Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Is there some kind of guideline to determine if your snake is too skinny? Mine is an adult, and it just seems skinnier than other people's snakes. It must have started when I started feeding it mice instead of adult rats. I currently feed it three adult mice twice a month. If I just feed it more will it fatten it back up?

Why would you stop feeding it rats? Most people worry about how they are going to get their snakes started on rats.

Six mice is about equivelant to a medium sized rat, so I think you need to up the feeding. I would try a medium rat weekly.

Bulldawger

It all comes down to what u consider 'thin'....

Do you have a photo you can post?

What the the length/width of ur BP?

Is the skin tight/taunt, or loose?

Are the ribs showing?

Is it sheading?

What I would say is feeding isn't always the issue, sometimes they can be dehydrated, but well fed...

A good resource is 'The Ball Python Manual'.....

It's hard to tell without know[bleep] the size of your snake but I will personally never feed a ball anyth[bleep] but rats (hamsters are pretty [bleep]ood also, if you have a [bleep]ood source). I used to have balls that I started on mice and they always la[bleep][bleep]ed behind my rat feeders. You would also have to feed so many more mice than rats. With start[bleep] them stra[bleep]ht off with rats you also don't have to worry about switch[bleep] them to rats. Their heads also seems to [bleep]row quicker, I don't know if they just [bleep]et streched out more from a lar[bleep]er meal of if it's directly proportional to the amount of calories they take in. [bleep]ood luck turn[bleep] your ball into a fattie, Scott.
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"In any civilized society, it is every citizen's responsibility to obey just laws.
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Well...I stopped feeding my BP rats two years ago when one of the rats scratched her up pretty bad. Opened up an inch long gash on her throat.

I'd say she's about four feet long, with a girth of about six or seven inches at her widest point. The thing is, she didn't used to be that skinny. It just began to happen after I stopped feeding her rats. I think dehydration may be an issue since I moved last january. I've noticed her shedding skin doesn't slough off in one piece very often anymore.

I suppose the simplest thing to do would be to just start feeding her more mice, and see if that gets her back up to size.

Put her back on rats, feed them dead, I like FK, butthat's just me, you could use FT. she will beef up in no time!
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"Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are." - Kurt Cobain

"It is better to be hated for what you are than loved for what you're not."

"You laugh at me because I am different; I laugh at you because you are all the same."

~~ Krystal - Future breeder of Pythons, Geckos, we'll see what else later! ~~ www.geocities.com/krystal19_85 ~~

When you feed 'em dead rodents, don't you have to thaw them out, etc? Then you have to dangle a dead rat in front of them until they strike, right? That's exactly the sort of thing that led me to feed her live food in the first place.

DON'T feed live!! They can (as you know) REALLY hurt your snake! Live is a last resort if that is all they will eat. Yes you have to thaw frozen ones. Fresh killed you don't though. Some snakes will make you dangle, but most will take it themselves.
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"Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are." - Kurt Cobain

"You laugh at me because I am different; I laugh at you because you are all the same."

~~ Krystal - Future breeder of Pythons, Geckos, we'll see what else later! ~~ www.geocities.com/krystal19_85 ~~