I got a 2 year old (ish) ball python almost 9 months ago, with very little knowledge of her history. She was on Craigslist and her previous owner didn’t care for her well unfortunately. She’s about 2.5 feet long and 434 grams. I’ve gotten her to start eating biweekly but that was a struggle. Is she likely to get much bigger or is she probably going to stay this size?
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She is still a juvenile, but that sounds small for a female… She could be stunted, just underweight, or not even a female. Are you able to send pictures of her so there can be a more visible evaluation done of her state?
As @beansthebp said, photos can help us possibly evaluate the body condition.
If you can let us know what kind of enclosure you have your noodle in, the size and what the temps are, that can help us pinpoint things as well.
It does sound like quite a small snake. Hopefully they’ll bounce back since technically reptiles do grow throughout their lives, but stunting is still a possibility and they may not get much larger than most smaller males.
I have a small male who I need to be careful on meals with from bad scar tissue down half his belly. But even he is quite a bit larger than that.
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Do to age and past living conditions, you might not be able to feed more then once every 14 days. But ifnyou want to trt and get some weight on it, you can try to feed a day or two earlier each time. You light be able to get it down to 10 days.
Around that age they tend to only eat every other week.
Try to get it on rats (if you haven’t already). There is more nutritional value in them.
I wouldn’t worry about the sex yet, as that weight fornthst age is low.
Make sure your are around 87⁰ and at least 50% humidity, at least one hide.
She’s in a 55 gallon, her humidity is fairly consistently between 50% and 60% (this tends to be the thing I struggle with most), and the warmest part of her enclosure is about 89 degrees. I know she used to be live fed, but I have switched her over to pre kill in hopes to transition her to frozen thawed
I want to clarify first in this picture, she is not in her enclosure, she is in a separate container that I feed her in as otherwise she tends to get a mouthful of substrate and then gives up on eating. I will get some more pictures later today.
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Looks pretty good body wise. How big are the meals she’s been getting?
Does she have a wobble at all? She’s a champagne morph, which is part of the spider complex. It could be a small part of the problem, but I don’t think it’s anything that can’t be helped.
Have you tried putting down a paper plate before feeding her in her enclosure? Also, are you holding the prey securely with tongs or just kinda dangling? If she does have a wobble, it can make it abit harder for her to strike at a dangling meal vs one that’s being held steady. If she’s missing her strikes and that’s how she’s ending up with bedding in her mouth.
Ball pythons are ambush predators, so they typically do better when being fed in a comfortable environment where they’re peeking out from the hide. If anything, maybe try redecorating a bit and put a flat tile or rock in front of her hide as a feeding platform of sorts. That way she has an area that isn’t covered with bedding near her hide to strike.
Humidity can be tough. Especially if it’s a glass aquarium. If that is what you have, you can try covering most of the mesh on top to keep some humidity locked in.
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She eats 1 adult mouse, though I’ve tried offering two. Im going to try to get her on rats but my main concern was getting her to eat at all before I change things up. She doesn’t really have a wobble, I’ve seen her do it a bit but nothing severe. She hasn’t had issues with striking from what I can tell, but switching her to the tub works well for her
From that picture, it definitely doesn’t look under weight. It is possible it’s not as old as you was told, or just going to be a runt.
And i glagree, you need to cover the mesh top to help hold moisture in. This will also vause the temps to rise. So monitor the temps as you make changes. 89 would be in the high end. Make sure you dont fet intonthe 90’s.
I wouldn’t worry about it at all. Most animals in the wild take much longer to reach adult size than it takes in captivity. I grow things substantially slower than most people do and they all still reach the same adult size. Given that she wasn’t food pushed she’ll likely live a longer healthier life anyway.
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