Is he too small?

[Kaylaaa]

So I finally got my first BP. After looking over a lot of morphs I decided on a Black Widow. I was having a hard time finding a younger baby until I came across one on Morph Market. The breeder is a smaller one, but after looking them up they had great reviews and seemed reputable, so I went for it. I got a male, and the woman said he has eaten four times. He is about a month and a half. She said last time they weighed him he was 60g but I didn't realize how little that now sounds. I'm wondering if he is a bit on the small side? I'm hoping I can add some good weight to him as I have him, and plan to offer him a medium mouse every five days to see if it helps. I don't actually have him yet, he arrives Tuesday, but from the picture above what do you guys think? I can send a picture Tuesday too, and I plan to weigh him when he gets here.

[piedlover79]

At 60 grams he's still hatchling size and a medium mouse is going to be huge.

[Insane]

When I got my GHI she was 55 grams. she is just over 2 years old now and is the biggest girl of my collection at 1700+ grams. It was nerve racking because she would not take F/T for the first month and I couldn't find anything live that was small enough to offer. Ended up giving her the smallest adult mouse at petco I could find. After that she started pounding f/t and never stopped. I'm actually afraid to put a male in with her because her feeding response is so aggressive I'm worried she'll try to eat him...

[Kaylaaa]

@piedlover79 - I was just thinking medium mice cause the breeder said he was on small/medium mice. I had planned to check the widest part of his body and base the size of the mouse of that once I saw him in person.

@Insane - How funny! I'm hoping mine turns out to be a bigger boy. that must have been scary for you though at first!

[PitOnTheProwl]

60 grams and eaten 4 mice?? I would think someone is not telling the whole story.......
I have had some small babies but most are over 60 grams out of the egg.
Hopper mice should be good for you.
Were they feeding live or f/t?

[piedlover79]

Perhaps the breeder has a different idea of what a medium mouse is?

[Insane]

Oh it was, she was the smallest ball python Ive ever had and I was still fairly new to keeping them.

As far as prey size goes, I just fed my newbie a very small mouse and it left a noticeable bulge in her abdomen. She was at 120g, so I think a medium adult will be too big for your guy. Maybe by "small/medium mice" the Breeder is actually referring to hopper/weaned mice? Either way, it might be in your best interest to try and switch him over to rats as soon as possible. It will be easier in the future to feed him one small rat vs trying to feed multiple adult mice. And from what I've read rats are more nutritious than mice so he should gain faster on them.

Sorry, on mobile and my autocorrect is stupid so I had to edit some errors

[Kaylaaa]

Live. I will see how big he is when he arrives and feed him based on that.
From the picture above does he look too small or just young still?

[PitOnTheProwl]

There is nothing in that photo to compare the size of the snake to.
We can only go by what you are telling us.

[Insane]

Unfortunately from the picture you can't really tell how big or small he is. Maybe you can ask the Breeder to take a picture of him in their hand or next to something to get a better idea of size?

Here's a pic of my GHI when I got her at 55 grams.
http://i.imgur.com/esW3uYoh.jpg

And here's my 2 newbies at about 120-125 grams as another comparison.
http://i.imgur.com/iYEFIBDh.jpg

ON mobile so posting images is a pain. Hopefully the links work