Worried about size and weight of yearling MD.

[sam]

Hello, I'm new to the forum. Made an account so that I could ask about my new MD. I'm fairly new to herps, bought a hatchling stimmie a few months ago and named him Monty (how original). And recently bought a Murray Darling named Bowie (who the breeder says was born in Jan 2015).

Introductions aside. Ive recently stumbled upon videos and pictures of other carpet yearlings being easily double/triple Bowie's size. Right now he looks like a hatchling and I'm worried his age is either wrong, he is underfed or is just a slow grower. He is currently feeding on fuzzies once a week and is feeding well.

Im having trouble linking pictures as my post keeps getting denied, but he weighs 56g (with a meal in him), has a skinny build and is roughly 60cm long. Is this an appropriate size? And how quickly will he grow?

Sorry for not posting any pictures. I'm not an avid forum user and I'm sure ive done something wrong. Hope my description is enough though.

Thankyou for taking the time.

-Sam

[travesty]

You need a minimum of 5 posts first and/or have a moderator approve before you can post pictures. I'm sure someone will chime in as soon as you get pics up.

[EL Ziggy]

Welcome to the forum and best wishes Sam. If your snake is eating, pooping and shedding without any issues I wouldn't worry. All snakes grow at different rates. If you just recently got him it's also possible the breeder was feeding him pretty conservatively like many breeders do. I generally feed my young carpets 15-20% of their body weight per feeding. You can try offering a second prey item on occasion or increasing the prey size or feeding frequency. He'll probably grow quickly if you try these things. My coastal carpet was hatched on 6/24/14. I got him on 9/2/15 and he was only 85g. That's pretty small for a yearling. He's up to 505g now. I feed him every 6-7 days for now. I'll move him back to every 10 days when he hits 1kg. Same thing with my jungle who was hatched on 7/30/15. He was 31g when I got him on 9/22/15. He's up to 213g now. I feed him every 5-6 days now and will move him to every 7 days when he turns one. Just keep feeding him decent sized meals and he'll come around.

[Albert Clark]

Everything that EL said! Also, you can estimate the the girth of the carpet at his largest abdominal region and offer prey that will create a slight bulge at that point.

[sam]

Thank's for the replies, yes I read the rules and felt like an idiot!

He's been feeding, pooping and shedding fine, I was just worried he was underweight. I fed him two fuzzies and he has a nice bulge now.
I scoured the internet for a spreadsheet on weight and growth of CP's and couldnt find anything, so I'm glad everything seems to be okay with him.

Thankyou for the warm welcome

[sam]

Originally Posted by Albert Clark

Everything that EL said! Also, you can estimate the the girth of the carpet at his largest abdominal region and offer prey that will create a slight bulge at that point.

Ive heard of people feeding much larger prey items to young CP's, around double the largest girth? from what I know CP's can take quite large prey compared to some other pythons, so I might switch to rats soon, before he becomes a mouser.

[sam]

Here's a pic of Bowie last night after his second meal


Another one of him.


Edit: fixed images

[EL Ziggy]

Very nice carpet Sam. You're right they can take down much larger prey than one might think but I don't push the envelope too much . My jungle weighed 55g on 10/29/15. The mice fuzzys were a bit too small for him. I was giving him 2-3 of those per feeding. I decided to try a large single prey item so he got a 14g rat fuzzy on 10/30/15. That was a hearty meal for him but he had no issues getting it down. I agree with you that it's a good idea to get yours on rats ASAP.

[Andy_G]

Some species can't take prey very large in comparison to their girth and therefore shoudn't be offered them. With carpets, this is NOT the case due to their physiology.