Underweight rescued BP

[Kenzieburgess]

I'd feed her the same (small adult mouse) for a while...see how she does. Her digestion might be slower than you think right now...see IF she's hungry in a
week...it might take 10 days or 2 weeks before she's ready to eat again. Just see how she does, take your cue from her, ok? I know how badly you want her
to put weight on, but better to do it slowly...especially since you have no medical history on her. For example, IF she is skinny because of internal parasites,
when you feed HER a bigger meal, you also feed THEM a lot more, & that can harm (even kill) the snake if -IF- they expand & block essential functions. See?
As I said before, her weight probably has nothing to do with parasites & everything to do with a negligent owner, but no way to know just yet, so go slow.

Have you looked closely for mites too, btw? A skinny snake can get dehydrated & die much faster from mites than a healthy one...so hopefully no mites.

Okay, I'll do that. Thank you. And I checked her out when I brought her home and didnt see any mites, and didnt see extra saliva in her mouth. She otherwise seems pretty healthy but in quarantine right now nonetheless. I really appreciate all the advise from everyone and I will do my best to post updates on her!

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[pretends2bnormal]

I'd probably at least start with weaned rats over mice. They're a bit bigger and will be her long term prey since she will be too large for a single mouse to be sufficient before too long.

My male BP is 4ft and 1350g. So I'm going to guess she's closer to 1,000g (if not below that) with the length you say and her being skinny. Without knowing a weight right now, if this were a snake I was working on, I'd tentatively plan something like the following assuming she's somewhere closer to 1,000g.
7-10 days from that mouse, offer a weaned rat (30-40g)
14 days after that, another weaned rat
14 days after that, another weaned rat (maybe 1 or 2 more repetitions with weaned rats, depending how she looks/acts)
14 days after that, a small rat
14 days, small rat
Then maybe move over to weekly smalls until she's up to a weight closer to 1,250g or you're confident she's digesting and processing well before moving to mediums.

If she isn't close to 1000, maybe do similar, but bumped down to start from rat pups instead.

It is possible she will never be a particularly large adult and may not need mediums for maintaining weight as a pet once she is a healthy body condition. This may depend if she has been underfed long-term or if the weight loss was a more recent development. (The difference between being fed 1 mouse a month for her whole life and outgrowing the food so she became skinny vs not fed at all for a number of months before being ditched)

All that said, it probably needs more of an as-it-goes evaluation for what makes sense for her specifically.

If she's pooping regularly and doing some substantial hunting, after a few meals, you may move to weekly a bit sooner. If she's holding off on pooping more than a few meals at a time, then maybe keep to 14 days or smaller prey until you're sure there are no blockages or issues digesting it fully.

As an adult, even if underweight, she really shouldn't be fed a lot at a time or super frequent meals. It's one thing for a growing snake to get a 10-15% meal weekly, but adults do have a slower metabolism regardless of their weight. You wouldn't want to pack on too many calories too quickly where it is turned into extra fat (which can be pretty bad for their health and reduce lifespan)

Sounds like you've got good instincts for what is or isn't the best idea. Feel free to post and ask on anything you're not sure of.

All of this is opinions, of course. Always a variety of ways to do things that can work and most important is to learn via observation what works for the individual.

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[Bogertophis]

A rat pup about the same size as the mouse should be fine to feed her also- either way, just don't up-size her food too quickly.

[Kenzieburgess]

I'd probably at least start with weaned rats over mice. They're a bit bigger and will be her long term prey since she will be too large for a single mouse to be sufficient before too long.

My male BP is 4ft and 1350g. So I'm going to guess she's closer to 1,000g (if not below that) with the length you say and her being skinny. Without knowing a weight right now, if this were a snake I was working on, I'd tentatively plan something like the following assuming she's somewhere closer to 1,000g.
7-10 days from that mouse, offer a weaned rat (30-40g)
14 days after that, another weaned rat
14 days after that, another weaned rat (maybe 1 or 2 more repetitions with weaned rats, depending how she looks/acts)
14 days after that, a small rat
14 days, small rat
Then maybe move over to weekly smalls until she's up to a weight closer to 1,250g or you're confident she's digesting and processing well before moving to mediums.

