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He finally shed for me! But he lost weight between feedings.

Lindseybree

New member
Came home tonight to a perfect shed from Severus! I've been impatiently waiting for this for a while. He waited exactly 1 month since I brought him home to finally shed for me.

Was kind of sad to find out that he lost 2g in between feedings. Granted he went 2 weeks in between tonight's feeding and his last because he finally decided to shed. On 8/8 he weighed 10g before I fed him, and tonight he weighed 8g.

Is this sort of fluctuation in weight normal? He's only ate 3 times for me since I've had him. His feeding schedule hasn't exactly been as regular as I'd like it to be. That's not to say that I haven't tried to keep it as regular as I can. He had his first feeding on July 27th (after he'd had 6 days to adjust to his new home). Waited a little longer than normal for the 2nd feeding on 8/8. He was due to eat 8/3, but at that time I thought he might have been blue at that point. Turned out he wasn't, so that's when I fed him on the 8th. Hoping to get him on a more steady feeding schedule now. He's been a great eater, and now he's a great shedder, and I know they can go a while in between feedings if things come up, but I guess I'm just beating myself up a little for his weight loss and not having him on a regular feeding schedule yet.
 
If you think about it, at that stage his normal feed is 2g, a fifth of his bodyweight, so if he has a big poop just before you weigh him, it's going to affect the results. 2 poops could easily account for the loss.
If I'm tracking a baby's growth (I don't do it as much as I used to, unless I'm worried) I weigh once a month, just before the first feed of the month. any more often just showed normal fluctuations and made me too worried! On a 5 or 6 day feeding schedule he'll grow nicely now he's settled in with you
 
When a snake is blue, even before you can _see_ he is blue, he will go hide and not move. This also means he often doesn't poop that one last time. So, you get him out, weigh him, he seems to have had a big weight gain since last time. You feed him- he may or may not eat- and then he sheds. You get him out to feed again and see that he has lost a lot of weight! On a baby this can be a couple grams; on an adult, they will lose up to 30 grams!! If you weigh consistently like I do (not saying this is a must- just something I like to do) you will eventually start associating a larger than usual weight gain with a blue snake.
 
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