How much is too much??

[BornboreD]

How much weight can a BP drop during a fast, before I should start worrying?? I know that fasts can go on for months, even up to a year, without a drastic weight loss. But, just what is a "drastic" weight loss?? 25% of body weight?? 10%?? I'm starting to worry about one of mine a little. Thanks for any help guys/gals.

Colin

[CamHanna]

How old is it? How big/fat was it initially?

[BornboreD]

Not sure on exact age. '04 female. At it's heaviest (in my possession anyhow), 328g. That was mid-October, and two weeks into her fast. She's currently 298g.

Colin

[nita]

Has she had a poop in the time since you weighed her at 328g? Mine will drop that much with a good bowel movement more than that if they are bigger. My het pied weighed 278g when he got here on Dec 23. He took his first meal for me on Mar 10, and weighed in at 250g before eating his rat. The only weight he dropped was from the poop and urate that he had while he was off food. If she is now empty wich would be my guess and she starts dropping more weight and not because of bowel movements then I would be concerned.

[BornboreD]

She has defecated once, but very little, and also passed a small amount of urate. Has shed only once as well. About 3 weeks ago. She seemed to hold her weight really well for the first few months, the majority of the weight loss took place in the last month, month and a half.

[mykee]

That's nothing to worry about.

[BornboreD]

Thanks guys.

I've been pretty stress free about it all winter, but with the warming weather my patience is just getting a little thin I guess. When should I worry though?? What kind of weightloss is significant??

Thanks again.

Colin

[mykee]

If I'm right on this one, she'll be eating soon enough and you won't have to worry about it. I've had females lose up to 10% of their body weight and not batted an eyelash. Don't stress it.

[BornboreD]

*chills*

:)

[zero&stich]

I started to breed for my first time and was told she would likely lose more wieght, whether that's accurate or not, not sure.

My female went on a fast in Oct. But I can't find the records as to when exactly she went off feed, but it was like in the first week of October, that much I do remember. Anyway, before the fast she wieghed 1607g. It's 3/13 now so that's roughly a 5 month fast. I just wieghed her, she's 1495g. So she lost 112g's from early Oct.-to 3/13. Just wondering if that's a wieght loss that would affect her ability to breed and kinda curious if that's a dramatic wieght loss.

Thank you for any opinions.

[mykee]

Disregard the scales in this scenario (and only this one IMO). Look at your snake.
Does it look thin? Emaciated? Unhealthy?
If your snake looks like it lost LOTS of weight, worry.
If not, don't.

[lostwithin]

I have to agree with mykee there, Look at the snake, If it looks like its lost weight and like something wrong then worry, but be careful not to look for things that might be wrong lol, you might start seeing things that aren’t there. That’s where a scale comes in handy.

Devon

[zero&stich]

Thanks guys, She doesn't look thin, or showing signs of that. Thanks. :)

[BornboreD]

Mine looks skinny.....:( Well, when compared to all of my others. She's also mean as all hell.

Colin

[David Kwok]

nothing to worry about, I purposely starve my bps for months!

[BornboreD]

Well just thought i'd share my joy........

I'll admit patience got the best of me, so I broke down and offered the skinny little girl a live hopper/weanling rat. Turned the lights off, and gave her some privacy. About a half hour or so. When I came back......well, let's just say I did the happy dance. :D :D Almost 6 month fast is over!!!! It barely gave her a bulge, if at all. So I figure I'll just give her a similar sized live rat every week until she is eating them consistently (4-6 weeks in a row). I'll then gradually up the size and get her back over to f/t. Anyways...thanks for the comforting advice guys. But I really do have next to no patience (something I need to work on), and it ended up paying off.

Colin

[zero&stich]

Congrads Colin-
Heh, My patience got the better of me to. Took almost 4 years, but it got the best of me this year. She hasn't fasted for 5 months in 3 years. Thinking it over I guess losing 112 grams really isn't too bad. I'll be doing backhand springs when she feeds for me again so this year I get get her up to 2000+g's. :D

[TheMan]

BornboreD: You did say you left your snake with a live rat....right? If so, that's something I would think twice about doing again if I were you. I have seen first hand what those little things can do to a snake. Congrats on her eating tho!!

Sam

[BornboreD]

Yeah, no worries. I know what I am doing. Thanks for your concern.

Colin

P.S. I knew someone would comment on that.

[Bristen]

Originally posted by David Kwok
nothing to worry about, I purposely starve my bps for months!

how interesting.. could you expand on that??

Thanks,
Bristen.