Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I need to get a scale, for weighing snakes and their food. What would you suggest. And from where? Are food scales good enough? There's so many I don't know where to start.
Thanks Paul

You can use postal scales for small snakes (and small food items) under 3 lbs. You can use a kitchen scale for things larger than that (usualy kitchen scales are good up to 10 lbs). Or you can get a more expensive digital scale, just depends what you want.

To weigh a very heavy adult snake, you can weigh yourself on a bathroom scale, record the weight, and then hold your snake and compare the weights (subtract your weight).
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Lauren Madar
www.ophidiagems.com
1.1 Hog Island Boas
1.1 Hypo BCI
0.1 Sorong-type GTP
1.0 Normal Ball Python
1.1 Surinam BCC

Go to your local walmart they have electronic food scales where your food preparation stuff is located,they measure pounds and grams I think they go up to 5lbs.They run about $30,I've used one for a couple of years now it works great and its battery powered.
mike

www.gerhart.com tell them i sent ya
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An easy place to look is the KS classifieds. I bought a postal scale on Ebay that weighs in grams/ounces/pounds up to 12 pounds. I paid 18 bucks.

>>I need to get a scale, for weighing snakes and their food. What would you suggest. And from where? Are food scales good enough? There's so many I don't know where to start.
>> Thanks Paul
>>

This company has the best supply of scales for weighing anything from 1 gram to 100 kilos, and a lot of other interesting environmental field equipment. Ben Meadows Co.

http://www.benmeadows.com/store/Laboratory_Products/Scales___Balances/Hanging_Scales/

Kelly

Okay if I get one big enoungh to weigh a grown boa (50-60lbs) will it still accurate enough for babies?

I have 2 sizes: one for the little ones and one for the big ones.
I bought the little one brand new at Walmart for $30. It's a food scale and is accurate within 2 grams. I imagine if you're talking baby boas, that's probably close enough. I don't know about little guys like corn snakes though.
The big scale is a baby scale. That one cost me a little bit, but I wanted a digital one and to make sure that it could weigh in grams and kilograms. That's my suggestion. I'd get one that weighs in grams and kilograms if you can. Pretty much all vets (and vet books) do everything with the metric system ("check out the big brain on Brad!"-sorry couldn't resist the Pulp Fiction reference!) You can always convert the units or even do it one some websites, but it eliminates an extra step. Plus, I think even the one for the big snakes (the more expensive one of the two) was only like $100-$140 shipped.
Good luck!
Aaron

you can get a scale that will weigh your heavier snakes and still have an accurate resolution for the little fellas, but you will need deep pockets. There are also dual range scales that change resolution depending on the weight applied to the scale. If you are looking for "close" weights, i'd do the walmart thing, but if you want or need the weights to be exact, i'd invest in a better quality scale.
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