Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hatched on 7-21-05 and is 240 grams empty is this a good weight?
also if i could get a name of a good scale that i could weigh snakes from baby to adults. i have this cheep little scale and i am having to modify it to hold them now.

Thank You

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2.1.0 ball python (aragorn, frodo, arwen)
2.0.0 columbian boa (wiggles and squiggles)
1.0.0 rat snake (alabastered)
0.1.0 corn snake (baby)
3.3.0 cats (rockie, bs, brownie, lerrado, kole, camie)
1.3.0 kids (dilyen, dakota, chyanne, sierra)
Brian n Chrissy

Some would consider 240 to be a bit big for this age. I would say, for sure, it is not small.

I use Ohaus scales.
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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles

A bit big? Most of mine are around 600.
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when life hands you lemons, make super lemons, bumblebees, etc...

ok just wondering do you feed 1 food item once a week or 1 food item 2 times a week?
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2.1.0 ball python (aragorn, frodo, arwen)
2.0.0 columbian boa (wiggles and squiggles)
1.0.0 rat snake (alabastered)
0.1.0 corn snake (baby)
3.3.0 cats (rockie, bs, brownie, lerrado, kole, camie)
1.3.0 kids (dilyen, dakota, chyanne, sierra)
Brian n Chrissy

sorry i ment to say 1 mouce/rat once a week or 1 mouce/rat twice a week. thank you. and we feed our ball's, mice right now. we are going to try to switch over to rats. but right snow the local pet store does not have the size we need. right now i am trying to give them about 40-50 grams of food item a week.
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2.1.0 ball python (aragorn, frodo, arwen)
2.0.0 columbian boa (wiggles and squiggles)
1.0.0 rat snake (alabastered)
0.1.0 corn snake (baby)
3.3.0 cats (rockie, bs, brownie, lerrado, kole, camie)
1.3.0 kids (dilyen, dakota, chyanne, sierra)
Brian n Chrissy

I feed all of mine live jumbo mice (except when they are still under 100 grams), about once ever 5 days, as many as they will take at once. Some eat only one, some will eat 4 in a row even when they are only 400 grams. I have switched some of my adult females over to Rats for convience. Some people will say this is over feeding, but if you think about it, the ball knows when it is full and furthermore this situation is more likely to happen in the wild...Snake happens upon a rodent burrow and cleans it out...
Anyway it works for me. Experiment with how often each snake will eat...that is my advice
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when life hands you lemons, make super lemons, bumblebees, etc...

>>the ball knows when it is full

Does it? Do you gorge yourself weekly? I know I don't and if I did I would be one of those alarming statistics.

>> and furthermore this situation is more likely to happen in the wild...Snake happens upon a rodent burrow and cleans it out...

I partially agree, but then is the snake going to happen to search and find a rodent burrow once every 5 days? More likely, it will take a longer period of time off in between meals.

>>Anyway it works for me. Experiment with how often each snake will eat...that is my advice

I would love to see some real field studies on BPs, but I just don't think they rank for funding.
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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles

>>>>the ball knows when it is full
>>
>>Does it? Do you gorge yourself weekly? I know I don't and if I did I would be one of those alarming statistics.
>>

No, but also, I am a mammal and as such have completely different requirements for how much I eat and a different limit to how fast I can grow. Yes, they know when they are full and I have never seen a ball python that ate so much it died as a result. Lots of people say that your ball will not live as long if you over feed blah blah blah...truth of the matter is I am not sure if I want all of my ball pythons to be buddist monks, eating almost nothing, doing almost nothing (except meditating of course), and living to be 200 years old (47 in BP years). Everyone can feed their pets to whatever level they feel comfortable (how many obscenely fat dogs have you seen?). Personally, I feed my females as often as they will eat, no more no less.
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when life hands you lemons, make super lemons, bumblebees, etc...

My holdbacks (hatched 8/4-6) are at 400 grams. Tho I also have an early 04 who only eats mice and is still at 350 grams. It can vary.

Any digital scale that weighs in grams should be good. We got ours from this guy www.oldwillknottscales.com/
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Tosha

"Nihil facimus sed id bene facimus"

10.35.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and gang)
1.0.0 Angolan Python (Anakin Skywalker)
0.0.1 Green Tree Python (Verdi - yeah I know but my kids love the book)
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Desert Tortoise (Pope John Paul aka JP )
2.2.1 Fish (1,2,3,4)
0.0.1 Lizard rescued from feline
0.0.0 frogs rescued from pool skimmer

thank you jmartin and toshamc for the responces we just wanted to know about where our snakes stand size wise compared to others

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2.1.0 ball python (aragorn, frodo, arwen)
2.0.0 columbian boa (wiggles and squiggles)
1.0.0 rat snake (alabastered)
0.1.0 corn snake (baby)
3.3.0 cats (rockie, bs, brownie, lerrado, kole, camie)
1.3.0 kids (dilyen, dakota, chyanne, sierra)
Brian n Chrissy

My snake is 17 inches long and weighs 135 grams. I think she's a little on the small side in comparison with others around here, but my vet tells me that she is fine.

I use an AmericanWeigh postal scale. It's precision is only 5 grams, so it won't show small changes. However, it's good enough for my purposes. As my snakes get bigger, I'll have to weigh them in a container placed on top of the scale, but the scale has a tare function. I found it at

http://www.americanweigh.com/product_info.php?cPath=23&products_id=95

Bill
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It's not how many snakes you have. It's how happy and healthy you can keep them.

Hey,

It's about average. I have some that are about the size and one that is 730 grams! It depends on how much they eat. My rat eaters are bigger and better eaters. My mouse eaters are more spotty eaters and don't eat as much.

Now before everyone jumps on me for overfeeding- no! I offer to animals under one year 2 times a week. The 730 gram animal never refuses a meal, even in shed.

Peace,

Steve

Thank You for the info. and i was thinking they were under weight. not by much but under weight. so now i know they are fine. and tosha i was wondering what model it was you were referring to? i went to the link you gave and saw a lot of scales. saw a couple i liked but dont want to get the wrong one or one that does not perform right. Thank You Brian
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2.1.0 ball python (aragorn, frodo, arwen)
2.0.0 columbian boa (wiggles and squiggles)
1.0.0 rat snake (alabastered)
0.1.0 corn snake (baby)
3.3.0 cats (rockie, bs, brownie, lerrado, kole, camie)
1.3.0 kids (dilyen, dakota, chyanne, sierra)
Brian n Chrissy