If she isn't close to 1000, maybe do similar, but bumped down to start from rat pups instead.

It is possible she will never be a particularly large adult and may not need mediums for maintaining weight as a pet once she is a healthy body condition. This may depend if she has been underfed long-term or if the weight loss was a more recent development. (The difference between being fed 1 mouse a month for her whole life and outgrowing the food so she became skinny vs not fed at all for a number of months before being ditched)

All that said, it probably needs more of an as-it-goes evaluation for what makes sense for her specifically.

If she's pooping regularly and doing some substantial hunting, after a few meals, you may move to weekly a bit sooner. If she's holding off on pooping more than a few meals at a time, then maybe keep to 14 days or smaller prey until you're sure there are no blockages or issues digesting it fully.

As an adult, even if underweight, she really shouldn't be fed a lot at a time or super frequent meals. It's one thing for a growing snake to get a 10-15% meal weekly, but adults do have a slower metabolism regardless of their weight. You wouldn't want to pack on too many calories too quickly where it is turned into extra fat (which can be pretty bad for their health and reduce lifespan)

Sounds like you've got good instincts for what is or isn't the best idea. Feel free to post and ask on anything you're not sure of.

All of this is opinions, of course. Always a variety of ways to do things that can work and most important is to learn via observation what works for the individual.

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Thank you for your input and example of a plan! I'm going to try to put all the advise you guys have shared along with observing her closely to best fit her needs. Like I said in an early reply, I will do my best to provide updates in the future of her progress. I havnt the most experience yet with a regular healthy BP, being I only have owned the one, who is still a baby for about 5 months, being around 8-10 months old right now. I have rehabilitated other animals such as dogs, birds, and frogs in the past from different circumstances, but never a snake. So all this info is greatly appreciated! And I know Sugar will feel the same

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[Kenzieburgess]

***update*** to the few of you mentioning keeping Track of her eliminations, I came home from work this morning at about 6:45am to find a pretty decent size urate clump, and the teeniest tiniest little poop! So I think that means Sugar is indeed digesting and eliminating waste! I looked EVERYWHERE in the enclosure to see if I could find any more poop or if that little bit was it, but nope, that was it lol. I'm taking an educated guess that her body is absorbing more of the nutrients than a normal, up to weight, BP would due to being starved and not knowing when it may eat again, combined with the much smaller mouse than you would normally feed an up to weight BP, thus causing a very very very VERY small bowl movement...but a BM is a BM nonetheless! ----mouse was fed on Thursday and was told she did eat at the pet store during the 2 weeks they had her (they didnt specify how much she might have ate, 1 or 2 mice in the two weeks..... Plan on ordering some rat pups here soon, but kind of wanna finish off the last couple mice I have tho and just switch both Twig and Sugar to rats.
I also just bought a bigger scale to keep track of her weights (I mentioned before I have a very small kitchen one that I can put Twig on currently, but planned on buying a bigger one as he got bigger) I will get a weight and try to get a measurement of her length later tonight (i work graveyard shift, i need sleep! Lol) and see what you guys think her age might be as well as a more accurate diet plan you guys might suggest, I will create a new thread of all of that later!

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[pretends2bnormal]

Having slept on it, sticking to mice for a few meals is probably a good idea anyway. You know she will take mice through experience now and there won't be added potential stress for her of a new food type if she hadn't been eating rats before. Switching an adult who was a life-long mouser (possible if you don't know more of her feeding history) can be more difficult than a juvenile. Some are rather "set in their ways". When you do for those, you may need to use some tricks like scenting with a mouse or mouse bedding to get her to take the first one or two.

Any bowel movement is a good one. So congrats!

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