Almost 2 year old bp and only 345 grams?

[Generationshell]

Yay thank you so much! I now have hope. Hopefully after i switch him to rats. I'll come back in a month and he will have plumped up. lol

I'm so glad your snake is doing better also :]
The fact pl underfeed snakes or their lack of care of feeding them at all urks me.

[gemcitypythons]

we got one that is bout a year and weighs 171grams.Healthy eats like no tomorrow he was in half of an egg he is full girth wise and he loves hugging his furry friends.we humans come all shapes and sizes to so i dont worry as long as he eats.

[Generationshell]

I guess we just got the runts of the litter :]

[ClarkT]

I have a 5 year old BP girl that is finally getting up to the 600 gram mark. She's been a picky eater. I picked her up last Feb.

Her conditions were never right, and she's still a shy eater at times, but she's doing a lot better now.

I'd definitely be switching to rats if i were you, too.

Good luck!

[WingedWolfPsion]

I have a girl I produced who was returned to me after about 2 months of serious neglect (boy was I pissed). She has done the same thing--but she does not eat every time food is offered, and she is a strict mouser. She will likely always be terribly small, but she seems to be healthy now, in spite of her finicky appetite and small size. Her weight seems appropriate for her length.

I don't think a 350 gram snake is really large enough to take rat hoppers. Perhaps crawlers. But a jumbo mouse should be the right size. I have a pastel girl who would only eat mice, and she wound up being 960 grams at age 2--she just switched to rats for me. So she didn't really have a bad rate of growth on mice.

I would take a fresh fecal sample from your snake to a vet. Parasites CAN cause slowed growth rate, as they steal nutrients from the snake. There aren't ALWAYS other symptoms.

[SquamishSerpents]

i believe ball pythons are supposed to eat prey that is around 10% of their weight, so your snake should be eating a rat that is 35 grams or so. i always feed rats to BP's, mice just don't quite cut it.

obviously if you weighed your snake you have a gram scale, so just try to get rats of the appropriate size. when you buy them off a breeder, sometimes they tend to be smaller than what they say, so make sure you weigh them.

[SnakeKB]

My BP took a 70g small rat when it was only 390g. Its so much better to look at your snake and look at your feeder and determine if the feeder will fit in its belly. The rats i feed him are definitly not bigger than his body but are rather long which he takes down fairly easy. Feeding every 7 days also has made him gain 80g in 2 weeks.

[Generationshell]

I thought It can be unhealthy to feed them more than about 10-15% of their body weight?

I'd be scared it would be too big for him to handle!
He's eating large f/t mice right now. And I think hes at his limit with those.
I'd love for mine to gain that much weight so quickly!

[JNballs]

I have a scale :]

I'm gnna def make the switch over soon. Also prob brng him by the vet. Cuz in a month he will be in the temp care of my friend who owns 3 other snakes. Because I have to leave my baby and go off to college :/

I would say go to the vet as soon as possible, on order to eliminate possible parasites right before moving him to your friend! First the stress of moving combined with internal parasites won't be a good combination, and second, your friend won't be happy if your snake brings them to his house

[SnakeKB]

I thought It can be unhealthy to feed them more than about 10-15% of their body weight?

I'd be scared it would be too big for him to handle!
He's eating large f/t mice right now. And I think hes at his limit with those.
I'd love for mine to gain that much weight so quickly!

Its not too big for mine at least. A small rat is longer than it is wide and a 30" snake has plenty of room to hold that. Everyones getting hung up on the "10% rule". Weight is just a number, the physical size of the feeder is what matters. If you have to, take a tape measure and measure the largest part of your snake and then measure the diameter of the feeder. If your really worried about feeding rats, then start doing a large mouse every 4-5 days. The snake digests a small meal quickly so it will be ready to eat again sooner.