Growth Rate

[jhuepenbeck]

Hello all,

I was wondering if someone could give an estimated growth rate from birth to the end of year one, from year one to year 2, and from year 2 to year 3, etc? Also, how long with normal growth can I expect to wait before the BP is ready to mate?

Can't seem to find alot of great advice on the topic, so any hear would be appreciated...

Regards

[Them and Us]

i have asked similar questions like this about other species and i usually get no aswer or one like " every animal is different and it depends on how often you feed it, what you feed it and how your husbandry is" . so good luck to you. mabe see if you can find a good care sheet that will tell you. I've just decided to learn as time goes by. its the best way probably.

[jhuepenbeck]

Ok,

i know you guys own ball pythons. How long does it take for them to reach the age where we can expect them to start breeding with great husbandry, and a normal feeding regimen?

[krrc]

ya I would also like to know. Thanks guys.

[Jeff_Favelle]

It all depends on food and temperatures. Feed them, they grow quick (if allowed to thermoregulate).

Its really up to you how fast it grows. But the range for a female to reach maturity is anywhere from 18 months to never. Depending on how on your game you are.

Good luck.

[jhuepenbeck]

Ok,

I feed my female that was born in September 2002 once a week. However, it will eat as much as I give to her. Should I up the dosage of food and give her as much as she wants? How much food should a female get and how often from birth to achieve maturity at 18 months?

Regards

[krrc]

ya I have always fead my snakes once a week yet I wouldent mind my bp growing quicker than my burm. say we kept the temps. right where they shoudl be and any other husbandry need for the bp were perfectly met. How often could we feed them (with out getting the snake fat)?

[Jeff_Favelle]

It ranges. Sometimes mine eat 4 times a week, sometimes once every 3 weeks. It depends on shed cycles, poops, how they thermoregulate etc etc etc.

This is precisely why I don't use a schedule. It would just make me mad when my snake doesn't conform to it. I conform to the snakes instead. They tell me when they want to eat, and I feed them. I record it, but I've never analyzed the numbers. I'm sure it would work out to an average of 2x per week though.

[Markus Jayne]

We feed our hatchlings every 5 days until the Fall and then we feed every 7 days. Most of our hatchlings feed right through the winter and by 18 months they weigh anywhere from 1100 to 1500 grams.

We are very particular on what we feed. We only feed rats raised here at our facility. We try to match the snake with the right size rat (generally equal to the girth of the snake). This allows the snake to grow at a more steady and consistent rate.

Many people buy one size of rat and the snake outgrows them and the size of the rats are not adjusted to the size of the snake. I find this to be very important.

We also only feed small rats to our adult snakes. IMHO Smaller meals are easier to digest. Depending on the BP (our adults range from 2000 - 4800 grams) we sometimes feed 2 small rats every 7 days - 10 days.

Most of our hatchlings from this year are between 400 - 700 grams with some already over 800 grams.

Again, matching the food size to the hatchling makes for a more efficient means of feeding and consistent growth rate.

Hope this sheds some light on the topic.

Best for the New Year.

MJ

[krrc]

thanks guys that helped. ;)