BPs at work

[kb1290]

All of the reptiles are really healthy, eat well, and seem appropriately active--except for the ball pythons. We have three BPs right now, one that came in in January and two that came in the beginning of June. The one from January is probably about 7 or 8 months old and the ones from June are probably only 2 or 3 months old. They are all the same size .

First off I work at a Petco so I know working with corporate rules is hard. Is there any way you can separate the animals? I got this approved at my store and now the BP's are doing much better. On their own. If you can't separate them, then find easily distinguishing characteristics on them and keep a record of their weights if you show a lack of growth or weight loss, and show it to a corporate manager you should be able to get vet treatment. The vet should then be able to approve live feedings and get them back up to health. If none of that works try assist feeding fuzzy or hopper mice every five days to get them up to a healthier weight.

Right now all three have some stuck shed; luckily all of their eyecaps are clear, but that has to be uncomfortable. One of them has been stuck for at least three weeks (most of it is off now, but there are still a few patches).

Soak the BPs every couple of days in a Shed Ease solution or in just luke warm water. If you have a spare pillow case you can stick the BP in the wet bag and hopefully have all the shed come off.

None of them eat on their own, they are all assist fed. I bet that if they were left a few weeks without being assist fed that they would eventually eat on their own, but they are all too skinny to risk doing that. They get assist fed two pinkie mice once a week. Their temperature is good, and their humidity may be a little high most of the time, but it's almost never too low since I got there (I can get exact numbers tomorrow). I bought a BP a little over a month ago and he was only 65grams. These three are all smaller than he was.

Like I said see if you can get live to get them to eat on their own of not, up the assist feeds. Remember the more BPs you take out the more come in and have to take their place.

I've been told that all of the BPs that this store ever gets never eat on their own. I'm inclined to believe that the problem comes from the supplier rather than the store because of the level of devotion and care all of the petcare employees are showing, the husbandry is better than the corporate care guides, and all of the other animals (including five colubrids and a sand boa) are very healthy and eating perfectly.

BPs are more easily stressed then the other species, that's why they have a harder time coming into a new environment. They sometimes refuse in the most perfect of conditions so one thing being off will generally cause issues. If your temp/ humidity is being read by the plastic gauges i recommend getting an accurite that you can place in the tanks to get an idea of the actual measurements and adjust accordingly.