Is my stimmie small for his age?

Ok so I was thinking my stimsons Python is quite small for his age, he is 2 years old in February. He is a little bit long but his head is still tiny, we still keep him in the small tank with just the heat mat on the bottom, the big tank is still sitting in storage because we think he is still too small... Well yeah, we still feed him pinkies, I usually feed him 2 a week, we tried velvets and fuzzies but they were too big for him, I think our pet shop supplies quite big fuzzies and velvets?? But I am getting quite worried that he is still very small. Someone I know has a stimmie my age and he is already almost a metre long.. Slinky seems pretty healthy but I hope I am not doing anything wrong. I am also getting him to the vets for his yearly check up soon.

wont let me add a photo but I would say he's around 30-40 cm and his face width is only about 3 cm I'm not sure.

The reason hes small is due to pinkies having next to zero needed nutrients for growth. His head size is irrelevant he needs to go up at least one food size.

Try and persevere with larger food, he'll gain very little size eating that small amount. Leaving the food in overnight may be worth a try, although he may look quite small against the food snakes are remarkable in how large they can stretch their mouth.

I agree. Move him up to velvet mice. Pinkies are great for hatchies but they should be moved off them as soon as possible. They're basically just skin bags full of water and will do nothing to aid his growth much.

My 9 month old stimmie quite happily eats fuzzy mice and he has no issues at all getting them down. I agree and I felt the same, Mimirs head is probably not too much bigger than my index finger nail, but he smashes them down.

As for the tank and your concerns on it being too big... No tank is really too big for a snake as long as theres PLENTY of hides and some cover of like... fake plants etc. If you wanna move him up a tank size then do so. Feed size.... you would be very surprised at just how stretchy their skin is, so just go for it and his growth should greatly improve!

Ok thanks so much guys! Last time I tried feeding a velvet he caught it, wrapped around it and just looked at it like he didn't know where to eat it from, he ended up eating it like 10 minutes after.. Butt first.. And also, about moving him into the bigger tank, what globe should I buy? I got told to buy a ceramic heat emitter, but I'm not too sure. I will go to the pet shop on Wednesday to buy the velvets.

Personally id only get one bag of velvets then when thats finished go straight up to the next size. If your worried about size and how he eats it just leave the room. One food item should leave a noticeable lump in the snake.
The globe size will depend on the size of the enclosure, ventilation etc. It should be hooked into a thermostat so it won't over heat. Personally id get it onto the rigjt size food before upsizing the enclosure. If it it settling in to a new enclosure you may confuse that with it not wanting the food size offered.

My Stimson is about 9 months old and about 400mm and has no problems taking fuzzies at all. I'm no expert but the sooner you can get him on fuzzies the better.

I just fed him a velvet today, he caught it by the middle and ate it tail first... I heard it isn't good for them to eat it the wrong way, how can I stop this? He has already done it twice.

Feed him so that he bites the rats head. If he then wants to eat it backwards that's up to him and there isn't much you can do. It won't do him any harm anyway. I certainly wouldn't worry about it. Good to see him taking larger items. With regular upsized feed items the snake will grow right before your eyes.

Ok thanks, I got told eating it backwards causes discomfort and isn't healthy but I will stop worrying, Mum always gets it in my head. Can't wait to see him grow... I feel like a bad owner for not nourishing him

Don't feel bad you were just concerned :3

If he wants to eat it butt first despite getting it by the head then oh well just let him. If it starts being an issue cut the legs and tails off but I think he'll be fine

It will never be an issue. Snakes in the wild don't need their feed items to have their limbs cut off. It's important to feed whole food items so that nutrients are obtained from the whole feed item. Continue feeding the snake as you are doing. The snake will work out how to eat it.

My Stimson is Almost 2 and is 110cm, I would say change the size of your food, mine feeds on weaner rats or 30gram Quail, Stimmies can surprise you by what size prey item they can eat. So definitely try and get her off of Pinkies and up to the next size feed.

Hope it all goes well

Thanks everyone! It's actually going really good now, he's eating the velvets perfectly- I'm so happy! He eats these mice rather quickly too. I was thinking of going onto the next size after I finished the velvets, what size would that be? In our pet store, the next size mice are adults, but I could find another pet store with more choice.

Hoppers/weaners are normally the next size, id upsize him after finishing every packet until you get to the size that leaves a bulge in his belly after eating one food item =) great to hear hes doing well

You could try fuzzy rats

great to hear that it's going well!

I recommend getting her onto rats as soon as possible, they have far more protein and are much better for her, If you have trouble getting her to take it, rub the mouse over the rat to give it a familiar scent or buy a quail and scent the rat with that, most snakes love quails

kitten_pheonix said:

Hoppers/weaners are normally the next size, id upsize him after finishing every packet until you get to the size that leaves a bulge in his belly after eating one food item =) great to hear hes doing well

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Thanks! I will keep going up sizes. Can't wait to see home grow haha :lol:

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I will also try what you guys think, I might go onto the fuzzy rats after these.

Some stims hate rats so it may need some perserverance to swap him to rats but scenting with mice often works

My little guy is about 10 months old and he's on hopper mice weighing about 8g per head. His bodyweight is about 60g total, and he probably measures about 60cm. As others have touched on, a 2 y.o stimmie on pinkies is very much the wrong feed item for him. To put it in context, mine was probably off pinkies as a 4 or 5 month old! You need to move him up in order for him to be getting nutrition out of a more developed mouse, as pinkies are just basically little sacks of water.
I was surprised last time I moved him up a feed item just how big the jump in size appeared to be from fuzzy to hopper/weaner, but he was chowing them down with no problems, it's worth keeping in mind that it's entirely natural for these guys to have to feed on something bigger than the girth of their body, so i think you'd be surpised just what he could take when moving up feed items