Ball python weight [Archive] - sSNAKESs : Reptile Forum

Cherry4812

07-08-10, 09:37 PM

infernalis

07-08-10, 10:53 PM

yours is not overweight, but your friend with the skinny one needs to feed that poor animal.

You should NEVER see the spine of any snake showing.

What you just described about your friends snake is animal cruelty.

Cherry4812

07-08-10, 11:22 PM

Thank you for answering my question (kind of) but you need to calm down. She feeds it every week but it doesn't always eat. She bought it from an owner that didn't take care of it properly and has been trying to help it ever since. You really shouldn't jump to animal cruelty before you know anything about the situation.

infernalis

07-09-10, 12:42 AM

Well then please accept my apologies, However maybe my frustration should be directed at the previous owner.

My BP was rescued from squalor, so I kind of have a soft spot for neglected snakes. ;)

Lankyrob

07-09-10, 03:18 AM

Also if you had explained why the other snake was so skinny the reaction wouldn't have been the same - reading your first post i also jumped straight to cruelty.

Paradise

07-09-10, 05:17 AM

... reading your first post i also jumped straight to cruelty.

As did I Rob.

If the snake is not eat as regularly try a little bigger prey a few more days apart or at least suggest to your friend to do that or even when the snake does eat to keep feeding till it stops taking but be careful because this can also cause problems.

If this is an on going situation you should actually recommend to your friend to take the poor animal to be check by the vet. Seen the spine is really not a good sign and if the BP is not eating there is definitely some thing wrong.

Paradise

07-09-10, 05:20 AM

My BP was rescued from squalor, ;)

Huh what? 'a Squalor' Sorry my day for being silly I have no idea what this is

Paradise

07-09-10, 05:22 AM

ok sorry my bad just had to think about it for a while.
Sorry Wayne

infernalis

07-09-10, 06:17 AM

No problems mate...

The woman who had this Python before me was running a party house out of her apartment, and the snake was living in a nasty cage with a green (slimy) water bowl, feces all over, shed skin piles all over & no hide.

Nafun

07-09-10, 06:18 AM

I also jumped right to animal cruelty (well, neglect). When you hear hoof beats, think horses, not zebras.

I weighed my ball a few months ago, when he was about a year old, and about the same length as yours. He weighed 9 ounces. This was before I switched him to rats. Given that a 10 ounce ball can take a 2 ounce crap, I wouldn't worry too much about his weight.

Even if he was a little overweight, which I don't think he is, I wouldn't worry about it at his age, since he's still got a lot of growing to do.

You might also want to consider switching him to rats. Rats are healthier, and he'll need to be switched eventually anyway. Balls are imprint feeders, and the longer they feed on something, the harder it is to get them to switch to something else. (I recommend waiting for a shed cycle, it's worked for me on two different snakes. Wait for a shed cycle where they've been refusing food for a few weeks. Then offer the new prey, they're hungry enough they go right for it.)

infernalis

07-09-10, 06:22 AM

I have a couple rat colonies going on, and after reading many recommendations from members here, I quit giving my BP mice, now I pull young rats that are 3-4 weeks old and (just about twice the size of a full grown mouse) and he takes them just fine.

Then I sell the extra rats to a local pet shop for $1 each.

Works out well.

Nafun

07-09-10, 07:59 AM

Extra rats? There's no such thing as extra rats. There's just "insufficient snakes"

infernalis

07-09-10, 08:40 AM

hey now, that 30-40 extra dollars every few weeks comes in handy.

They also buy loads of mice from me too.

Helps to support my snake habits.

Nafun

07-09-10, 08:54 AM

Wish I could find a pet store willing to buy extra gerbils from me. I've got 8 breeding pairs pumping out 4-7 pups every 30 days. I've only ever managed to get *one* snake to eat *one* gerbil *once*.

infernalis

07-09-10, 09:01 AM

So what on earth do you do with this population explosion??

Get a Savannah monitor, they eat anything that moves.

Jenn_06

07-09-10, 09:07 AM

you guys need to start CO2ing these guy and freeze them and send them my way lol.

citysnakes

07-09-10, 09:41 AM

I've had my ball python, Tulio, for almost eleven months now. He's about a year old, 24 inches (give or take), and weighs 10 ounces. I got a scale specifically to weigh him and I was just wondering if that sounded like an appropriate weight for a ball python of his age. My friend has an older one that looks skinnier (you can see it's backbone protruding a lot) and she says mine looks overweight. I feed him one adult mouse once a week.

ten ounces is what, around 300 grams? so as long as your one year old, 300 gram snake is feeding regularly and doesnt look underweight then his weight should be fine.

i've had 12 month old ball pythons anywhere from over 400 grams to 1100 grams on a weekly feeding schedule with week or two breaks here and there.

so it seems that their growth rate depends on various factors and no single weight is standard for a given age. so any healthy ball feeding regularly and looking plump is most likely the weight that it is supposed to be.

