Ball Python may be loosing too much weight during fast, pls read.

[BoidKeeper]

Male Ball acquired July 15 and was approximately 800g’s. He ate one rat twice a month until September 29th. He is in a shed now and his last shed before that was September 5th. His last defecation was on September 30th. On August 11th he weighed 833g's. On October 10th he weighed 862g’s and today he weighs 824g’s, that is a loss of 38g’s in a little over a month. I’m concerned that this is too much weight loses. Also none of that 38g’s is waste, as I menthinoned his last dump was September 30th. Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Trevor

[tightsqueeze]

Ask Jeff ********!!!



he probly knows


l8tr
Jay

[Corey Woods]

That is fine.........he can probably drop down to 600g's and still be ok. He may not eat again until April/May........He'll be fine until then.

It's normal so don't worry about it.
Corey

[BoidKeeper]

Thanks Corey. I started cooling him. A friend and I concluded that cooling him would help slow things down all around. I just wonder how long I should keep it up for.
Cheers,
Trevor

[JamesBryan]

I had a male who only ate 6 months of the year, every year. I have another male currently who bred for the first time last year at 700g and then fasted down to almost 350g !! That was scary. He finally got back up to feeding on his own (was being tube fed) at around 450g. That has been our worst case scenario so far. I wouldn't even think twice about 38g loss. I have males who will feed while copulating and others who fast all season. They are pretty tough critters.

James Bryan