New Ball Python Age???

[bbb100]

I recently got a new python. She is quite small but I have already fed her twice, but she has yet to shed her first time with me. Please take note that I did, unfortunately buy her from a pet store, therefore I do not know how old she is or what she she is. On my behalf, I’ve done tons and tons of research and have come to the conclusion that she’s a pastel, possible lesser. I also “popped” her today and found out she was a female! Her next feeding is due Sunday/Monday. But after doing EVEN more research, I realized I might not be feeding her as much as I should. She’s been eating one frozen/thawed baby mouse every 4-6 days successfully, meaning she is old enough to have been off live mice. Due to the fact that I don’t know how old she is, I don’t know how often I should feed her and what size mouse/rat she needs. I’m going to purchase a scale soon, but I need help figuring out what to do from there.

Here’s a picture of her:

[bbb100]

morph*

[Midwest]

Once you get the scale update with her weights. I have a male that was hatched in July of 19 that looks about the same size. Problem is no two snakes grow and the same rate and I am assuming males and females won't grow at the same rate. There is a chart on here showing what size you should feed. My male that is about that size ate rat pups the first couple times and now has been eating small/weaned rats that weigh around 30-40 grams. My snake was 278 grams last measure.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Length and weight are not an indicative of age there are way too many variables, from size out of the eggs, to feeding frequency to fast to genetics, I have seen 1 year old animals in the 200 grams like I have seen 3 months old in the 200 grams, I also have seen 18 months old tipping the scale at 1800 grams while other barely were 600 grams.

[ballpythonsrock2]

"I recently got a new python. She is quite small but I have already fed her twice, but she has yet to shed her first time with me. Please take note that I did, unfortunately buy her from a pet store, therefore I do not know how old she is or what she she is. On my behalf, I’ve done tons and tons of research and have come to the conclusion that she’s a pastel, possible lesser. I also “popped” her today and found out she was a female! Her next feeding is due Sunday/Monday. But after doing EVEN more research, I realized I might not be feeding her as much as I should. She’s been eating one frozen/thawed baby mouse every 4-6 days successfully, meaning she is old enough to have been off live mice. Due to the fact that I don’t know how old she is, I don’t know how often I should feed her and what size mouse/rat she needs. I’m going to purchase a scale soon, but I need help figuring out what to do from there."


You should feed her every 7 days at this age, and that number increases as they become an adult. So pick a feeding day and feed on that day. Since your snake has probably had it's first 3-5 meals and it is more likely under 200 grams so you probably should feed her a small mouse (12-17 grams) or a rat fuzzy (10-19 grams.)

The next step is above 200 grams and is a rat pup (20-29 grams) or a adult mouse (18-32 grams)

Kitchen scales are pretty cheap at Walmart, that is where I got mine.

[ballpythonsrock2]

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...+feeding+chart


​Feeding chart