BP Rescue Rant

[NH93]

Personally I think the weight looks fairly good but it's slightly underweight. I think people are so used to seeing obese snakes they don't know what the muscle ridge looks like on the top of the snake or freak out seeing some ribs. If you ever find pictures of wild snakes, they are lean ribby animals.....their spines won't show, but they definitely have definition.... I think just regular meals the size of her body width every 2-3 weeks would be fine. The benefit of not feeding as often though is evident in her great feeding response. Allow a snake to actually get hungry instead of shoving food in their mouths every week and they become active and eat whenever you feed them. I hope the losers just never bother to ask for her back.....I'd document when you got her though so if sometime down the road and she's looking awesome they don't decide that NOW they want her back!

I'm sorry but I have to respectfully disagree with one point...
(Meg, do you have any ball pythons? Just out of friendly curiousity I notice you do have a lot of animals!)

However, as per my disagreement, many ball pythons (female) tend to be well over 1000g or even 2000g in their first year. Females get quite a lot larger than males, so sexing may be important here.
Breeding females are even larger (for obvious reasons), and I am not counting those people who super-feed their snakes.
I don't think you should be waiting 2-3 weeks to feed your snake, I think you should be feeding every 7 days. That is what other ball breeders have told me is a consistent way to keep their animals healthy. The difference with balls is to not feed over the width of their body - which it sounds like you've already done your research (10-15% of body weight, as you said). I think when the snake gets up to a healthier weight is when you may want to cut back feeding, if that is something you'd like to do. I realize that balls have a slower metabolism as well, but they still need to grow and get exercise, like any snake.

Proper temps and humidity are also stressed for importance in this species, as they are tropical (from Africa). I feel like you already know this though

There are some really helpful ball python forums out there if you're interested. I'm not sure if I've already posted one... I apologize if I have repeated myself.

www.ball-pythons.net

That is the one I go to.

 

[notserp]

My bp is a year old and is 750grams which is average as far as I know from talking to a reputable breeder. His are usually bigger at that age but he feeds aggressively for breeding. I feed every 7-10 days but not very large meals. Just the width of his body. I think 2-3 weeks would be good for a healthy adult as long as the meal is big enough but I would feed this one every week for now if she will eat it. Mine never misses a meal but I don't even try when in shed. In my opinion 2 weeks should be the max. Obviously they can go longer and be completely fine, but they will definitely be hungry before 3 weeks. Mine is very healthy and not at all overweight for his size. Just my opinion based on a decent amount of research from various sources. Good luck, I really hope you can keep her.

 

[Productmur]

Meg, I am DEFINITELY keeping track of her, as I do with my corns. Marking cleanings, feedings, weights. I want to track her progress closely.

NH93, I have done quite a bit of research. Before I got my corn snake, I was looking into ball pythons. Refreshed my head recently, at the site you mentioned. :3 I may get her sexed eventually. The guy she got her from will sex the snakes he sells. But that can wait--with all she's been through, the last thing she needs is to be violated with a probe. xD

Notserp, I've gotten similar numbers. She's about a year behind in growth from what I understand. Most 2011s that I see will easily breed next year, and are already 1000g.

At any rate, because I'm feeding smaller prey and trying to get her to gain some weight, I will be feeding her every week. And she'll get plenty of exercise, if I have anything to do with it. I'm working on a stick for her to climb, and all my snakes get handled regularly where I let them explore a bit. So.

 

[MegF.]

I don't keep ball pythons but I keep pythons of other types. For the most part an adult ball python does not need to be fed every 7 days. To bring weight up, perhaps, but slowly getting the weight up is healthier for the animal and once the weight is up where it should be, it should be spread out.
As for breeding weights....yes, there should be good weight on a breeding female (which this is not) but I've found that some weights are ridiculous. According to breeders my green tree pythons should be 800-1000 grams for breeding....not one of my animals could possibly get to that weight without being obese. Which would lead to prolapse. Yes, I experienced that when I was on weekly feeding schedules. Research on green tree pythons led me to find that the chondros originally brought in that were gravid were not over 700 grams.....so who decided that 800-1000 was normal? A healthy weight is what you want. A snake should look lean and healthy not fat. I think the majority of captive snakes are obese or approaching obesity. Part of the reason people say their snakes never leave the hides or that they never see them. People are used to seeing round snakes. This ball is somewhat underweight but certainly not emaciated.