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growth rate?

reptiledude2 Aug 12, 2003 12:10 PM

what is the growth rate on burmese pythons ????/

Replies (1)

BrianSmith Aug 12, 2003 05:11 PM

This has SO many variables that there is no ONE answer. The burmese can grow anywhere from an inch or less per month, to well over a foot per month. It depends entirely on how much the snake consumes, as well as the size and age of the snake. But more on the amount of food.

The growth rates change constantly as the snake grows. A baby, or newly hatched burm may grow as much as a foot per pound of food consumed, but as the snake grows this percentage decreases geometrically. A 3 foot burm might grow 6 inches per pound of food consumed. But a 6 foot burm will likely only grow 2 inches per pound of food consumed. (I should dig up and reference my records on this, but I did a year long study on the growth to lbs of nutrition ingested) And a 12 foot burm may grow 1/4 inch per pound of food consumed. The reasons for this,.. the amount of food required to sustain a geometrically increasing body mass while maintaining a proportionately constant stomach and digestive system. Age also plays a role, but a very minor one in comparison.

Let me put this into realistic terms and scenarios,... all one month situations,......

A 2 foot burmese eats ten meals (2 per week) of 1/10lb rats and grows 12 inches. Equates to a foot per pound of growth.

A 4 foot burmese eats eight, 1lb rats (2- per week) and still grows only 12 inches. Equates to roughly 3 inches per pound of growth.

An 8 foot burmese eats four, 5lb rabbits (1 per week) and grows 10 inches. Equates to 1/2 inch per pound growth.

So you can see that as the snake grows it requires MUCH more food to produce length. My examples above were all just examples and not from raw data, but pretty darn close to how it actually is. I actually often have young burmese achieving up to 18 inches per month for the first few months of their lives, but it requires frequent large meals and I don't suggest that anybody feed their burms this way. I only do this when I need to bring a morph female up to breeding size quickly. What I would suggest would be to feed your burms a moderately sized meal (1 1/2 their body width) once per week to 10 days or so. This should result in a more natural growth rate of between 4 and 6 inches per month for the first half year or so. This is the healthiest way to maintain a burm.

>>what is the growth rate on burmese pythons ????/
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It isn't "Ideas" that fail or succeed,... it is the "Systems" which are instilled to launch and sustain the idea that either fail or succeed.>[Me.]

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