a healthy snake. I know how badly you want her to gain weight (I know I would) but it might be best to slow down just a little.

All in all though they're doing great with you- & lucky BPs!

[pretends2bnormal]

While I advocate f/t, I'd keep the female on live too for now..."whatever works" rather than have her go off-feed.

I think you might be feeding her too often if she's not defecating: remember that a starved snake is likely to have deficient digestive enzymes too, so her digestion
is apt to be slower than a healthy snake. I know how badly you want her to gain weight (I know I would) but it might be best to slow down just a little.

All in all though they're doing great with you- & lucky BPs!

I don't know how fast you think I'm feeding her, but I think you're missing some of the info. I don't think 7 days apart aiming for 10%/slightly smaller than her girth is pushing it too fast.

The bigger issue I have is my live source is inconsistent what sizes they have available. She got a mouse last time because their mom rats killed everything smaller than a large pup and they didn't have anything in between fuzzy mice and adult mice. She takes either one eagerly, but they don't seem to get enough of the baby BP size feeders each week.

I'm not that great at remembering what I've said, but I did go to 7 days except that first 5 day interval and haven't done shorter than that.

That last one was a bit bigger than I wanted to offer her, but not over 15% and due to the sausage butt from it last Monday, I skipped feeding at 7 days and am targeting 11 days, this Friday (also hoping they re-stock closer to that date for better sizes available).

I'm not sure how often you expect her to poop, lol.. of my 3 other BPs I raised from her size, I haven't had one poop more often than she is. She did poop before this last bigger meal from the ones before it.

The original short interval was largely because of how small the meal was since the first was just to test if she digests anything okay or not. It was less than half her girth, even skinny like she was.. a 6g hopper mouse (tiny, but very hoppy).

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[Bogertophis]

If she wasn't a starved snake, 7 days apart for feeding is fine. I'm just saying that snakes need protein & nutrient intake to maintain their digestive enzymes that are
lost when they're starved of food. Digestion can be a bigger challenge, so feeding smaller &/or less often than normal might be a good idea...just food for thought, &
I was going by what you posted.

[pretends2bnormal]

Yeah, I get that. Though I am pretty sure her case wasn't starvation (complete lack of food). More likely that it was from long term pinky/fuzzy mouse feedings instead. They were both fed 2 days before I picked them up; no reason to doubt that, though no idea what size. I figure that would make a big difference on the enzyme front. No food vs just small food.

Also... got home and got confirmation that she did go into shed. I'd be willing to bet she is holding it in for that. She's gone blue today, lol. Definitely not offering her food till she sheds, so that will probably be a good 2 week gap this time, maybe 2.5 weeks depending how quickly she sheds.

Flash:


No Flash:


Neither is really great for her real life color.

Got a pic of the boy too.
No flash:


Flash:


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[Bogertophis]

She actually looks like a whole different snake than your first photos.
Hope the male settles down now too.

[pretends2bnormal]

She actually looks like a whole different snake than your first photos.
Hope the male settles down now too.

Yeah, she improved a LOT very quickly. Part of why I think her issue was less a complete lack of food and more just small or inconsistent food; they don't bounce back this easily if it's that bad.

She will probably drop one hell of a poop after this shed though. I'm really hoping her scales start feeling less flimsy after a shed also, it is a really weird feeling how they are even out of shed. Almost like a faux-snakeskin combined with the sort of brittle "in shed" belly scale sensation? I don't even know if that's a good description of it. Pretty sure that part is from her dehydration since it has improved over time. The shed should help since she has had good water and humidity here.

He's just small and shy, I think. They've both only been offered 3 meals and he refused #3, the first try on frozen, so I'm not handling a lot; pretty much just to swap the paper towels out. I expect he will calm out a lot by 300-400g. My banana was fairly shy at this size, though no strikes, and he got much braver about then.

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[pretends2bnormal]

Mini-Update.

The girl has shed and pooped, as expected. She looks a good deal better than she did nearly a month ago.

Got a few pictures in natural, if cloudy, light through a window. Pics were all before she pooped (on the table...) so she does still look a bit bloated down near the tail in these. She looks perfectly normal now she has gone, but didn't stop for pictures with the cleanup.

First a re-post of her "before" picture:



And now some current ones:






She even gave a full one piece shed.


She now weighs 112 grams, up from her initial 87 grams. She's getting a small rat fuzzy tonight.

(With the better pictures and lighting, are we still leaning toward this just being a normal?)


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[RXLReptiles]

After seeing her now, I'm leaning more towards Fire. If you hop on to WOB and check the pics in the morph list some of them are an awfully close resemblance. But seeing as how there is such a huge variance in patterning on "normal" ball pythons she could just be a really cool looking normal. You may never know unless she breeds.

Same with the male. Could be low expression Enchi or Orange Dream based on the coloration in the above pics. Or he could just be a really pretty normal boy. With age he may change and look more or less normal, but again I don't think you'll know unless you breed him.

[pretends2bnormal]

After seeing her now, I'm leaning more towards Fire. If you hop on to WOB and check the pics in the morph list some of them are an awfully close resemblance. But seeing as how there is such a huge variance in patterning on "normal" ball pythons she could just be a really cool looking normal. You may never know unless she breeds.

Same with the male. Could be low expression Enchi or Orange Dream based on the coloration in the above pics. Or he could just be a really pretty normal boy. With age he may change and look more or less normal, but again I don't think you'll know unless you breed him.

I'm pretty much just going with "normal", though I o wonder if there is there a "surefire" way to prove out enchi or orange dream? Or is it just one where you would need to hope the babies show a higher quality version of the morph to know?

Hopefully I'll have better shots of him in natural light after he sheds next; he is looking a bit dark, but I handle so little right now that I am not sure if it I'd a shed sign just yet. After that is probably the best time to get a better idea for him.

With Fire you can pair to another fire and you should get some Black Eyed Lucies out of it if it proves out.

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[RXLReptiles]

To prove out any genetics that are questionable I always look for a mate that has a morph that will throw something obvious. You can always breed to a normal and hope for less ambiguous offspring, but it's easier to prove out a gene with something that will completely change the color or pattern of the animal and won't take insurmountable odds to prove.

So for a Fire, you could pair to either a known Fire or a Pastel, to you'll get either a very obvious super fire, or a pretty obvious dragonfly.

To prove pastel, you could use another pastel, a spider, a calico, a fire, a pinstripe, really anything will change completely when pastel is added.

If I were trying to prove enchi or orange dream though, that's a little tougher. For Enchi, I'd pair Mojave, because a Mochi is a pretty obvious combo.

For orange dream, you could use spider, as a dream bee is reasonably obvious, I'm sure there are some other obvious combos, but I don't work with orange dream so I'm not really the authority on combos.

But if they are just pets, I wouldn't worry too much about it, they'll still make great pets no matter what morph they are.