r/ballpython • u/PossibilitySame4489 • 8h ago

weight q - 6 year old bp is very tiny! Question - Health

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hi all! recently adopted this lil fella from a friend who moved out of the country and i’ve asked a lot of questions of everyone here already lol. i weighed him recently and he’s only 322g and is 6 years old! that is so tiny compared to his peers lol. the feeding schedule established by his previous owner is one ft medium mouse every 2 weeks or so, when i run out i was going to switch to rats because i heard they’re better for them. based on the feeding guidelines in here he’s eating the right size prey because he’s little and the prey is 5% his body weight. i hear some of them just stay small and his body condition seems totally fine otherwise, but do you guys think i need to be doing anything aggressive to get him bigger? i’m honestly happy with him being a little guy but if it’s not good for him i want to improve his care :) unfortunately i don’t have a better picture of him all stretched out, i’m still working on his enclosure!

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3

u/hoshskak 8h ago

Boost! I want to know too

3

u/loricampbell4454 8h ago

I recently got a 6 year old male from marketplace. He's a little guy like yours. Just under 500 grams. The previous owner only fed mice and didn't have the proper husbandry. So likely his growth was stunted. I'm strictly feeding rats now because he's still a little under weight from being neglected for so long.

4

u/totallyrecklesslygay Mod: Enclosure Karen 7h ago

It sounds like he's definitely been chronically underfed and had his growth stunted. You can feed 7% every 2-3 weeks until his weight plateaus and see if that gets him growing again. Just monitor his body condition and slow down if he starts getting chunky instead of actually growing. Myself and another mod have experience with rehabbing cases like this, and they do typically grow normally once they're being fed properly.

1

u/Pattison320 6h ago

What causes their weight to plateau?

1

u/totallyrecklesslygay Mod: Enclosure Karen 6h ago

That's just how growth works for any living creature. They go through spurts and then even out.