Rehabbing mojave

[BJJPython]

Hi all,
So I'm currently fostering and rehabbing a poorly cared for mojave ball python (long story, but she needs to be properly cared for so we took her in). She is about 2.25-2.5 years old and currently weighs 500 grams. For reference, I got my male super pastel is about 3-4 months older (he's around 3 years old now) and weighs 1500 grams, so I figured that this sort of discrepancy was too much to ignore. I don't think she was given the proper amount of food OR water and husbandry was also not proper.

We got her set up in a 20g tank with all the temps and humidity correct. She has absolutely NO issues eating (you can barely get your hand in the tank before she's snapping to "kill" the FT mice I put in there. Couple of questions for the community here.
1) Will feeding her more often help her regain some of her lost growth (i.e. was thinking 2-3 mice every 4 days)? She would eat almost every day if you offered it to her but is this too much/not enough?
2) Will she ever get to the proper size she should be?
3) Sort of random question, but her tongue is a very dark purple color, vs all my other BPs which are bright pink, is this odd?

And then on a completely separate note, my male (as listed above) is a very finicky eater, and now that he's more mature, he doesn't eat consistently. He will eat, and then not eat for 3-4 weeks (he is offered!). Then most recently he went on a hunger strike for 4 weeks, then went into shed, so didn't eat even longer. He's now been about a month and a half between feedings. Is this normal for a male? He still looks a little chubby (He has a tiny little head a big fat body) but I am wondering if I should be concerned that he sort of...self regulates his eating. thanks all for the help

[AK907]

With a malnourished ball I would start slowly and work your way up. If you feed them too much at once right off the bat you can make them very sick and even cause internal damage. You've gotta think about how their stomachs and metabolisms aren't as good as a healthy ball. You should be fine with your 4 day schedule, but I would start with small one prey item for a couple feeding, then two prey items for a few feedings, and so on until you work up to an appropriate sized meal, which for a 500g ball would be between 50-75 grams. At 500 grams, I would definitely make the switch to rats as well. Start off with pups, which are going to be about the size of an average adult mouse (25-30g). This would be about half a normal sized prey and would, in my opinion be a good starting point so you don't harm your snake. This is what we have done with rescues we've taken in and it seems to work great for us.

Since you asked about your male as well, I wouldn't worry about the occasional hunger strike for a healthy adult ball. Their metabolisms slow down with and they won't eat if they aren't hungry. Some that are really well fed will self regulate themselves.

Good luck!

[PitOnTheProwl]

AK hit everything just right.

On the male, I have a couple that will stop eating once they hit about 1000-1100g. After they lose 100 grams they start eating again so as long as he isnt losing huge amounts of weight its all good.

[Amon Ra Reptiles]

Can't ad to much to what's already been said. The advice given about the female is great advice and will slowly get her back on track. She may be a little stunted and may not ever get to be one of the 3000g girls you see. She will start gaining weight pretty fast now that she's being fed and cared for properly. Good luck with her.
As far as your male.. Well it's a BP lol. They are notorious for going on and off feed. Just to ad in as this wasnt stated in the above posts. It is fall! It's cooling down and he knows it....it's breeding time lol. He's a mature male and males just like females will be picky eaters during breeding season. You may not be breeding but just the natural cooling down of the temps outside and shorter days ect... is enough for them to know what time of year it is. Like Pit stated as long as he's not losing weight your fine.

[BJJPython]

Thanks all for the help, hopefully I'll keep posting about her progress...hopefully she can make it to 2-3000g eventually...on an off topic I was at the NH reptile expo a couple weeks ago and saw a 7400g female, what a big ball!

[Crazy-Rat-Lady]

on an off topic I was at the NH reptile expo a couple weeks ago and saw a 7400g female, what a big ball!

7,400g??? Are you sure it wasn't a blood python or a red tail boa? I've never heard of one that big. We have a big girl and she is 3,400g, which is big, but nothing unheard of. I've heard of a few people that have 4,000+g girls and I know Brian Gundy has a 5,000g girl, but I have never heard of anyone having a ball even remotely close to 7,400g. That is over 16 pounds! It HAD to have be been a blood or something. Had to.

EDIT: Sorry, didn't know my wife was logged in, this is AK907 posting this.

[BJJPython]

If it was it was the most normal looking blood I've ever seen! Agreed thats a big number, but she was a fatty, looked as big as some of the red tails in terms of girth.