Is it important to weigh a snake?

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Originally Posted by blk02ssmonte

Tell her you need the scale to watch its health. If she thinks that is clutter than tell her to get rid of some of her personal things so there is more room for the scale!!

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I think I might lol

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I mainly weigh the females that are going to be breeding in the near future and any that go off feed to see if they are dropping weight or not.

about once every two months, because snakes hide their illnesses and sometimes sudden weight loss is the only clue that something is wrong. If you don't have a baseline then you don't know if you have a hidden problem. It doesn't make any sense to weigh more often, since most snakes grow slowly after the first year. In fact considering that snakes may eat 10% of their body mass per meal, the snake's weight will swing by up to 20% based on the defecation/ eating schedule, so more frequent weigh ins don't help as much.

I always weigh in on a Wednesday after the snake defecates. Since I feed on Thursdays I don't want a fresh mouse throwing my weights off.

David

I don't think you need a scale for pet snakes, I know enough already that I can just look at a snake and tell if it's fat or underweight. If you sell or breed snakes then you need one for sure.

I don't weigh on a schedule - but a scale is one of the first things I bought, after a thermostat and heat tape. I see my snakes every day, and sometimes, I can't tell if they've grown or not. Then I weigh them - and realize that one has put on a hundred grams in the past month! To me, it's a very important supplement to visual monitoring, since it offers the confirmation of what you think that you see. I was astonished last night to weigh my Black Widow boy, and realize that he's 850g now! However, that's while fat with his last meal, so it doesn't count.

Not really, only for breeding purposes only. You can check your snake's health by looking at it.

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Originally Posted by RoyalRegius

Create clutter? A scale won't be much bigger than a dinner plate.

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They are also about $12-15 at Wallmart.
Most people spend that on fast food and fancy coffees without even thinking about it.

These scales are very useful aside from snakes.
Learn to bake bread, and it will pay for itself within about two weeks.

(Honestly, it is NONE of my business, but if a partner of mine had an issue with how I spent $15 of my own money... I'd be making other arrangements!)

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Originally Posted by cchardwick

I don't think you need a scale for pet snakes, I know enough already that I can just look at a snake and tell if it's fat or underweight. If you sell or breed snakes then you need one for sure.

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How can you tell if it's having health problems? Sometimes weight loss/gain is your only symptom... Most folks here aren't suggesting to weigh to see if the snake is obese or underweight, but rather so the owner has a baseline to determine if the snake is losing too much weight by going off feed, or is getting ill.