Adopted a spotted

[Xanthine]

Hey, all

Today, I adopted a spotted python. I like the look of it, though it's a bit dull, but it was given to me because it was quite snappy. It's three years old, ~80 cm long, and from what I've read spotteds aren't generally snappy, but this one really is. The first thing it did was bite my finger, and it was an eating bite, not a defensive one. Below is a pic. I'm not an expert, as I'm still new and most of my reading has been focused around morelias, but does it look a bit skinny? It's being fed on a fuzzy mouse ~weekly, which seems small to me as my bredli, which is half the length but the same width, is already on mediums, and about to go up to grown ones. Actually, when I saw it, I was surprised about how skinny it was. It's been fed, as it was overdue, and was very eager to feed.

Basically, am I imagining this, or is it actually underfed?

 

[RedFox]

Sounds pretty small to me. My woma hatchy (approx. 40cm long and 70g) is on hopper mice. Ideally they should be fed 15-20% of their body weight each feed. From what you have said it is snappy because it is hungry not because it is defensive. If you feed of properly you might find it would calm down and make a lovely pet.

 

[Xanthine]

Yeah, that's what I'm hoping. I was kind of cluing onto that when it bit and constricted my finger.

 

[baker]

No you are not imagining anything that snake is certainly under fed. I would start to increase this snakes food size and also increase how often you feed. Instead of just once weekly start looking at every 4-5 days until it starts to put on some weight again. Once it does this start to slow its feed back down to once a week. Hopefully this helps a bit.
Cheers Cameron

 

[Bananapeel]

Just don't over feed. When it packs on some more size slow it back down to weekly.
And unless you got it very recently, keep handling it little bit each day to calm it down and get it used to you. Hope all goes well!

 

[justin91]

Definitely under fed. My spotted is about 8 months old, 50-55cm long and smashes down a hopper mice every 6-7 days easily. I do usually try to pick the smallest hoppers I can see but still, its smaller then your spotted and eating larger meals. If you think it can handle a hopper then I'd say definitely try it, if not maybe 2 fuzzies in one hit, once a week until it can do hoppers but by looks of it it should be alright to do small hoppers.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong though.

 

[Xanthine]

Actually, they may be hoppers. The naming system always confuses me. What diameter should it reach?

 

[ronhalling]

I am not an expert and will never claim to be so those that are more knowedgable might contadict me but i have been doing a lot of research on spotties as i will be taking delivery of mine in just over a week but from the research i have done it says at 3 years a (F) spotty should be at about 110cm - 130cm then growing to about 140cm - 150cm at about 5 yrs and above and the (M) spotty about 1/5 of that and def twice as thick, that poor lil wriggler has been def underfed, and as Redfox says "If you feed it properly you might find it will calm down and make a lovely pet". i am sure everyone will agree with that last statement and it is up to you whether to increase its meal size and frequency or just increase it's frequency but you gotta do something for the poor thing (my heart constricted looking at that 1st pic and realized it was 3 years old) sorry about the ramble...........................................Ron

 

[Xanthine]

No, it's ok, I understand. As soon as I saw it, I thought "Wait, he said 3 y/o? What?", but when I saw his past paperwork, it was bought in mid '10. The guy didn't want to feed it anything larger as it was 'struggling with the size it had', yet when I fed it, it smashed them down pretty quick.

 

[Lachie2261]

I feed my Blonde mac Weaner mice, sometimes 2 and he is tiny.. His only just 60 cms.

 

[Xanthine]

Gave it a big feed, and a couple of days later, only snappy if you go for its head (which I did accidentally). It's amazing how just feeding it a correct meal can turn a snake from snappy to calm.

Also chose a name: Ghrelin, which is a hunger hormone (in humans at least, plus it sounds cool).