Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently acquired a male ball python that is about 8 years old. He looks quite thin and underweight. (almost about the size of a one and a half year old ball python). Does anyone have any experience with this problem?

Will he grow to "average" size if I start feeding him regular meals?

Thanks,
Comet

Not sure if he will get any bigger, males do tend to be skinnier than females. My females are all way thicker than my males. But I am sure it depends on the male. Just keep feeding him and he will be fine. The only thing you may want to do to be sure is get a fecal test at the vet to make sure he has no parasites.

Ok thanks! He is a lot smaller than other full grown males I have seen and I have a huge female that I have had since she was born.

I'm just thinking that his growth might have been stunted by not getting enough food in his "growing years".

I'll keep getting those rats to him and see what happens.

Best Of luck with him. Glad to see he is in a good place now.

I get a lot of rescued underfed ball pythons. Last year I got a 5-year-old female that was 830g in weight and SUPER skinny. She had been fed 1-2 mice per month. I started her off with one open-eyed rat pup every 5 days, then bumped her to 2 weaned rats every 7 days. Within just 2-3 months she had gained almost 400g. I bred her that season when she hit 1500g and she gave me 6 healthy eggs. Today she weighs in at 1990g, eats great, and is healthy as a horse.

Your male may not get quite that big, but with regular feeding he should rebound just fine. Be sure to get a fecal done to check for parasites and rule that out as the cause of his skinnyness.
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~* Jen *~

Pink Lady Constrictors

thanks!

I'm going to give him a rat pup (~ big adult mouse) about every 5 days. Not sure if he'll eat that often but I'll try to offer him food as often as he'll take it.

He seems pretty hungry so I think he should have not problem eating that often...