Normal 3-4 year old, small

[psfal]

I took over care of my step-daughter's Normal male, he's about 3-4 years old but less than 3' long. My Normal hex Chocolate is about a year old and is about 3.5'.
She'd been feeding hers frozen-dead, and I'm certain not nearly enough, since I took over his care he's been eating once a week like my own BPs, same size rats and all but he's not grown any larger...Can she have permanently stunted his growth by not feeding him enough for 3 years+ or are there breeds of BP that stay small?
I got my first BP last summer and started learning and paying attention, or I would have known she was underfeeding hers all that time...

[Slim]

All Ball Pythons are the same species, regardless of the color morph. We really don't use the term "breeds" with snakes. That's a dog/cat/mammal thing and doesn't apply with snakes.

Can their growth be stunted by chronic underfeeding? Yes. Is it permanent? That's a harder question to answer. No two ball pythons are alike, and they all grow at different rates and to different adult sizes. There is a chance that your step-daughter's animal was small from the beginning and was never going to be very large anyway. There is also a chance that it hasn't thrived due to lack of food.

Going forward, I wouldn't worry about it's size, so much as it's overall health and fitness. I suggest you keep feeding it the appropriate size prey item on a regular basis. The eventual outcome should be positive no matter how large the animal eventually grows.

BTW, Welcome to BP.net!

[psfal]

Thanks Slim, I appreciate it. He's got a good appetite, hopefully he'll start growing again