underweight?

[ash_16]

hi im new to this forum and fairly new to bp's i have a 3 month old bp who is only 80g is she underweight i have also posted a picture of her.

[IMG][/IMG]

[Nate]

Welcome to the forums!

It looks normal to me...no lateral ripples on the side (lateral ripples on the side indicates under weight), although i think 80 grams is what some new born baby balls weigh...

what did you use to weigh him? and how often are you feeding? what are you feeding?

[arcane]

She looks pretty good. Slightly triangular, but nothing to really be worried about, as long as she's eating. My Pip was slightly underweight when I got him, and he's just now fleshed out.

[tigerlily]

Welcome to bp.net and the world of ball pythons!

It looks small, but the spine isn't protruding so I wouldn't say it's emaciated. How long have you had the little guy, and have you had any successful feedings? I'd say hold off on too much handling until you get a bit more weight on him. Make sure the temps are 92 warm side and 82 coolside.

[ash_16]

i used one of those scales you use for weighing parcels and such. at the moment im feeding her 1 small adult mouse a week so im thinking of moving her up to 1 medium do you think she will be able to take it ?

[Nate]

it's really only necessary to feed the same size prey as the girth of the snake. so if the small adult mouse is not as big as his girth, then maybe you can bump the size up a tad. there's no reason to get in a rush in size increases. Keep us updated

[SnakeySnakeSnake]

i used one of those scales you use for weighing parcels and such. at the moment im feeding her 1 small adult mouse a week so im thinking of moving her up to 1 medium do you think she will be able to take it ?

How much does the adult mouse weigh on your scale?

I had many 80 gram snakes and the largest prey they got were rat fuzzies (10-15 grams)

[Rapture]

She could be thin due to what she was being fed before you got her. She doesn't look like she is at a dangerous weight, so you might want to keep feeding her the same size every week for a while, and see how she gains.

[janeothejungle]

She (he?) does indeed look to be at a decent weight. We had a group of 45 gram girls come into our rescue and they took awhile to put on weight but are now on their way to being lil fatties (5 months old - 155 grams). As long as the skin isn't folding and no vertebrae are visible, I'd say you're okay. Maybe feed every 5 days instead of every 7? Our little girls were being fed every 3 days for the first few weeks after they discovered food (granted, they were on fuzzies).

[ash_16]

i weighed roxy again today and she is 95g so she has put on weight, also i have changed her substrate from newspaper to aspen and she seems to like it more than newspaper.