hes still so skinny and small..

[ADEE]

what can i do to help him gain some weight already?! he is conciderably smaller than savanna who has bulked up nicely recently and while hes younger than her (no more than 3mos) both were hatchlings when i got them two months ago, he still gets that dehydrated look even though i see him drink often and he eats like a champ now (he has almost loose skin) while she looks almost fat. is there something i should feed him that would be better? they are both eating either small mice or rat pups depending on what the breeder has. hes eating every 5 days and our husbandry is as close to perfect as its going to get... any ideas or should i just accept hes younger and a male

[Kagez28]

each snakes grows at his own rate...

all you can do is just keep feeding him every 5 days. just make sure you're not feeding to large of prey, cause he could then be overfed and go off feed unexceptionally.

[ADEE]

naw, i know its not too big.. just wondering if there was anything else i could do without power feeding, guess hes just destined to be small for now, he has grown since we got him, just not as much as savanna thanks for your reply

[GirDance]

From everything I've read and seen females typically grow larger and at a slightly accelerated rate than males. It's typical of almost all species.

Have you been keeping track of his weight weekly at all? It might be interesting for you to see exactly how much weight he's gaining each week. Once you've done it for a few weeks you can work out a sort of trend, so long as it's consistent I wouldn't worry too much. We used to do this with underweight dogs at the vet clinic, it's all about just finding a happy medium, rapid weight gain can be just as dangerous as being under weight for animals.

[ADEE]

yeah adri, i know that.. i worked at a vet too and we did the same for the animals that came in. i have been planning on getting a digi scale and the wal*mart didnt have any last time i went. guess i need to get my butt moving and get one. thanks!

[GirDance]

Well, assuming your feeders weigh between 20 and 40 g each, I'd put a good weekly weight gain measurement at around 20-50g per week including water weight.

If you think of it in that regard, it's really not that much... I'd give him another month or so to really plump up... But when they're so small its so hard to notice a difference because the gain is such a small amount!

Again, I wouldn't stress too much, you seem to have really nipped their husbandry in the butt!

[bearhart]

I got a baby corn recently. I've been feeding him a big meal every 5 days and he's growing like crazy but still really skinny. I imagine its like most animals where the body sinks all its energy into growth during youth.

[ADEE]

i think corns stay slim though dont they? i will keep a better eye on him as far as weight goes, might go tomorrow and get a scale before he eats. ty

[bearhart]

Yea they do. But you don't feed them every 5 days their entire lives.

With my BP (who was about 8 mos at the time) I simply bumped his meal size up by adding another mouse and he started to gain. I'm just holding the meal size constant and letting him grow into it.

Either way, just bump the calories up by shortening to 5 days and/or increasing meal size. You'll be able to tell if he starts to get fat because he'll start buckling more when he bends and he'll start to get soft fat deposits on the sides towards his back half.

[bearhart]

If he's looking starved you might consider making sure he doesn't have parasites.

Also, make sure you're not feeding too small. I think I got mine at about 5 mos and he was eating small mice.