Underweight rescue ball python help.

[Bogertophis]

Thank you all for your responses. I it seems my original schedule may have been a little ambitious so I'll drop it back to one adult mouse treated with the Nutribac stuff every 7 days till its appointment.

It also appears that Waffles did not actually have stuck eye caps. After its bath its eyes looked a ton clearer. What looked like cloudy lines separating the eye from the stuck shed cleaned up and I can actually see its pupils now. I tried wiping its eyes gently with a cloth anyway but could get nothing to come off and a day later the cloudy lines have still not come back. Could this have been a dehydration issue.

As for @goingpostal question about why I'm taking it to my vet, I have a fairly good exotics vet near me that is pretty reasonably priced for their normal appointments (emergency appointments on the other hand not so much). I am also fairly new to keeping ball pythons so I am unsure of what all Illness to look out for with a rescue. I am confidant in my normal husbandry to keep them healthy and can even take care of things like an infected wound without much of an issue but I am not confidant in my abilities to diagnose much else. I also plan on having the vet show me how to either pop or probe it to determine its sex since I have had no experience doing this.

Thanks again for all your help and advice.

-on the revised feeding schedule. BTW- don't bother feeding him when he clouds up (goes into a shed cycle). Even if he's willing to eat then, it can cause problems with a stuck shed, because both shedding and digestion require good hydration (they use up water in the snake's body). Many snakes (even those not underweight) may have trouble with "multi-tasking" both functions.

I'm glad if he didn't actually have stuck eye-caps, & yes, it's possible & likely that dehydration caused lines (fine wrinkles) in his eyes that appeared to be left-over eye-caps from a previous shed.
For that reason (& because snakes in the wild don't have "room service" & don't eat when in shed anyway) that I'd advise not feeding him when he's in shed, no matter how eager you are for him to gain weight. A snake's body doesn't regain good body weight OR hydration quickly, so just be patient. Eating while in shed will likely result in a stuck shed for this snake in the foreseeable future.

You're lucky to have a good exotic vet nearby. And from your intelligent questions, I'd say he's already in good hands.

[bcr229]

It also appears that Waffles did not actually have stuck eye caps. After its bath its eyes looked a ton clearer. What looked like cloudy lines separating the eye from the stuck shed cleaned up and I can actually see its pupils now. I tried wiping its eyes gently with a cloth anyway but could get nothing to come off and a day later the cloudy lines have still not come back. Could this have been a dehydration issue.

Very likely; a dehydrated snake's eyes can have thin lines that look like cracks.

[zanic07]

Thought I'd check in and give an update since its been 2 months since I took in Waffles.

I finally saw my vet at the end of April. They did a full check up with fecal sample but no blood work. They said it probably wasn't necessary to do the blood work unless I wanted a baseline so I opted out. As for the results he is fairly healthy, no infection, no parasites, just underweight but her instructions on getting him up to weight were fairly vague basically she said slowly increase the weight of the prey till he is able to take something like a small rat and then to start decreasing the feeding frequency. After that she said just monitor his weight and make sure he is gaining weight steadily.

I finally got him up to eating between 50 and 60 gram rats as of his last feeding schedule and will be decreasing the feeding frequency by a day each week for the next few weeks till he is feeding every 2 weeks.

I'm not sure if he is gaining too fast or not but he is up to 495 grams as of today but I expect the growth rate will slow down as the frequency decreases.

My plan for once he is up to eating every 2 weeks is to feed approx 12-15% of his body weight till he is around 900 grams. after that its just maintenance.

As always I would love any feedback you would like to provide on the schedule I am thinking of and the care he is receiving so I can improve my husbandry.

[nikkubus]

Thought I'd check in and give an update since its been 2 months since I took in Waffles.

I finally saw my vet at the end of April. They did a full check up with fecal sample but no blood work. They said it probably wasn't necessary to do the blood work unless I wanted a baseline so I opted out. As for the results he is fairly healthy, no infection, no parasites, just underweight but her instructions on getting him up to weight were fairly vague basically she said slowly increase the weight of the prey till he is able to take something like a small rat and then to start decreasing the feeding frequency. After that she said just monitor his weight and make sure he is gaining weight steadily.

I finally got him up to eating between 50 and 60 gram rats as of his last feeding schedule and will be decreasing the feeding frequency by a day each week for the next few weeks till he is feeding every 2 weeks.

I'm not sure if he is gaining too fast or not but he is up to 495 grams as of today but I expect the growth rate will slow down as the frequency decreases.

My plan for once he is up to eating every 2 weeks is to feed approx 12-15% of his body weight till he is around 900 grams. after that its just maintenance.

As always I would love any feedback you would like to provide on the schedule I am thinking of and the care he is receiving so I can improve my husbandry.

That's some really quick weight gain. You may want to reevaluate his shape and decide if he is overweight at this point. I wouldn't go any larger than smalls in a male no matter how much he grows, it's just not necessary. Swapping to smalls, he is going to become overweight really quickly if he is eating every week and I probably wouldn't decrease frequency that slowly. Right off the bat I would do 10 days after the first small, then 14 the very next feeding unless he is still too skinny, at which point I would stick with 10 days until he is the correct proportions.

Here is a chart to help you figure out if he is the correct shape or not:

[zanic07]

So I contacted my vet this afternoon to confirm numbers. When I got him he was 300 grams and dehydrated. by the time I got him to the vet 3-4 weeks later he was up to 440 grams but was no longer dehydrated. About 6 weeks later he was up to 495 grams meaning he gained about 55 grams in 6 weeks. He did just take a dump which brought him down to 475 but since the vet also weighed him pre-poo I think the 55 grams is a better comparison. I have attached a picture of him when I got him as well as a few taken yesterday to show body condition since it looks like he might be overweight based on the chart you attached but he does not feel squishy like I would expect fat on a snake to feel. he does have some small bumps around his vent but also does not have the fat rolls when he curls up unless he folds over on top of himself.

This is Waffles shortly after I got him home


The following were taken yesterday hopefully demonstrating body condition.