Eleven progression (my first normal)

[rayman99]

I decided to give my girl a soak tonight, she’s going into shed and I want it to come off nicely. I live in the high desert and humidity is pretty low here. I bought spagmoss the other day and have to rewet it daily to keep the humidity above 30-40%.

On a side note, that rat pup she ate left a mighty large impression on her!





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[Finn0208]

Quick two questions for anyone but the first is primarily for Finn,
1) In your experience working at PetsMart, what is the average age of the Balls when they arrive at Petsmart. According to the chart they gave me she Arrived at petsmart on October 26, 2019. I don't really have a frame of reference on how snakes age and feature as they age. Would it be safe to assume she was approx a month old when she arrived at Petsmart?

2) I have been feeding her progressively larger food, primarily due to not knowing exactly how much she can take. I just bought a mouse that weighs quite a bit, about 48-50 grams, when the mouse is measured, it's about 1 and a quarter inch wide, Eleven is just short of 1 inch wide at her widest part. Do you think this weight difference is a big deal?

Unfortunately when they send the snakes in they don’t give us any information about them at all, I even contacted the company/breeder we got them from to see if I could find a hatch date for Finn and didn’t get anywhere, my guess when they come there, they are close to a month old if that....they like for them to eat a few meals first and then they send them, but that is strictly a guess


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[rayman99]

Yeah, I questioned the Worker at Petsmart quite a bit, She was very helpful and had good info, (she has 2-3 BP of her own) but didn't have any info on Eleven prior to arriving at the store.

[rayman99]

I let my girl move around outside of her house for the first time and after about 10 minutes she found my dining room chair, climbed it and just perched there until I put her back in the home. Really fascinating to see her climb the chair legs and find a comfy spot.
On another note, I possibly may have a new addition shortly,adult female normal, the person is practically giving her a way due to moving apparently...


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[rayman99]

Random Thought, and this may just be a typical Ball Python demeanor, But due to her demeanor, Calm, docile, relaxed, very rarely scared (never balls up), I feel like this she is older than 3.5 months old. Maybe its due to the fact that she was at petsmart and probably handled often but she is just unbelievably calm around me and my kids. On another note, she shed a bit last night, it didn't come out as one clean shed, but I think that make be due to the lack of rough items in the enclosure. The rough textured cypress mulch I have down is covered with a layer of very soft and moist spagmoss.





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[Bogertophis]

Not surprising...eating more while in shed can mess up sheds. Shedding uses up their hydration and so does digestion. And that last meal appears bigger than it
should be, as that's more than a "slight mid-body bulge". In the last photo where she's wrapped on the chair leg, you can see she's going to defecate pretty soon
by the bulge above her cloaca...lucky you aren't cleaning the carpet.

[rayman99]

Not surprising...eating more while in shed can mess up sheds. Shedding uses up their hydration and so does digestion. And that last meal appears bigger than it
should be, as that's more than a "slight mid-body bulge". In the last photo where she's wrapped on the chair leg, you can see she's going to defecate pretty soon
by the bulge above her cloaca...lucky you aren't cleaning the carpet.

Yes I do agree, the last mean might have been bigger than it should be, but in fairness she hasn’t pooped out the last two meals, so hopefully when I get home from work she has defecated. Actually as she was moving around I was a bit worried she might go.
Today after work I was planning on doing a full clean of tank and replacement of substrate, so hopefully she has defecated by then.


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[pkcconstrictors]

I'm just glad to finally hear a good reptile story out of petsmart; its downright depressing most of the time. You probably saved this life.

[WhompingWillow]

I also fell for a normal at PetSmart (who was not in great shape) and now he's doing fantastic.

One thing I'd suggest is to space out your feedings. If you gave a meal on 1/3 and another on 1/8 (one that was probably a bit bigger than it ideally would have been), that's quite a bit of food for a snake that's young and still adjusting. Every 7-10 days is fine. Aim for as big as the widest part of the body or 10-15% bodyweight. There are a lot of obese snakes in captivity.

[Luvyna]

Nice to see your girl is eating well! Agreed with the advice about feeding above. Maybe leave a longer gap between this feeding and her next since she had an unusually large meal.

I'm also quite surprised to see a Petsmart snake this healthy. Most of the ones I've seen come with a lot of health problems and need to be rehabilitated. It's really cool that Eleven is a climber! Must be good exercise for her especially after all those meals

I think that the shed was incomplete most likely due to humidity. In the photos of her climbing the table leg I can see some wrinkles on her body which is a sign of dehydration. You mentioned in a previous post that you have trouble keeping your humidity above 30-40% - this is too low for a ball python, it should be a minimum of 50-60% humidity. It might help to consult some of the BP care guides on this forum, there are lots of different methods for increasing humidity in the enclosure.