How much should my BP weigh?

[Kevin95]

Hey guys, Kevin again (featuring Vinny the normal Ball Python). I've read a few articles here and there about their bp's, saying that a few month old bp weighs this much or that much. But my BP seems to fall under that scale. I've had him since November of 2014, and his feeding chart from PetSmart said he weighed 145grams at time of purchase. It is now February, he only weighs 169 grams. His chart started around August, so that's 6-7 months. What should he weigh? Some articles say 400grams...

[Sauzo]

Well to give you an idea, I too got my little pied girl from petsmart and at the time I got her, she weighed 102g. That was on Nov 28th 2014. Now here in Feb, she weighs 386g and has shed twice. She eats like a horse and I was feeding her every 3-4 days a rat that was between 10-20% her body weight but now I have changed her to a weekly feeding. I think I read somewhere someone said average when they are young is about 100g a month. Does yours like to eat? What is your feeding schedule like and what size food?. I would think that gaining 24g in 3 months is on the low side but maybe someone who has bred ball pythons would have a better idea on how much they should be growing. I just know my little girl is a pig and the minute I open her cage with a rat in the room, she goes bananas and pops out of her hide and literally will stand up almost as tall as the cage and follow the screen top as I take it off

[Kevin95]

Well to give you an idea, I too got my little pied girl from petsmart and at the time I got her, she weighed 102g. That was on Nov 28th 2014. Now here in Feb, she weighs 386g and has shed twice. She eats like a horse and I was feeding her every 3-4 days a rat that was between 10-20% her body weight but now I have changed her to a weekly feeding. I think I read somewhere someone said average when they are young is about 100g a month. Does yours like to eat? What is your feeding schedule like and what size food?. I would think that gaining 24g in 3 months is on the low side but maybe someone who has bred ball pythons would have a better idea on how much they should be growing. I just know my little girl is a pig and the minute I open her cage with a rat in the room, she goes bananas and pops out of her hide and literally will stand up almost as tall as the cage and follow the screen top as I take it off

I feed him every 5-7 days. i'm using small mice from petsmart (Arctic Mice). When I was feeding him fuzzies, sometimes he would take 3, but with the small mie i just stick with 1 because of fear of over-feeding/making him sick. should i try to feed maybe 1 small mouse and a fuzzy?

[Sauzo]

One small mouse every 5-7 days is probably not enough. My girl who is about 386g is just starting on small weaned rats which I pre kill. The only time she ate mice was when she was at Petsmart. Soon as I got her home, I offered her a live fuzzy rat after 2 days and she snapped that up like a candy bar. Since then it went from fuzzy rats to rat pups and now to weaned rats. At 169g you should be able to feed either large mice or rat pups. Really depends on the vendor and how they size/weigh their feeders and categorize them. But you want to feed about 10-15% of the snakes weight so a 17-25g mice or rats. I would personally try and switch him to rats so it will be more cost effective once he gets big. Otherwise you will be feeding multiple mice per feeding vs just a small rat per feeding.

[michaelt]

I wouldn't always go with the 10-15% feeding to there weight.. my normal was 303g jan 15th.. I feed him 18-22g adult mice every 5 days and on Feb 1st he weighed in at 352g so roughly 3 feedings and he gained 49g and yes empty weight as he left me a cat turd in there the day before.. so that 10-15% shud just be discarded if you ask me. At the 145g you stated adult mice from petsmart should be fine the weight is usally 18-23g also check this thread out its a very good read on the subject http://ball-pythons.net/forums/showt...r-Ball-Pythons

[sharkbaitza]

Hi, sorry to hijack the thread but it's kinda related. It's a bit weird but my Royal is visibly growing but there doesn't seem to be much change in it's weight. It weighed the same as a week ago. In fact, I've got some pretty weird grow patterns. Beginning Oct to end Nov it went up 30%, then 10% to the 1st week of Jan. Then dropped 2% over the next 2 weeks. Then up 16% to end of Jan. Then nothing till today. I'm feed it rat pups. Normally 2, today it took 3... It's all a bit weird... Is this normal? (16 months old weighing 182g)

[200xth]

I've had him since November of 2014, and his feeding chart from PetSmart said he weighed 145grams at time of purchase. It is now February, he only weighs 169 grams.

You're not feeding him very much. You don't need to be stuffing him so he blows up like a balloon, but you could start feeding him either bigger food or more often.

Just as an example, starting at ~150g my hatchlings will usually get to 300 to 320g in the same amount of time (3 months), and I don't feed hatchling a lot compared to most people; I only feed once a week.

You can definitely feed adult mice, or rat pups at his size. One of those a week will get him growing a bit faster than he is now.

[Paul's Pieds]

I treated myself to a new addition just prior to Christmas and he weighed 110 grams. I just weighed him to check and he is 185 now. I do not power feed. None of our snakes are fed regularly on a schedule. They are feed when they are active for 2 nights in a row. I would suggest you might be feeding items smaller than he can manage. We are using rat pups.

Hope that gives a decent comparison for you.

[PitOnTheProwl]

There is no set weight age chart.
They all grow at different speeds.
I have a pair of albuno sisters that are about 3 years old. One weighs 1100g and the other is aroung 400g.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

There is no charts and no ideal weight because so much is to be taken in consideration, hatch weight, how fast the animal got started, feeding frequency, prey size etc.

What matters rather than the number is the overall look of the animal, if it looks healthy don't worry about the numbers.