Growth rate

[Tabbi]

"Aang" is about 3-5 months old. I am curious to know how quickly he will grow. I would say he is approx. 14-16 inches now but of course I could be off is just a guesstimate.

[Jeo123]

Mine was born sometime around May I think. She's about 33inches and 550-600g depending on how recently she ate.

[tsealock]

All of my babies were born and June and were 150-250 when I got them. Starting to feel like they are kinda small. Time for more rat pups!

[Domepiece]

"Aang" is about 3-5 months old. I am curious to know how quickly he will grow. I would say he is approx. 14-16 inches now but of course I could be off is just a guesstimate.

They will grow as much as you feed them. They can get big quick but you shouldnt over feed them(power feeding) its bad for them. Just feed him a mouse a week and clean water and he will grow at a nice steady pace. Some of mine are 6 months of age and they are between 300-450 grams.

[SlitherinSisters]

I'm always the devils advocate, but power feeding does not harm them (granted there is a way to do it, you don't just feed them every day). If you get out of control with it, yes they can become obese, but that's pretty much the only issue. If you breed an obese female she can have more slugs than average sized girls, but still they don't die or anything. I like to feed my babies/young BPs every four days to get them up in weight (power feeding is every 3-4 days). I just feel more comfortable with them being nice and chubby than on the thin side. If you think he is thin then you might want to bump feeding to every four or five days until he fattens up. Otherwise as long as you feed a proper sized prey item every five to seven days he should be fine.

Also, I must add that length pretty much means nothing. BPs are short heavy bodied snakes. If you can get your hands on a gram scale, that's the best way to measure a BP. An example on length/weight. I have a 3.5 foot female that is 2,400 grams and a 3 foot male that is 900 grams. There's a big difference in length and weight.

[ClarkT]

We got a female pastel in late August 2010. She weighed 1050 gr. when we got her.

At first, we fed her a 70-85gr rat every 7 days. Around the first of Jan. this year, she weighed in at 1400 grams.

About mid Jan, our rat supply went from 65-85 gr. rats to 35-50 gr. I had heard from another breeder that they feed small meals every 3 days, and his BPs have grown significantly more, since. So i thought I'd try it. So, I tried every 3 days.

I weighed her yesterday, expecting she was maybe 1600 grams. Nope. She's 1935 gr. ! Holy Cow Batman! She has grown a lot since then, and I would definitely say she's not fat. She's very healthy looking, and doing great.

Anyway, growth rate will definitely depend a lot on how often and the size of meals. Also, the individual BP...

You would do well to get a scale, if you're concerned with growth rate. You really can't track it without weight, as said by others...

[mdjudson]

They will grow as much as you feed them. They can get big quick but you shouldnt over feed them(power feeding) its bad for them. Just feed him a mouse a week and clean water and he will grow at a nice steady pace. Some of mine are 6 months of age and they are between 300-450 grams.

Where do you get your info? I feed my babies 1 rat every four to five days and I do not seam to have any problems. I don't think all bps are same. Some will eat twice a week others will eat every two days but I tend to feed them more often when they are young. I have some 09's that are 1800 grams and some 2010's that are from 500 to 800 but again it all depends on the animal. Don't be scared to over feed as it is much more likely you will under feed.

[NewParadigms]

To me, "power feeding" means putting extra food into the snakes mouth just as it's swallowing the normal food item. That, in my opinion, is unnatural and bad as the snake isn't choosing to eat it, you're just forcing them to.

Now feeding until they are full, or feeding every few days, seems totally fine to me so long as the snake is choosing to eat and isn't obese. An adult mouse may be fine for the snake if it's on the small side for a 6 month old, but it will certainly out grow them before too long, unless you're feeding them multiple mice at each feeding. Personally I feed 1 rat about 10-15% of the snake's weight every 5 days.

[Bp_Lee_2011]

I read somewhere that they grow 1 foot every year until they are full grown but i could be wrong and like has been said all animals have different growth rates the breeder I got mine from had some big ones that were younger than the older ones.

[Tabbi]

Wow all of this info was very helpful i have a gram scale from my beardie so i will clean it up and use it for Aang now so i can get a weight on him. when it comes to feeding we havent done i yet he was fed the day before we bought him so we where told to give it till this coming wednesday which would be a week from when he ate last. im thinking he may not eat due to the change in habitat but i could be wrong. i am sure there will be no "power feeding" it doesnt sound too natural to me either. oh and there is no worry about his size or weight i believe both to be very healthy but that is just from the homework that i have done. i was pretty much asking just to have the knowledge.
Thank you all so very much for all the answers