Purchasing a ball...

[Blitzjg]

Most ads and sellers just indicate the year they were hatched. Is it reasonable to want to know more specifically when they were born, if not the day, down to the month?

Is there a good guide or range of weight in grams a BP should be at different stages? How much do they typically weigh at birth?

[Annarose15]

A good breeder should be able to provide full hatch, shed, feeding, etc. records, assuming they produced the animal. Hatchling sizes range roughly 50-80g at birth. After they start feeding, you should judge based on body condition rather than weight. Animals that are for sale are generally fed more slowly than holdbacks or pets. This does not mean they are unhealthy, though, but that is why you can see a wide variance between snakes of the same age.

[Blitzjg]

How do you judge or determine body condition? I'm used to corns, which are obviously completely different in proportions... how do you judge if a ball is under/overweight or just right?

[BHReptiles]

How do you judge or determine body condition? I'm used to corns, which are obviously completely different in proportions... how do you judge if a ball is under/overweight or just right?

Look at a picture. If you can see a defined spine, then it's underweight. However, new hatchlings don't have a good fat store so they will look a little thinner even though they are of great body size. Here's my Bee (From Annarose15 ).

Bailey at around 80g (6 weeks old)



Bailey at over 115g (taken today at almost 8 weeks old). Sorry for the crappy quality of this picture. Phone + inside artificial light + bee going into shed = not pretty photography. However, it illustrates how new babies change over time.



Obviously, older babies will not have that definition of the spine. For comparison, here's an older snake. See how you can's see the definition of her spine? She's of healthy weight for her age (she's over a year old and roughtly 700g in that picture)



I hope that helps a little bit.

ALSO...overweight ball pythons just look chunky and look like they have to poop all the time. I don't have any overweight snakes so I can't show you a picture.

[Blitzjg]

So it seems like its fairly easy to tell if they are underweight but what about over? Is that a big concern? Great pictures definitely great example and what beautiful snakes! Is the older one a normal or what morph is that?

[BHReptiles]

So it seems like its fairly easy to tell if they are underweight but what about over? Is that a big concern? Great pictures definitely great example and what beautiful snakes! Is the older one a normal or what morph is that?

Overweight ball pythons just look chunky and look like they have to poop all the time. I don't have any overweight snakes so I can't show you a picture. They can have fat rolls too like in humans. It's not overly common. You're more likely to see an underweight snake than an overweight snake.

And yes, the old snake is a normal. She was a rescue and when I got her she was WAY underweight. You could see her spine very clearly and she was 6 months old (I've had her since July 6th of last year, so she's been in my care for a little over a year). When I weighed her after I picked her up, she weighed 44g at 6 months old. That's smaller than the bumblebee when she was BORN. Here's a picture of her the day I got it. it's a horrible picture, but you can see how small she is. That's a 10 gal tank (she's sitting on the "short end") that she was in at the time. You can see how small she was. That was a very unhealthy snake. However, a little TLC and she's doing well. She's about 900g now and I HOPE to breed her late next season.

[Blitzjg]

That poor "baby"! Kudos to you for rescuing her, she looks amazing now, surely a happy camper!

[Stewart_Reptiles]

Most ads and sellers just indicate the year they were hatched. Is it reasonable to want to know more specifically when they were born, if not the day, down to the month?

Obviously in an ad a seller is not gonna write the specific date down to the day for every single animal but will write the year, more details will be providing when YOU inquire about the animal you are interested in.

Is there a good guide or range of weight in grams a BP should be at different stages?

Nope it varies from one animal to another, what you want is an healthy look. You want to avoid skinny hatchling with a triangular shape.

How much do they typically weigh at birth?

Depends I have hatched BP from 24 grams to 91 grams but usually they are in the 60 gram range.

[bcr229]

So it seems like its fairly easy to tell if they are underweight but what about over? Is that a big concern?

It's not healthy for the snake any more than for people or other animals. I can't recall ever seeing an overweight BP or even a picture of one, though I'm sure they exist. I've seen plenty of pics of overweight boas and king/rat snakes - but they're not known for being picky eaters like BP's are either.

[BHReptiles]

That poor "baby"! Kudos to you for rescuing her, she looks amazing now, surely a happy camper!

Thanks! She's doing really well now. I couldn't be more happy with her progress!