Well, I know I've always heard that as long as there isn't significant weight loss when they go off feed then you're okay - but what 'significant weight loss' exactly is, I dunno.



I'm sure there are extremes, but I don't know what those are.



I mean, take my BP. When I got him he was 88 grams and 2 months old (got him from a petstore which brings in other issues). When he was 4 months old he weighed 99 grams - this is because for the first 2 months he would only eat every 10 days and I didn't try to feed him during shed (he seemed too jumpy and I didn't want to stress him). It kind of took us 2 months to get in a groove and for him to feel secure with me. Since then he eats great! But say after that 4 month mark he decided to stop eating - and it was a normal off feed with no weight loss for 2 months (which I would imagine there would be some weight loss even if just a little). That means he would still only be 99 grams (at most) at 6 months of age. So already my BP is under 150 grams at the 6 month mark.



I'm by no means an expert as I'm new to all this. I always see people ask for weight charts with guidelines on what their BPs should weigh - and no one can give them one. All we have to go on is what our own snakes weigh, and there are just so many variables (including the fact that some powerfeed/overfeed) that how do you really make such a chart? Some people go by the 'feed prey the size of the widest part of snake' rule, some feed 1.5 times their girth and some feed a percentage of body weight. Even those that feed a percentage of body weight all use different percentages. There was a poll done on another forum, and of those who feed a percentage - the percentage ranged from 10-40%.



Like I said, I'm sure there are extremes - but what are they? How much weight does a snake have to lose for it to be a cause for concern? We can't even agree on the size of prey to feed, how much to feed, how often to feed, how much time to allow between feedings.....Just like us I'm sure they all have different appetites, different metabolisms, etc.



Anyway, sorry for the rant. It's just always boggled my mind how someone can tell another person their snake is too small just by going by approxiamate age (because let's face it, we don't always know for sure their exact age). There just seems to be too much else to factor in.




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