Good day. I have a year and a half old cinnamon enchi purchased from wilbsnks. she is a good eater, sheds about every 5-6 week’s. She’s healthy strong and very friendly. But here’s my condondrum, she just doesn’t grow in weight or length. Not much bigger than a lsrge hatchling. So strange. Its like she’s a miniature snake. Is this common or a fluke of nature? Eats a large mouse almost weekly. Always a great stool every week also.
Do you know her weight?
There could be many factors.
It might be genetics, maybe ask Mike if the parents/siblings have grown to be smaller than the average.
It could be parasites that are not allowing proper digestion and wasting nutrients.
It could be the prey item. If your feeding low quality rodents their is going to be less fuel for the fire to grow.
Can you show us a picture of your large mice next to a coin?.. bonus points for using a scrub daddy for scale.
Another suggestion, have you ever fed rats? They tend to have higher amounts of crude protein.
Approximately 200grams
This☝️ I personally find rats to be a better base diet for ball pythons.I feed bi weekly and my holdbacks are usually around 300 to 400 grams at a year. 200 after a year and half sounds like they not getting enough to grow.
The mice are same as my other snakes were eating and now graduated to small rats all 5 were hatched within 5days of each other. Those 4 are all about 800 for my male pied, 780 for male Firefly , my female pied is1200 and female bamboo is 1250. All my snakes are from different breeders. Wilbsnks, BHB, Attics,Jet City, and XYZ. I’ve had her stool tested for parisites and came bsck clean. she’s been given ASF and no growth either. fact is she’s like my best eater. I’m going to message wilbsnks asking this also, but think I may just have a dwarf. thanks much
And the mouse leaves a bump in her? I have a 150g boa that eats adult mice and is being moved to rat pups soon because they are more gas, in a term .
That shiny look suggests it’s probably either experiencing low humidity or it’s dehydrated or has some sort of an issue with sheds. It looks like it should have dumped that skin already. Shedding every 5-6 weeks for a snake that doesn’t grow makes me think it has a health concern.
Yep, a nice bulge in her side’s for about 4hrs then it’s just nice and firm. I thought giving her small ASF would kick her into gear, she takes them and is just as ready for her next meal a week later. Just no change in growth…
She just completed a full shed last week. Her humidity is at around 80%percentage. We’re at 100%outside and house sits at around 65%. Her inclosure has a mist king system that is set for 70% the live plants grow like weeds in her enclosure. Has a moss hide and a good bowl of clean water. I have taken her fluids/stool in for testing and no parisites and nutrition was rated excellent. Her shed are almost fully intact sheds every time. (Sometimes the bottom of the chin area gets ripped) I have 15 BP besides her and she is the only one not growing.
Was the first picture taken after she shed?
Just before shed. The 2pic was taken today. See how much more orange she has just a bit after shed.
She’s approximately 18inchs long.
Yes, small ASF until last week when I ran out. The mice are bigger and heavier than the ASF so shouldn’t be too much of a difference.
I would agree but op has had the stools tested and it was given a clean bill of health. That would lead me to believe that it’s getting just enough nourishment to maintain its weight and stay healthy. But not enough to promote growing. Being that it’s feed weekly I would think a bump up in prey size maybe the issue. It’s hard to say I judge meals by my eyeballs not by weight and rodent titles(hopper fuzzy and so on and so forth)
The bump should be there longer then that. Usually like 12-20 hours if not longer.
Maybe there’s a problem with the digestive enzymes?
What are your temperatures and have you checked them recently?
They had the stool tested I’m guessing they would of tested for that.
It would depend if it were a parasite test. I don’t think a standard parasite test would detect that.