Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Everyone talks alot about how much their BP weighs. I weighed mine out of curiousity today. I figure her to be just about one year old because I bought her 6/15/05 and she was not much bigger than I hear hatchlings described as. She weighed 540 grams today. Is that about right?

Pic is from 12/26 @6mos old.

Thanks!
April

I would say that is my avg. weight on my 3 that are same age.
so in my opinion yes that is an ok weight.
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2.2.0 ball python (gondor, aragorn, arwen,`eowyn)
1.0.0 100% het pied (frodo)
1.0.0 columbian boa (squiggles)
1.0.0 rat snake (alabastered)
0.1.0 corn snake (baby)
0.0.2 whites tree frog (trevor, kirmet)
0.0.5 pacific green tree frogs
3.2.0 cats (rockie, bs, brownie, lerrado, kole)
1.3.0 kids (dilyen, dakota, chyanne, sierra)
Brian n Chrissy

"snakes are kind of like potato chips, you cant have just one"

She looks good to me. What does she normally eat? If she is a mouser, she won't put on huge amounts of weight. Don't worry about her not being 1000 grams or whatever ... sometimes people push their animals and over feed them to breed them quickly. If you are feeding your snake on a regular basis, she is doing just fine.
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gail

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SBF

What are you considering huge amounts of weight? I have a female pastel that was hatched out in July of last year, she has only been fed mice since hatching and her weight as of 6-7-06 is 1274 grams. So I would consider that putting on weight by way of mice..........Tony

Hi Gail,
She eats one large mouse every week. There have two weeks since I have had her that she hasn't eaten and they were during shed cycles. She will only eat live though and I have a dislike for rats that are live. I would rather feed two mice than one rat.

April

In my humble opinion, which may vary from others here, she is doing just fine. I've raised hundreds of ball pythons over the years, and many don't gain a 1000 grams in a year.

One mouse a week is good, you may want to try her on two mice a week. I had a female Ghost who would eat 15 mice at a feeding, until she switched to rats. She grew like crazy, but none of my other mouse eaters ever ate like she did.

They are all different, some are meant to be quite large, and some aren't. I answered your question because I wanted to give you some support and to let you know that she looks great and you are doing well with her. I didn't expect to have a debate over how large a snake can get in a year on mice.

If I can be of any help, you can email me anytime.

Send e-mail

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gail

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SBF

Thanks Gail! All I ask for when I make a post is someone's honest opinion. I don't care if ten people all have different opinions as long as it is your own opinion. I never intend to create debates with questions that I ask.

Thanks for your help!
April

I hope you know I didn't mean you were starting a debate, I meant someone else was ... I just wanted to give you my honest opinion ...

Take care,

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gail

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SBF

Sounds like a decent weight, I have a pair that hatched out on June 21st 2005, the female is 748g and the male is 490g.
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Nita Hamilton
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Ball Pythons
ballpythonworld.com