New with many questions!

[gracefrog]

Hey people! Im new here, and fairly/somewhat new to this and have many questions. Some are prolly no-brainers, so please bear with me! O, Im loving this site!
We bought Charlotte, a BP, 4 months ago from Petsmart, and shes absolutely wonderful! She always eat with no effort, beautiful sheds, active, and loves being held and cuddled. Thing is, I have no idea how old she is, they didnt know her birthday. Im guessing shes about 2 ft long, Thats her in my avatar pic. Do you have any idea how old she could be?
Also, we feed live mice evry 5-7 days. They dont seem to be making much of a difference lately. Could she be ready to move up? Where do I go from mice? And about when do you guys start on rats?
Also, Ive seen many people who's balls love to soak in warm water bowls. Charlotte seems to think its a big no-no. She hates it, whats up with that?
Anyways, any help at all would be so awesome, Thanx!

[JeffJ]

a 2 foot Ball should be on something larger then adult mice. or should be fed multiple. my ball is 2.5 feet and i feed him a medium rat every 5-7 days.

judging by its length its estimated that its 6-8 months. maybe a year. this is difficult to guess because they all grow differently and some can be runts compared to there brothers and sisters. not only this but since it came from petco it was probably under fed its whole time there which can stunt the growth of a snake.

please post some pictures of him/her so we can get a better idea of body mass and suggest a proper food item.

Edit: forgot to mention some snakes love a bath others hate it. it can change with the wind my Ball likes to have a good soak... never used to though. but i will tell you this NEVER leave them in water unattended they can panic and drown it has happened to many users here.

[TheOtherLeadingBrand]

I love her name! That is my favorite girl's name. Since I will NOT be having any more babies (and mine is a boy) I will be saving that for my next girl puppy!

Anyway, we have a nearly eight year old male ball python who I swear until six months ago NEVER soaked, and never liked it. He just did not get it. He ate awesome (always has been our garbage disposal LOL he eats any rats the others don't eat), he shed awesome and still does. But he just randomly decided soaking is his new favorite activity about six months ago, after seven plus years of never doing it.

[oliverstwist]

charlotte is my bff's name!

[JeffJ]

Reminds me of the book Charlotte's web

[gracefrog]

a 2 foot Ball should be on something larger then adult mice. or should be fed multiple. my ball is 2.5 feet and i feed him a medium rat every 5-7 days.

judging by its length its estimated that its 6-8 months. maybe a year. this is difficult to guess because they all grow differently and some can be runts compared to there brothers and sisters. not only this but since it came from petco it was probably under fed its whole time there which can stunt the growth of a snake.

please post some pictures of him/her so we can get a better idea of body mass and suggest a proper food item.

Edit: forgot to mention some snakes love a bath others hate it. it can change with the wind my Ball likes to have a good soak... never used to though. but i will tell you this NEVER leave them in water unattended they can panic and drown it has happened to many users here.

So if I feed multiple mice (we are going to start breeding rats around next December, unless you think we should start now) How often do I feed? Like feed her, wait till she gets it down, then immediatly feed another, or feed like every 3 days?

[JeffJ]

So if I feed multiple mice (we are going to start breeding rats around next December, unless you think we should start now) How often do I feed? Like feed her, wait till she gets it down, then immediately feed another, or feed like every 3 days?

Feed her one mouse. then once she re-aligns her jaw (yawns) offer her another. id say 2-3 adult mice would be good for a snake of her size. but id like to see a picture of her.

[gracefrog]

Feed her one mouse. then once she re-aligns her jaw (yawns) offer her another. id say 2-3 adult mice would be good for a snake of her size. but id like to see a picture of her.

I put up a few pics of her, not the best but here in a few minutes should have some better ones up, Hey, thank you so much for being so helpful!

[JeffJ]

I put up a few pics of her, not the best but here in a few minutes should have some better ones up, Hey, thank you so much for being so helpful!

no problem. every one is new to this at some point. but adult mice are a small meal for a ball python rats are better once they are big enough to take them and they offer more nutrition.

[JeffJ]

how old arethe pictures in your gallery? if they are recent id say stick with 2 aduly mice for now. she isnt big enough to move to a rat yet in my opinion.