Eating ?

[kc.exotics]

So my spider ball python eats hopper mice ( one every Friday ), but I feel like these are to small for him. He is a roughly 2 and 1/2 feet long and only weighs 222 grams. Is he under weight? Ive tried feeding him larger prey but he wont take them, and I feel like he is too skinny. Advice/help?

[DennisM]

Hopper mice are too small for a 222g snake. What larger prey have you tried? I'd be making the switch to rat fuzzy/ pup about this point. It's impossible to say if the snake is too thin without a photo.

[Trisnake]

If he's really 2 and a half feet long and weighs 222 gs he's very underweight. What kind of larger prey have you tried feeding him? Have you tried feeding live? Normally a healthy ball python at that size (length wise) should be taking small rats, mouse hoppers are hatchling food. Because he's so underweight I wouldn't try a small rat as of yet bc it might shock and stress his system... try feeding him an adult mouse.

I also have to wonder, what is your husbandry like? This may be being caused by an issue in husbandry, which I hope as it is usually an easy fix. Either way you have an emaciated ball python that will need to recover and be fed smaller but more appropriate prey items than mouse hoppers for a while until he gains more girth and gets used to eating again.

Pictures of the snake and your enclosure may give us a better idea of what the issue may be and help us help you more, so if you could post some that would be great.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

If you are feeding a 222 grams snakes hoppers you are under feeding him, which means while your snake may grow it will do so at a very slow rate.

At that size he is highly capable of eating an adult mouse. If he won't than you should offer multiple prey.

At that size BP should be voracious, if not than there might be an underlying issue.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[Yzmasmom]

My 3.5 month old (approximately 18" long,) 179g hatchling is getting 2 rat fuzzies (between 14g and 25g each per week.) We just bumped it up from 1 a week because they are now smaller than her belly and she gets them down in 2 mins and doesn't poop. She's using it all with nothing left over.
Once these last 4 fuzzies are gone, she will be getting 1 weaned rat pup per week. Yours can definitely eat more.
Have you thought about switching to rats? They are nutritionally whole. Mice aren't.