Possible underweight BP

[Nic82]

Hey everyone, first time poster here and first time BP owner! I'm going to go ahead and give you a rundown of this month with my new scale baby, and then if you could give me your thoughts, opinions, and your wisdom on this matter it would be greatly appreciated!

On 5/4 I purchased a BP from a local pet store. I finished my setup and made sure everything was right. 91-93 degree hotspot (stat turns heating pad on and off to maintain temp and it has stayed in this range consistently as I've checked). The other side can vary in temp a bit more due to the area that I live, however the temp gradient is rather gradual and I have multiple hides along the side of the tub for him. While he does spend most time in the warm hide I have seen him using each of the others, albeit less often. I spoke with them at the pet store and they stated he'd been feeding well on mice fuzzies. They obtained him on 1/19/18, and typically they get their herps from local breeders after they are established feeders. So this places him, I would guess, at the VERY least 4 months, more likely closer to 6 months?

5/5 I brought him to his new home and he seemed quite happy. I weighed him in at 71g. Now, knowing the mice fuzzies from this shop are typically 5g from having bought them there for my corn snake, that's 7% of his body weight. Looking through their records they were feeding him once every 7-14 days, more often in the 10-14 day range. This seemed like quite a small amount, and it had been 7 days, so I offered a mouse after he spent 10 hours settling in and took it right away. That was a very good feeling as I've heard horror stories about picky BPs

5/9 Well, a day after eating I noticed him roaming his tub and appeared to be on the hunt multiple times each day. So on the 9th I decided to feed him another mouse fuzzy until I could get my hands on what I thought was more appropriate feeder and could settle him into a better feeding schedule.

5/15 he had his first big ol' BM under my care and weighed in at 78g. I also received a delivery that included rat fuzzies and fed him an 11g fuzzy on this day. Quite the step up from the mice he was eating. Also I've read stories about the troubles of switching from mice to rats, and he struck it right away and was happy as can be.

5/21 today he had another large BM, weighed in at 81 grams, and ate a 12g fuzzy rat.

My delivery of fuzzy rats I have sorted out from smallest to largest and was planning on moving up in size up to the 19g fuzzies on the high end feeding him every 6 days. At this point I'm thinking I'll be able to get a better feel for what his needs are. However since this is my first BP, and he appears to be quiiite a bit small for his age, I figured I'd get more opinions on the matter. Does this seem to be a good rough schedule to have him feeding until he's very established in his new home? I'll post some pictures here so you can visualize him as well.

[Nic82]

Here are a couple pictures where you can see his skin looks almost loose, like he has some filling in to do.






Here are a couple pictures where you can see his girth vs. length and it appears that his spine is somewhat visible. However for BPs I'm not sure how much of a visible spine is necessarily healthy/unhealthy.








Overall he appears to be happy. These are recent pictures and the visibility of his spine is slightly less than when I got him already. He seems to slowly but steadily be putting on weight. Let me know what you guys think. Thanks for the time!

Edit: also, as far as length I can't quite get an accurate measurement, however I'd estimate between 1.5 and 2 feet, closer to 1.5.

[Bogertophis]

It takes quite a while for an underweight snake to actually gain weight so that it's noticeable to you...and weighing a snake constantly is stressful, so
don't over-do that. What is the temp. on the cool end of his cage? He must be able to get away from the 92* warm end.

He does need to fill out & gain weight but be patient: the pet store you got him from is "typical"...they under-feed snakes so they don't out-grow the
cage they're in, because "small" (aka 'baby') critters are more appealing to their average buyer, & because they're cheap-skates when it comes to food.
But please, don't feed another item so soon (4 days?) after the first one, as that can cause a regurgitation (a real set-back); no matter how small the
prey item, wait a week to feed another (or even longer, for larger prey). You were lucky. He looks curious in that photo, that's a good sign. But I
wouldn't handle him much, if at all, for a few more weeks (& that includes weighing him) while he's settling in. New homes are very stressful, snakes
are shy.

And by the way, he's very pretty! Welcome to the forum, and to the love of snakes. In case no one warned you, they can be very "addicting".

[SMTHook]

He looks a lot like my Pi, who is a calico queen bee. If he's hiding and eating, he's probably happy. Keep it up follow the advice and the weight will increase.

[RickyNY]

My bp came to me weighing 180g, 9 months later he's 880g. I have followed this chart:
[IMG][/IMG]

I fed him every five days until he reach 500g, then I've been feeding him every 7 days.

[Craiga 01453]

First off, welcome to the forum and the wonderful world of snake keeping!!

Congrats on your first snake!!

Unfortunately, mice fuzzies are too small.
Fortunately, you've already moved him to rats.

Follow the chart above and you'll see weight gain in no time.

[Nic82]

Thanks everyone for the welcome!

Boger:

Cool side I try to keep around 80 degrees, however it occasionally goes into the mid 70s and on a cool day may go into the low 70s. That's why I've made sure there are more than just two hides so that he can feel safe anywhere along the temperature gradient. As for curiosity, he definitely is. Most of the time when I've held him it's been after sticking my hand in his enclosure while he's out exploring and he comes right up and rests his head on my hand. As for weights, since I'm concerned, would it be fine for at least peace of mind monthly weighing do you think?

As for this being addicting, I'm aware I picked up a corn snake not too long ago and knew I also needed a ball python. So once my corn snake was well established with eating, shedding, etc I began the search and setting up for my ball python.


SMTH:

He's a butterbee. I just looked up calico queen bee and they definitely look pretty similar


RickyNY:

I did see that feeding guideline and was thinking it seemed like a good way to go. Glad to know it's a good chart to go by while getting a good feel for your snake!


Craigafrechette:

Thanks as well for letting me know that chart is a good guideline to follow happy to hear that switching him over to rat fuzzies was the right choice.