Teddy updates and pics

sockSnek · 11-11-16, 06:11 PM

It's been a week since I got this year old JCP and he's been doing pretty well. He's twitchy, but he's a lot more chill now and has been comfortable climbing around on his branch in the open.

I'm now pretty sure he's small for his age. He was born September 2015 and is only 63g. He also just looks thin to me. They were feeding him hopper mice, so I got a couple of those, but they're only like 1x his girth. I fed him one on Wednesday and he took it immediately.

Check out those teeth.

I got 6 mice, so I'm thinking about giving him 2 next time and switching him to rats after that.

Speaking of which, I am now 2 for 2 for snakes going blue within a week of getting them.

He's still very pretty, but I can't wait to see him after the shed.

trailblazer295 · 11-11-16, 06:42 PM

He is a awesome looking carpet. 63g sounds very small for a yearling. My girl was hatched this spring and weighs 60gish (she is still flighty). Your guy seems to have a larger head compared to his neck. Do you know the feeding schedule? Even if he is small and undersized don't be quick to pump him full of food to have him catch up. Someone more experienced with undersized snakes will chime in on an appropriate feeding regime.

sockSnek · 11-11-16, 06:51 PM

I don't know the feeding schedule. :/ Based on what people had said in my other thread, it doesn't really feel like I'm pushing him by giving him 2 hoppers, but if anyone can confirm or deny that, it would make me feel a little better.

The other food problem I'm about to have is that my local reptile store only has f/t rat pups and bigger. I think fuzzies are closer to the right size for him, but I don't know of any alternative other than petsmart and theirs are surprisingly expensive. That's not really a big deal since I'm still just feeding a snake once a week, but it's annoying, and I prefer to avoid big pet shops.

trailblazer295 · 11-11-16, 06:56 PM

You'll want to get him eating rats as soon as possible even if you rotate them with mice. So he eats them until he grows up to pups. You won't want a jungle on mice only.

sockSnek · 11-11-16, 06:59 PM

I'm planning on switching him after 2 more feedings just to use up my mice. He's been eating mice for over a year so another 2 weeks is probably not going to make a big difference.

Also I may have potentially just found rat fuzzies on craigslist. I was not expecting that.

**EL Ziggy** · 11-11-16, 09:36 PM

Teddy's looking good sock. I wouldn't worry about his small size at all. Once you get him on a more growth oriented feeding regiment he should bulk up pretty quickly. I got a yearling male coastal in September 2015 and he was only 85g. He's easily 1300g now. My jungle was 31g when he arrived as a 2 month old in September 2015 and he weighed 1020g in August 2016. Get your boy some rat fuzzys after you finish off those mice hoppers and give him one of those every 5-7 days. I've scaled my feedings back to every 10-14 days now.

toddnbecka · 11-12-16, 12:21 AM

You could certainly feed him 2 or 3 each time, when you have similar-size rats available feed a mouse then follow up quickly with a rat while he's still in feeding mode. My baby carpet was taking hopper mice as a baby, and I was feeding him 1-2 adult mice weekly until he escaped his tank and ate a tub full of breeding mice. The 6 pregnant females went first, and I found him with the single male still in coils. I wondered where he was going to put that one, lol. After that I moved him to small rats, he hasn't had mice since then.

dannybgoode · 11-12-16, 01:30 AM

Good to hear your getting him on to rats. My IJ was on mice in the store and I switched him to rats when I got him. He didn't bat an eyelid and took the rat with no hesitation whatsoever.

Keep the pictures coming-looks a great snake.

**Tsubaki** · 11-12-16, 05:49 AM

Great looking snake!

sockSnek · 11-12-16, 12:08 PM

Thanks for the advice guys.

I'll definitely have more pictures as he sheds and grows.

sockSnek · 11-14-16, 10:38 PM

No shed yet, but he's mostly cleared up. The humidity is around 50-60 but I put some moss in his hide just in case. I really love his eyes. He bit me yesterday after I moved him to get a heat pad set up. (The lamp can't make the warm hide very warm without making the whole enclosure too warm.) I now have the tiniest holes in my thumb. Turns out he really doesn't like it when you just gently touch him on the side, but if you pick him up it's somehow fine. I haven't really had to use a hook to move him at all. But anyway, I don't think I'll have any more reasons to handle him before he sheds, so he can relax for a bit. And also maybe less poking when he's out from now on, no matter how soft he is. Sorry, snake.

Here's him chilling out on a branch, being gorgeous.

**EL Ziggy** · 11-15-16, 08:46 AM

Looking good sock. I need to take some new pics of my carpets.

sockSnek · 11-15-16, 10:25 AM

Thanks.

And you should. I'd love to see them.

dannybgoode · 11-15-16, 01:22 PM

Personally I'd stick with a heat bulb for a snake like a carpet. The temperature in the hide is likely to be just fine and bear in mind carpets are semi arboreal a heat mat will be doing nothing for the ambient temperatures as higher levels in the viv.

Further a heat mat does not provide a basking spot out of the hide.

My IJ is in a small 2'x18" at the moment and I have absolutely no issues at all getting a really good temperature gradient with a ceramic bulb and I'm confident there are suitably warm spots at different heights where various branches are.

sockSnek · 11-15-16, 07:55 PM

I've got the lamp on too. The bulb isn't very warm. Turns out the maximum temperature I get out of it is still within his range. It's just that he seems to spend most of his time hiding, and I was worried the temp in there was too low for him to even digest properly. When his AP cage comes in, it'll just be the RHP.

He shed today, eyecaps, tail tip, all one piece.

He also wrapped it all around the plants to make sure there were holes in it and made it as hard as possible for me to pull out. His colors are amazing but it was really hard to get a good picture without also getting a blurry head

Here's one of the pictures of my carpet. There's also a snake in my hand.

He was pretty curious about the camera.

Here's his shed next to my corn snake's. It's amazing how much smaller his scales are, and it's pretty cool that you can see his pattern on it.