Posted by:
wftright
at Tue Jan 17 14:17:43 2006 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by wftright ]
How long is "awhile?" My female didn't defecate from October 31 of last year until early January of this year.
How old is she? How much is she growing? My female is young. I don't know exactly how old she is, but she was about 14 inches long when I bought her in mid-October. She was getting ready to shed at the end of December. On the 2nd or 3rd of January, she shed and then defecated. (If necessary, I could check my notes for the exact day.) When I took her out of the cage a few hours later, she was 17" long.
Someone on these boards mentioned that growing ball pythons can go two or three months without defecating as they become nearly 100% efficient at using food in order to grow. That person mentioned this fact shortly before my girl defecated, but I was very concerned about the two month stretch without defecation.
I suspect that I was underfeeding my ball python slightly. I was giving her mouse fuzzies that were only 5 to 10 grams in weight. She was in the 110 gram range of weight. The general advice that others have given me is to feed at 10 to 20 percent of a snake's body weight if items smaller than the snake's diameter are being given.
Bill
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It's not how many snakes you have. It's how happy and healthy you can keep them.
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How long, old, etc. ? - wftright, Tue Jan 17 14:17:43 2006