How old is he?/Feeding issues

[mackynz]

I have had Loki for a little over a week now, I was told he was 2. (He said his wife told him he had to get rid of him after he escaped a year ago). He also told me he had been feeding one fuzzy a week.

Loki is sitting at 250 g right now, feeding is tonight. I have adjusted to feed him 15% of his body weight, my question is how old do you think he really is? It had been pointed out to me that he looked way younger than 2. Could the previous owner not feeding correctly have resulted in stunted growth? I don't see the point of him lying about the age.

I'll try to get another pic or two up tonight before feeding.

[Slim]

I'm sure you'll get lots of opinions, but honestly, with his cloudy history, there is no way you'll ever really know.

[mackynz]

I had a feeling, if you had to guess would you say under 2?

[Slim]

Probably, but I base that only on his size vs. how healthy he looks. It would seem to me that a snake fed on fuzzies for two years would not look that healty.

Of course, I could be very wrong. I don't have a lot of experience with BPs that have been under fed for an extended period to time.

[mackynz]

I had heard in another thread that the tail is one of the first places to thin out and it looks like he has a little chub going on there still, they also thought he was 4-6 months. I just find it odd that the previous owner would not be honest about the age, he gained nothing by it.

[SaintTawny]

I could see a snake only being fed such a tiny amount not growing a lot, but I don't think it would completely stunt growth to the point of looking so young and healthy. I haven't had any experience with snakes on this matter, but underfed mammals don't simply stop growing to maintain a healthy body weight in the absence of food, the natural tendency to grow to a certain size range outweighs any desire the animal might have to use their little nutritional intake for maintenance and they end up bony and lanky and underweight, but usually close to normal size in terms of bone growth.

As to why the person you got him from might have been dishonest about his age, was there a chance he wanted you to think he might not get much bigger? If he really needed to get rid of it and didn't know how much you knew about ball pythons, he might have lied to try to hook you.

Also: Nice shirt.

[mackynz]

As to why the person you got him from might have been dishonest about his age, was there a chance he wanted you to think he might not get much bigger? If he really needed to get rid of it and didn't know how much you knew about ball pythons, he might have lied to try to hook you.

Also: Nice shirt.

I knew full well he would be getting bigger. Maybe he was just not very educated.

As to my shirt: I have it tattooed on my back

[sho220]

Did you ask for the birth certificate? And not that short form, doctored one that the media keeps showing. We need to see the official long form certificate...

[mackynz]

Did you ask for the birth certificate? And not that short form, doctored one that the media keeps showing. We need to see the official long form certificate...

I was going to come up with a response to play along, but I just keep laughing.

[Kiyayiya]

I have ball that I got a little smaller than that just over a year ago, and now he's noticeably larger than the one you're holding. That's the best I can do as far as age, though.