How is my boy growing?

[frankykeno]

Ok here's my two cents your animal is eating without fail and just not growing. So this means that he is just not getting the full benefit of the food. I would take a fecal sample and the snake to a vet because I'd be willing to bet it has internal parasites. Most are easy to treat and once they are gone he'll start growing like a weed.

I agree with Ed. From what you are posting about the place you got this snake from, I wouldn't trust that he was well cared for or was in fact a recent import that may be carrying internal parasites.

Not to mention that I feed him F/T and the only place around here to get them is the reptile store and they are crazy expensive ($4.00 for a small rat - 2.50 for a jumbo mouse) and I get lectured everytime that I'm feeding him too much and I should be feeding him a hopper once a month I'm trying to look for somewhere to buy online - but I gotta buy such a small shipment its difficult.

Stacey, you can order smaller orders from f/t rodent suppliers. You won't receive the bulk discounts but the prices you are paying are crazy (I know I used to pay that for live....$5.00 buck a rat from a pinky to a jumbo...how stupid is that!). Remember too if you ordered say 100 adult mice and you offered him 2 per week, you've got your whole year covered basically. The savings in cash plus having to run out every week may be well worth it. Properly packaged and kept hard frozen fully furred rodents are good to go for about 1 year from what I was told.

Here's a link to a company I used to order f/t from and I really was impressed with their service and product.

http://www.themousefactory.com/

I'll bring him to the vet (he actually has an appt about 3 weeks from now - but I'll see if I can get him bumped up) but he has grown alot. When I got him he was seriously underweight - they said they were feeding him a hopper mouse once a month and he was a year old. In the last four months hes grown about 1 ft and maybe doubled his weight.

You don't actually have to take him in for the fecal float to be done, Stacey. Just contact your vet clinic and ask for a price quote on a fecal float for a snake (my clinic used to charge me $22.00 a float and they would do it while I waited). Then you just collect the sample, put in a ziploc baggie, mark the date and name of the snake the sample is from and run it over to the clinic as soon as possible (keep refridgerated NOT frozen if you can't go right away). That way if there are internal parasites present your vet can deal with them at your next appointment and set up a treatment plan with you.