Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just wondering, at what point does one consider his pet burmese python obese? And how does one ascertain this?

Any info. is appreciated.

Thanks,
- Mark

-----
----------------------------------------------
My personal site: www.antegy.com
----------------------------------------------
My Kingsnake.com Picture Gallery
----------------------------------------------

I feel that as long as the snake is solid and relatively active then all is fine. When a burm is obese it will look obese. It will be softer to the touch and will have a flattened out appearance on its belly where it is laying on the ground. I am not sure if I am explaining my thoughts clearly enough but let me know if you are understanding what I am stating. Todd

I've heard from many resources, snake owners I trust & suppliers that most snake owners overfeed their snakes to get them big fast not realizing what they are actually doing. I'm sure I'll get allot of flak for this but in the interest of your pets health here goes.

Many of the feeding amounts and weights of certain length snakes that most people boast, sound overweight to me. My burm is 8'10" & 25 pounds (Some claim 9 feet @ 60 pounds plus). His back muscles are still visible and his tail has a nice taper. I feed him 2-3 jumbo rats every 2 weeks and he seems just right. A few indicators of obesity I see are the spine dissappears, the tail is fat just prior to the vent, then gets skinny real fast to the end. You ever seen a snake in the wild that looks like that? The scales do not cover the skin properly (starting to spread apart from being to stuffed. Keeping things for the snake to climb on and giving them room to exercise will help them stay active.

Hope this helps.

DZ

I tend to agree with you in that many captive burms (and snakes in general) are overfed. Another critical key is proper environment; that is, keeping burms in cages that provide opportunities to stretch out a bit while maintaining these large environments at proper heat/humidity levels. My large burms (over 16') are quite heavy but they are not obese, just very muscular due to the amount of opportunities that they get to move around when needed...and that includes a good thermal gradient that i feel is critical to their long term health. Feeding an adult burm one to two appropriately sized meals per month is an optimal schedule in my opinion unless you are readying a female for breeding purposes. Rob Carmichael

A snake that size shouldnt be on rats anymore. Switch to a 4 pound rabbit every two weeks.

I'm tryin! He won't eat F/T rabbits yet. I have 3 more cornish hens in the freezer that I have to introduce as the tail of a rat goes down. I have a meeting tonight to get guinea pigs, rabbits and large rats. Given his size I think 4 pounders are to big. The last rabbit I fed him was 2.5 and it stretched him until he bled. I swore I wouldn't do that again. Thanx for the help though.

DZ