Gotta love a rat eater!!

[TheMan]

I can't believe how fast Trinity is growing...I got her July 8, 2004 and she just pounds rats. When I got her she was 113g. She's well over 400 close to 500 now, and I only feed her every 4 days.

This pic was taken 7/15/04 one week after I got her.
http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/5411Trinity4.JPG


This picture was taken 9/1/04 right before she fed.
http://www.ssnakess.com/photopost/data/500/5411Trinity12.JPG

[Darkest]

wow, nice BP. It does look like she's grown alot.

[mykee]

She's overfed. I know an overfed ball is rare, but a head to body comparison shows that this ball is WAY too big for it's age.

[BoidKeeper]

At first I didn't agree with him but now that I look at it and closer and realize that it has almost tripled since July I agree with Mykee it is over fed.
Don't take this as an attack we are just speaking from experience as we both keep a number of balls and have rasied several from hatchlings or slightly larger.
I have personally used my scale to tack the growth rate of several balls that I have rasied from 100g or less. Also I have never fed a ball mice. All of the balls I have and have raised have only ever been fed rats. I have a hatchling that was born in July that is already taking fuzzy rats where most people are still feeding their hatchlings fuzzy mice. My point is I know that rats can make them grow but not at the rate you have mentioned unless they are eating food that is either too big or they are being fed too often. I feed my balls 1 appropriate sized rat every 5 days up to 1 year and then 1 rat every 7 days. This has had them up to 1500 grams or right around there in 18 months.
Fat snakes are unhealthy snakes. A fat snake can have problems with it's liver and kidneys, so I've read.
If I were you I would cut back and let the snake lean down some for the sake of it's health.
Again we are not saying you have done this on purpose or are out to harm your snake. A lot of people over feed all their snakes due to a lack of information. Please don't take my word for it, or mykee's word for it. Go look it up for yourself and get other peoples opinions. Always good to take everything everyone says with a grain of salt and double check what you are being told because there is a lot of info on the net that is taken as law.
Cheers,
Trevor

[TheMan]

These are my first bp's so I know I have alot to learn, so no, I won't take you guys comment in any kind of negative way. I think it must be the size of the prey because as I stated before I feed her every 4 days i'll increase that to 6 for a few feedings and decrease the size of the prey. Thanks so much Mykee & BoidKeeper.

By the way, I checked my records, she was actually 426 grams @ 29" that pic.

[snakehunter]

check the bp manual, it has a section in there about overfed animals

[BoidKeeper]

Great book! I have a bunch from the manual series. They are my favorite herp series.
Cheers,
Trevor