how to estimate the age ofmy ball python

I recently bought my first ball python from petsmart and I was wondering what was the easiest way to guess its age and sex. It's about 16-18 in long. Any help would be greatly apprieatated. I know i might sound dumb but what is the numbers very one has in front of their snakes.

the numbers mean, male, female, unsexed, so 5.3.1= 5 males, 3 females, and 1 unsexed.

as for age, its pretty hard to say, but i would guess around 3-4months max.

and for the sex, theres no way to tell for sure just by looking at it. you would have to have it popped or probed. theres a ton of videos on youtube how to do it, so watch a bunch of those.

Age will be hard to determine. If you bought it from Petco/Petsmart it's safe to say that the snake is under a year old. They tend to severely underfeed their snakes, so it may be older than the "average" snake that size.

As for sex, it will need to be probed or popped.

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Originally Posted by lgray23

age will be hard to determine. If you bought it from petco/petsmart it's safe to say that the snake is under a year old. They tend to severely underfeed their snakes, so it may be older than the "average" snake that size.

As for sex, it will need to be probed or popped.

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The vast majority of Petsmart/PETCO ball pythons are Captive Hatched vice Captive Bred. They have a pretty good turnover rate on snakes at those stores, so I would guess your snake is less than 6 months old if you live in a large urban area, and maybe a little more than 6 months if you live off the beaten path.

LGray is right, most Petsmarts don't know how to feed a BP (or any snake for that matter) so they tend to be small and dehydrated when you get them. Get your snake on a regular feeding schedule and make sure it's humidity is right, and you'll be suprised how quickly it'll make weight gains.

I had the same question. Got mine from petsmart. I brought her to a reptile specialist. She is definitely underweight. This guy was livid and wanted to march right over to petsmart. They were telling me to feed her 1 pinky a week. The specialist said she should be eating at least 3 pinkies.

Pinkies are too small for any sized ball python. Hoppers +, that's all.

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Originally Posted by princess17

I had the same question. Got mine from petsmart. I brought her to a reptile specialist. She is definitely underweight. This guy was livid and wanted to march right over to petsmart. They were telling me to feed her 1 pinky a week. The specialist said she should be eating at least 3 pinkies.

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I would bump up the size of the prey instead of feeding multiple. Sometimes it's hard enough to get them to eat once let alone multiple times in one feeding. General rule of thumb is 10-15% of the BP body weight or as big as the thickest part of their body.

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Originally Posted by princess17

I had the same question. Got mine from petsmart. I brought her to a reptile specialist. She is definitely underweight. This guy was livid and wanted to march right over to petsmart. They were telling me to feed her 1 pinky a week. The specialist said she should be eating at least 3 pinkies.

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They told me the same thing.. 1 pinky a week.. her first feeding was a 18 gram mice and she loved it. Someone should educate petsmart or sign a petition. So unfair to all the snakes there...:colbert: the other pets are probably under fed as well..

thanks for the help and i was excited when i got her and forgot to ask how old she was. I was just curious how old she was. I know by looking at all the pics on here I think she's called a ghost by the markings on her. The other problem im having is she dont want to eat im feeding her once a week a f/t fuzzy and i say she smells it but wont take it and she actually put her head on it like a prop. i tried wiggling it and she moves away from it. she did this the last two feedings. Is there any tricks or tips i can try to get her to eat.