Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I got this girl (I think) in November and she has about doubled in size. She was feeding on rat pups and is now on small rats and seems like she will be on med rats shortly. I feed every 7 days and by 3 days after feeding there is no sign of food item and snake poops after the 4th. I think she is going to be a big one. I picked her out because she was the biggest of the clutch and had great coloration. She actually looks skinny in this pic.
Nick

Nice Nick,I really want that girl.I would ease up just a bit on feeding.Snakes can handle every 7 days,however that doesn't mean it's good for them.Hearts,lungs,kidney's and brains take much longer to develope than bone and muscle.Your blood will live a lot longer if you just switch off to every 14 days every other week.

Very,Very Nice looking animal,Good Luck.
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Ashley Lopez's Black Forest Constrictors.
blackforestconstrictors@gmail.com
website

I respect your opinion (because you have many awesome Bloods) However I am going to stick with once a week untill it gets older/ more weight on. I figure while it is young it's metabolisum(sp) is much higher then when it gets older. Also here is a exerpt from a Blood Python article courtesy of
Reptiles Magazine, January 2003
by Robyn Markland- Pro Exotics Reptiles

"Baby Bloods start feeding well on appropriately sized rodents, but they seem to be most fond of rat pups. We offer the babies pre-killed rat fuzzies for a first meal, sized so that the girth of the pup is about the same as the girth of the baby Blood at its widest point. After two or three meals, we switch over to frozen/thawed rats, as we feel that is the safest, and most economical choice for our babies. Pinkie mice are for baby corn snakes, baby Bloods take a good sized rat fuzzy (or small adult mouse) as a first meal."

"Your next step will be to start on your feeding schedule. We feed our baby Bloods once a week, and that is a fine maintenance diet that will start your new baby growing strong. Once the animal has had a week or so to settle in, pick your regular feeding day, whether it be every Friday, or every Tuesday, and offer your first meal."

"At Pro Exotics, we feed thawed rats to our baby Bloods, and thawed prey items would be our first choice for our customers to start with. Offer the prey item on a hemostat as earlier described, and have patience!"
Here is a link to the whole article.
I also want to add that this girl has the best temperment! never hisses or strikes, fine with all handling, not even head shy! I really want to get a male so that I can breed her.
Thanks for the compliments on her looks
Nick
Blood Article

i feed my youning's once a week, unless they are look like they are about to pop...remember the best interest of the animal is in your hands, and like you implied, your methods may not be the same as everyone elses, but they may both work...

i recently started feeding my young male, who i believe has the metoblism of a retic, larger prey items once a week...if he starts looking like a sausage, i'll slow it down, but he looks as though he is being starved!!!! (he isn't).

your snake is a fine looking specimen, you should weigh and measure your snake every month just to see how much it has grown...

bc
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www.redpython.net

Too funny, I was just looking at digital scales to purchase! Any suggestions? I really want to thank all of you on here for the imput, we are all looking out for the best interest of the animals and I think we do make a difference in how they are kept. Even if it is only a few people at a time. Also BC...just check out your site, awesome snakes !
Nick

I bought a postal scale a couple years ago. Max is 5lbs. I found out this week that Sadie is more than 5 pounds I took her to our PetCo to get her probed (they have a great reptile guy) and weighed her on their dog treat scales. She's 5.5lbs and a bit over a year old.

I just go into Safeway and use the produce scales, if anyone asks I tell them I found the snakes in the bananas...just kidding

I would think you could get a fish scale from Wal-Mart and use a pillowcase. I’ve got to see if that works…

i my digital scale off of ebay for about $25 shipped, it goes up to 52 lbs. it only has a 8"x8" dock though...so it takes some skill at weighing a large blood...i am thinking of getting a hanging scale to weigh the bigger ones. they appear to be about the same price on ebay.

thanks for the compliments on my site and animals, i should have some cool stuff this year, and some really wild stuff over the next couple of years!
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www.redpython.net

MAN SHE’S DOING WELL! You must have just beat me to the booth! The largest one they had was missing a little bit of tail. With the difficulties I’ve had mine’s quite a bit smaller. Did you have yours sexed? I haven’t done mine yet. If mine’s a male I would be willing to see what we could do. My only concern is that they could be siblings, they look identical!

I’ll say it again; we got screaming deals on our bloods!

Holy chit, that guy is insane.Wished I had that guy in my collection.Keep the pics coming.

You would cry if you found out how cheep Nick and I got them for. They have great temperaments too.