Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi everybody,

About a month ago I purchased a green tree python from mb reptiles. He is a gorgeous green tree and fairly young. I believe him to be under six months of age. But this little guy is a beast, he is already eating live adult mice. I started feeding him fuzzies, and after the first fuzzy he'd want another, and then another, until finally I gave up and the next week I gave him a live mouse, and BAM! He took it! Now it has been over a month and he is still eating live adult mice.
It was my understanding that green tree pythons dont really start changing color until they are about a year old. After my little green tree's last shed I noticed that many of his scales are green. He has little bundles of green scales all the way down his entire dorsal surface. Is this normal for such a young snake to already undergo a color change? Could this color change also be caused by me feeding such a young snake fairly large meals? If it helps I believe he is a biak..but I am not sure, I went ahead and emailed mb reptiles and i'll post his locale as soon as I find out. Thank You for your help.

How certain are you of its age? Be careful not to feed too aggressively as it could result in a prolapse. Just because it will eat more doesn't mean you should feed it more. An appropriate size meal should be barely noticeable after eaten and at around 6 months of age, I only feed once every 7 days. I am curious as to its age because nothing I have had at 6 months of age could take an adult mouse. Try to avoid live as they could harm your animal. Post some pics when you get a chance.

Bart

Some gtp's change color faster than others. One of the guys on the forum has a baby that he hatched that's changing color at something like 4 months old. I would go to frozen/thawed for your animal as you run the risk of injury to your snake feeding on live adult mice or rats. If you must feed live, you should stun it first but if yours has such a strong response I don't think feeding f/t will be a problem. As was stated before, overfeeding a chondro is bad news. Mine would eat every day if I allowed them, but giving a slow digesting animal too much is asking for a bad prolapse as well as an obese animal. Feeding once a week, or after 3 or 4 feedings with no deficatation, waiting until they do is better. It's better to have a healthy snake than one with problems later as an adult.
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This little guy is pretty big. I remember the breeder telling me that they were born in either april or may. If born in may that would bring this guy to only three months age. He is growing really fast. The only reason I switched to live food was that my tongs broke, and I just recently moved and there is no pet store in my town, so now I have to drive 70 miles for food. For my larger snakes, I just did a frozen rabbit order, and with the smaller snakes, like my ball pythons (who absolutely refuse frozen), I have to drive to pick them up food. I'll switch the green tree back to frozen. Today is feeding day for my entire collection, and i'll go ahead and take a picture and post it for you to see. The color change is real subtle, but he has little blotches of green scales all the way down his body. He is also really large for his age in the sense that, when I feed him a mouse, you don't even notice it inside him. But I am keeping him on a once a week feeding schedule. Thank you for all your help.

When you take the pic, try to get something in the picture to give it some scale. I am interested to see how big it is at 4 months.

Bart