Is my BP underweight?

[SpacegirlSpiff]

I have a female BP that was hatched mid Sept 2016 (so roughly 5 months old) ... I have seen posts that are making me feel like she could be underweight, but I can't really find a reliable size chart

I weighed her the other day (and it was 2 days after she ate a med. mouse), and she came in at 168g

Does that seem on the low side? Hopefully that's accurate, it's the first time I've used the little scale I got but the bowl was zero'd out before I put her in it so not sure why it wouldnt be

Where should she be? and if she is underweight, how do I help her catch up?

[SpacegirlSpiff]

That is her in my avatar picture, btw for visual reference

I can definitely see where her spine is but I'm not sure I'd say it's drastically sticking out or anything

Sorry, I'm such a newbie

[redshepherd]

Only pictures can tell, since BP's grow at different rates. It depends on both how often/much they eat and genetics.

It's kind of hard to tell from the small picture, but she just looks very small, but not necessarily underweight. What are you feeding her and how often?

[SpacegirlSpiff]

I have only fed her once since I just got her last week (received her on 02/08, successful feeding on 02/09) ... the breeder I received her from said she was eating "small adult mice weekly", but small mice looked too small to me, so I got medium

I would say, even the medium mouse didn't make an very obvious lump after she ate, but she happily took it and seemed satisfied by it

I almost get the feeling she could already be hungry again already though, but not sure, I could be mis-reading cues ... I would say the medium mouse was as big, maybe even SLIGHTLY smaller than her thickest width

I was planning to feed once a week, every 7 days, but maybe I should do 5 days?

At that weight what do you think is the right size rodent? Maybe try a "large adult" mouse instead, as long as it's not too much bigger than her? I've seen conflicting advice that the prey should be slightly bigger, or exact size of the largest width... I'm not 100% sure on what I should be feeding and don't want to overextend her

[cletus]

Healthy body composition is what you want to be concerned with. My girl was a slow starter. Extremely small and didn't gain weight fast in the beginning. Then she just started gaining weigh once she hit the 120 gram mark and grew like a weed. it seemed like she was 100 grams for 2 months. I suspect switching to rats had something to do with that but that's a topic for another thread.

[SpacegirlSpiff]

I'll try to find a better pic

[Stewart_Reptiles]

She can handle an adult mouse or a rat pup at that size so you need to bump the food size.

You can feed a prey equal the girth size once every 5 to 7 days until your snake reaches 500 grams.

As for weight

It's not about weight it's about overall proportions.

There are too many factors that come into play in the weight of an animal, weight out of the egg which can vary from 40 to 90 grams, how fast the animal start eating some eat the next day after their first shed some may take 6 weeks, prey size out of the egg and there after, feeding frequency some people feed to little, some feed too much, skip meals and fast, and finally the animal itself.

What you want is an healthy animal with good proportion the res is really irrelevant.

[redshepherd]

I was planning to feed once a week, every 7 days, but maybe I should do 5 days?

At that weight what do you think is the right size rodent? Maybe try a "large adult" mouse instead, as long as it's not too much bigger than her? I've seen conflicting advice that the prey should be slightly bigger, or exact size of the largest width... I'm not 100% sure on what I should be feeding and don't want to overextend her

If she'll take it every 5 days, you could totally do that! Just try and see.

I actually think feeding just slightly wider than the widest part of their body is ideal for growing little snakes, at least until they're sub-adults. You can measure the weight of the mouse and see if it is about 15% of her body weight (this saying only applies to young BP's), but I honestly just eyeball it.

[SpacegirlSpiff]

[SpacegirlSpiff]

That pic was from 2/8 right after I just received her, so pre-feed