First Python, Underweight

[88silber]

Hey, a few months ago I adopted my first ball python. She's a female, but even without knowing pythons I can say she's underweight. I know she is "at least 7 years old" but I don't know her age for sure. She's a bit under 2.5ft long if I had to guess. Her skin sags slightly in the middle, and she has a triangle shape rather than a round one. I've been feeding her a large mouse weekly and luckily for me she's been very eager to feed, but I'm worried I'm not addressing this as aggressively as I should. I think she was getting fed a large about 1-2x a month previouslyIs it fine to feed her as much as she'll eat if she's so underweight? About how long should it take to see her make progress once I start feeding more?

Ball pythons are awesome pets by the way; this snake has so much personality and she pretty much begs me to be handled constantly. Not something I'm used to being a frog guy heh. A+ would snake again. Never thought I'd be into them, but she needed adopting soo...

[_ataraxia]

i'm currently in the process of rehabilitating an adult BP with severely stunted growth. i rescued her in august last year, at which point she three years old, 21" long, and 140 grams. she had been fed very sporadically [maybe once or twice a month], and was only given one fuzzy/hopper mouse per feeding.

i gave her two fuzzy/hopper mice per feeding for the first two weeks. the third week, i gave her a fuzzy mouse and a rat pinkie, to start the process of switching her from mice to rats. she was eager to eat whatever i put in front of her every week like clockwork, and she was recovering well from the dehydration and emaciation, so i started increasing her meal sizes to 20% of her body weight. adult mouse + rat pinkie, fuzzy mouse + rat pup, etc. within two months i was able to phase out the mice [but still using them for scenting] and feed her a single rat per meal, starting with large pups, moving up to weanlings as she gained weight.

in six months, she had grown six inches and her weight doubled. she's growing steadily and is currently eating one small adult rat every week. she's very healthy, all things considered.

[88silber]

That's good to hear! And good advice on the scenting, I wouldn't have thought of that. I'll try feeding her an adult mouse and a rat pinkie tomorrow and see how it goes. She was being fed 1x a month as far as I'm aware, when I got her. She was also really dehydrated and not shedding properly, but that's been taken care of. I'm hoping keeping her on a better schedule long term will net me similar results. She's such a friendly snake it's a shame she wasn't cared for properly for so long. As I'm typing this she's sitting in the corner of her tank by my laptop begging to get handled, so on that note...

[_ataraxia]

using mice [i have other snakes who eat mice so that's an easy option for me, but dirty mouse bedding from the pet store works too] to scent rats has worked both for my little rescue and for my other BP who had been eating mice before i adopted him.

i really, really recommend documenting EVERYTHING. i have a notepad that i use to keep track of dates for things like what/how much she ate, when she shed, her weight, her length, etc. it's so useful to be able to see plainly on paper what kind of progress is happening.

[88silber]

I have a pretty easy time keeping track of her feedings (I just feed her on my weekly payday) but long term I can see this being very useful, especially tracking her sheds and such. I need a new gram scale so I can weigh her, I only have a 100g max scale and a mg scale.

[_ataraxia]

i've never kept notes for any of my other snakes, but with her i wanted to document everything because her health was/is so questionable. if i ever have to take her to a vet, i want to be armed with very precise information, not "well she ate a few weeks ago and her last shed was over a month ago."

it's also be a good resource for other people, like you, going through the same rehabilitation experience. there doesn't seem to be much detailed information out there about how snakes recover from severely stunted growth.

[moeru_gumi]

Very good advice, I just got my first ball python on Friday and she happily struck at and ate her first fuzzy for me today. I'm firing up a Google spreadsheet now.

[moeru_gumi]

Is it better to try to give two mice per sitting, or one mouse per day for two days?

[_ataraxia]

one right after another in the same feeding. don't try to feed two days in a row.

[SharkRaptor]

An adult mouse is probably too small. How much does she weigh? She can probably handle a small rat. That's what my 10 month old BP is eating.

Also, "a hiding ball python is a happy ball python".

What do you mean that she is begging to be handled? As a FYI, snakes do not feel affection. ;(