Nafun

07-09-10, 09:42 AM

Well, we started with 3 pair. Most of the first set of litters ended up becoming breeders. Generation 2 just got pulled from its parents, and generation 3 was just born. Right now, we've got two large tubs, one of males, and one of females.

I'm hoping I can get my tegu to accept gerbils, if I start him on gerbils.
My wife is hoping to sell them to a pet store distributor.
In the mean time, I'm offering everyone I know free gerbils.

The thing is, they really do make outstanding pets. The 2nd and 3rd generations are very very tame, because they've had human interaction their whole lives, unlike pet store animals that come from farms and see humans for 30 seconds on cleaning day. They're fearless, almost never bite, and don't smell nearly as bad as rats or mice.

citysnakes

07-09-10, 10:14 AM

people, the OP is not to blame here. blame yourselves for not asking the proper questions and jumping to conclusions.

too many threads in this forum are hijacked and become pointless to the OP and others that may want to discuss the topic of the thread. if you want to discuss feeders, is there not a proper forum for that?

threads will go off topic at times but when hijacked, i think moderation is necessary.

Cherry4812

07-10-10, 12:09 PM

Yes the the thread did seem to go VERY off topic lol. A lot of people on here mentioned that I should switch to rats but my ball python refuses to eat anything dead so I'm a little concerned that the rats might hurt him. Yes I have tried everything, every trick that people have suggested, to get him to eat frozen/thawed but he refused for three months and started to get very skinny. It was odd because I got him when he was a baby and the person i bought him from said he had only ever eaten frozen/thawed. So I guess my question is should I feed every ten days now? (instead of once a week like I always have) because he's getting older. Also, do you think it's any less safe to feed him live rats than live mice? He's never been hurt before but I'm just afraid that a rat could hurt him worse...

Jenn_06

07-10-10, 12:27 PM

i would still feed every 7 days, i dont like feeding live but if you have too you have too.feeding a rat is not less safe than a mouse they both have teeth, but i would stay close by until the snake kills it, so if it did start hurting your snake you can get it off.

infernalis

07-10-10, 12:59 PM

My BP kills rats very effectivly.... every 7-10 days a small rat would be fine.

citysnakes

07-10-10, 01:08 PM

feeding injuries are usually the result of irresponsible feeding practices such as leaving rodents within the snakes enclosure unattended. just make sure youre there to supervise the process.

infernalis

07-10-10, 02:36 PM

feeding injuries are usually the result of irresponsible feeding practices such as leaving rodents within the snakes enclosure unattended. just make sure youre there to supervise the process.

Agreed, I watch mine go for the kill, not that I like watching the rat die, and certainly not because I like the sounds they make when getting constricted, but to ensure my snake does his job without getting chewed up.

If he shows no interest in taking the rat after about 10 minutes, I remove the rat from his cage and try again another day.

Cherry4812

07-10-10, 08:06 PM

Oh yes I always watch him kill the mouse. I would never feel comfortable just leaving a live mouse in there with him. Hopefully the pet store I currently go to carries rats. Thank you for your answers everyone.

Nafun

07-10-10, 08:32 PM

If you have difficulty procuring live rats, I highly recommend breeding. Pet stores around here generally charge $4-6 bucks for small rats, but a single buck and doe can produce enough small rats to support one snake indefinitely, for just a couple of dollars per month.

infernalis

07-11-10, 02:23 AM

Not to mention, they are great disposals for those dtale crackers and breakfast ceral the many of us throw away when it's been open a while.

Rats also seem fond of dollar store dog food, the dry crunchy kind.

Nafun

07-11-10, 04:34 AM

My wife and I recently made "rat food", went to the feed store (yeah, we live in farming country). 2 parts barley/oat mix, 4 parts wild bird food, 2 parts dog food, 1 part fruit and nut bird food = 40 cents/pound. Each rat colony (1 male, 4 females) might go through a pound per week. The only down side is that the room we keep the feed in now smells like beer from all the barley.

But wayne's right, they'll eat almost anything, they're rats after all. But if you're breeding them, it's important to make sure they have a good source of protein (like dollar store dog food), otherwise babies look like a good source of protein.