A little over two weeks ago, my boyfriend was asked if we were interested in another snake. His co-worker's little sister just broke up with her girlfriend, and the ex was threatening to throw their ball python out if someone didn't take it.

So now we have an adult (supposed) female, named Trouser. She's four years old, and was around 950 grams when I last checked. She was going through a bad shed when she arrived, but with some TLC I was able to help her slough off the remaining skin and assist with the eye caps (they were so bad her eyes were solid milky silver). I'm halfway between considering her a rescue and a free snake. They had included some prescription drops to help with the eye caps, so I'm assuming she was loved at one point. She just has a tough set up to properly maintain (a 40 gal glass tank) and suffered for it.

So. Since she's been here, she's started feeling a bit better. Pounded two mice last week and a small rat yesterday. My questions are around feeding. How often and what size prey should I feed her to safely gain weight? She's thin, but not caved in around the belly. Not sure if this is a consideration, but when I fed her the small rat yesterday, she had a bit of trouble with it. She failed to kill it when she coiled the first time, but was successful with the second attempt. I felt bad for the rat, and would've stepped in to kill it myself had she not been still actively hunting it. Do you think this was a one-off awkward coil, or should I be mindful of her having impaired strengrh/reflexes?

Here she is the first day I had her. The white drop on her head is the ophthalmic medicine prescribed for her. (It wasn't necessary once I started misting her tank and closed up most of the screen top, so it hasn't been used since.)



Sent from my VS980 4G using Tapatalk