Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I've had my Ball Python for a while, he's probably 14-16 inches in length, no special morph or anything. And anyways I went to a well-hated petstore in the mall, there was a dead redtail, a dead savannah monitor, and probably some more poor dead reptiles in there. And I was looking at the reptiles and at the bottom there was small cage(18"X15"X12" which had atleast three ball pythons curled up in it, all about 2 1/2 feet in length. So I wondered how long it would be before my ball python is of that length, considering, I've never had snakes that got this big, which is really probably what most of you would consider small. And I also have a bearded dragon right now, I bought him from PetCo when he was 5" long, and despite my bad judgement in purchase location he's now 15" long and has had no health problems. I think I got lucky. So I would like to know, about how long should it be before my ball python is full length? It's a male if that helps any.

With a ball python, just like any snake, it's going to take time...a lot of it...before he's full grown. I had a ball (before he fell asleep too close to his heat lamp and died of dehydration, sadly) and he got pretty big real fast. He went from barely being able to handle pinkies when I first got him, to handling rat pups and adult mice at size of death, in about 4 months. On the other hand, my green anaconda has gained about an inch or 2 in that same time due to the fact she refuses to eat.

Hope that helps you out a little.

Chris
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0.0.1 Senagel Chameleon-Bud
0.1.0 Red-tail Boa-Xena
0.1.0 Green Anaconda-Lola
0.0.4 Bearded Dragons (will be acquiring appx Dec 13-20)

Ball pythons when they hatch should be fed hoppers to small adult mice or rats of equivalent size. An adult can easily eat large to jumbo rats. As for how fast they grow all depends on how well they eat. I recieved a female this June that was ~200g but is sitting at 814g and easily eats 200g rats!
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Nita Hamilton
5.9 Normal BP's
1.0 Het Orange Ghost
1.4 Humans (DH, Me and 3 daughters)

I'm pretty new myself and was in the same situation. Got my snake on a whim when I realized my mall sold them. But I also got lucky in getting a healthy snake that started eating once I switched her to live food. She was probably 18" or so when I got her and is only about 20" now almost 5 months later. She didn't eat for the first two months though, but she was still big enough to eat juvenille mice and for the past two months I've been feeding her two a week. She has been putting on more girth than length trying to get back to python thickness but as long as he's eating you'll see results, albeit slowly. I've read they grow about an inch a month before they reach adulthood.

The Ball Python Manual shows a growth chart, in grams, for some females that were tracked from birth. The chart shows them growing relatively slowly for the first six months, after that they seem to get a growth spurt and shoot right up to ~1000g (if my memory is good).

Growth I think is all relative to food size a ball python being fed a 35g mouse (average adult mouse) once a week takes a while to get up to 1000g! I have a hatchling from this summer that went from 140g to her current weight of 394g from June till now she started on adult mice quickly started taking two ( I will offer hatchlings as many as they will eat) and now will eat small rats I feed her every 3 - 5 days, another female that has taken 100g rats every week from June till now started at 200g when I got her to her 814g weight now when she hit 500g I offered a 200g rat and that was only 3 weeks ago, now she eats 200g rats every week!
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Nita Hamilton
5.9 Normal BP's
1.0 Het Orange Ghost
1.4 Humans (DH, Me and 3 daughters)

Yeah. When I first got him(July) he was eating two pinkies a week, and now he'll happily eat two average sized mice a week, I don't weigh the mice and I've never weighed my ball python either, mainly because I don't have a scale that measures in grams. I think I might try and put a picture up here of him, though he's not nearly as impressive as the ones you guys have. Thanks for the answers.

Sounds like he is doing well if he is eating regularily count yourself lucky! Mouse eaters just grow slower, wich can be frustrating when you have others the same age or younger that are double their size! LOL Having a scale is nice, I weigh my snakes usually before feeding, also handy when they fast I'm always relieved to know that they are not losing weight. You can get a decent scale at walmart, just look in the kitchen area, the food scales work, I have a postal scale. I don't usually weigh my food items but most adult mice are 35-40g and Jumbo mice are 40-50g. Rats I order them by size so I always have an approximate weight on them.
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Nita Hamilton
5.9 Normal BP's
1.0 Het Orange Ghost
1.4 Humans (DH, Me and 3 daughters)

So the ball pythons that eat mice grow slower? I never knew that. I think I'm going to try and get a scale, sounds like a good thing to have. And my imaginary inches that I guessed my snake at were just that, imaginary, I measured him and my Beardie last night with an actual measuring tool. My BP is almost exactly 20" long, and at his fattest point is probably 1 1/4" in diameter(Imaginary inches again) And my beardie is 14 3/4 inches in length. I'm curious, how much do you pay to feed your ball python? I feed live because he refuses to eat pre-killed, despite several attempts, and I've pretty much given in to his wishes. Each large mouse I purchase costs $2.00, and because I've never thought of rats yet I have no clue how much they would cost. If I'm overpaying I really don't have any other choice because the only other place that sells feeder mice/rats is Reptile Ranch, and I've only been in there once, but that place is DISGUSTING.