ADVICE PLEASE! 2 year old BP weighs 252g / 8.9oz

[Freeflynick]

I recently got a BP from someone at work who was moving. He told me they did not know the sex (but he is called a "he" for ease), have had it for 2 years and feed it one hopper mouse every week. After looking around a few forums it seemed that for his age he should be on bigger food, so I took him out and weighed him and he was 252g / 8.9oz. A quick search showed that this seems to be VERY small for the age.

Any advice on how best to proceed? Should I move up to rat pups, or is that too big a jump? Or should I do a few feeds with fuzzy rats, or stick with hoppers and feed more often?

Should I be concerned? To my inexperienced eye (I owned a jungle carpet python 20 years ago in Scotland) he looks quite healthy other than a stuck shed (I will be changing from the aspen that was supplied to an EcoEarth/cypress/ReptiBark mix at the weekend which will hopefully help with shedding).

I would really like to get him up to a good size, but don't want to push it if it could do any harm, so your advice would be greatly appreciated!

I have a photo to show his overall look, but am not allowed to post pics for some reason. I guess that is something to do with me being a newbie?

Thanks guys!

Nick

[bcr229]

Over the next few weeks I would feed gradually larger mice. So, small adult this week, medium adult next week, large/jumbo adult mouse the following week. Since he's just moved I wouldn't add to his stress by offering a different prey type right now.

After three weeks I'd try switching to rat pups. Once he hits 400 grams offer a weanling rat weekly. Once he hits 500 grams offer a small rat weekly.

[Freeflynick]

Over the next few weeks I would feed gradually larger mice. So, small adult this week, medium adult next week, large/jumbo adult mouse the following week. Since he's just moved I wouldn't add to his stress by offering a different prey type right now.

After three weeks I'd try switching to rat pups. Once he hits 400 grams offer a weanling rat weekly. Once he hits 500 grams offer a small rat weekly.

Thank you bcr229!! Much appreciated. I wouldn't have thought there would be much difference in a mouse or a rat, so good to know that the snake would know the difference.

I can see this forum is going to be a great resource!

Cheers,

Nick

[Igotsmallballs]

That was good advice. Also something that helped me a little was weighing my feeders. 10-15% of the snakes weight. Just do the math. I think most peeps just eyeball the snake and feeder. Which is fine. I just like having an extra tool to use as a fairly new snake owner.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Keep it in a 10 gallons tank with proper husbandry and feed it, he will catch up eventually.

Rat pups are fine at that size the question is will he transition easily since he was fed mice for 2 years, the longer they remain on mice the harder it can be to switch however because it was drastically underfed it could play in your favor to have an hungry snake that might be willing to eat anything.

Either way it's really about feeding what works once a week and at that size an adult mouse will work as well.