Size of female adult

[Damayor305]

Hello,

New to the forum. Not quite new to snake keeping.
Had a corn snake and boa as a teen.

Someone gave me their Ball Python cause they couldnt take
Care of it anymore. She is suppose to be about 4-5 years old.
Ive had here for almost 2months now.
She just shed yeaterday for the first time since i got her.
The shed was all in 1 piece, so i assume that she isnt ill or so.

Anyway, the girl that had bought her as a baby told me she
Was fed mice(2) every 4 weeks. Which i think isnt all that much
Considering that its suppose to be fed weekly.

Ok so when i got her, i started feeding her medium sized rats.
Which she took without a problem.
I fed her when i got her, then she went into shed, till today.

I will continue to feed her rats, specially since i breed my own rats.

My goal is to breed her, maybe this year.

I wanted to know, she is a female, roughly 5 years old and is
About 4ft in lenght, sorry i dont have a scale, so dont know how
Much she weighs. She looks ok to me tho.

Will she grow longer, now that i feed rats?
Since i heard they should be bout 5 ft.

And what weight is ok to breed her?

And do i have to wait till next breeding season, or can i still do this one?

Thanks guys for your info

I have a picture of her in the viv in my gallery

[LittleTreeGuy]

In my unprofessional opinion, I would feed her appropriate sized prey on a regular basis, every 7-10 days. She could be a little underfed, depending on the mice she was getting. I personally would keep her on a good feeding schedule for at least 6 months - 1 year before breeding. Breeding can be stressful on the body, and the better shape she is in, the better, I would think. Like I said, I'm not a breeder, and have never bred snakes, so maybe I'm off on my advice. I'm just sharing my opinion.

[Damayor305]

Thank you little tree guy for your response.
Yeah i kinda was thinking the same thing.
I def know that its really stressful for those animal to breed.
And i do think that she was underfed for sure.

Ok thanks man

[TurkeyPython]

She doesn't need to eat weekly. That's a ton of food for an adult. A medium once every 2 or even 3 weeks would do her well. Given that she was fed 2 mice once a month before I'd definitely wait until next year to breed her and only feed weekly around breeding time so she can save up for the whole egg process, but weekly is too much for an adult to eat regularly. One of the main reasons BPs go off food, is because they're given too much. She likely won't grow longer, at least not much, and weight doesn't matter much. Age and body condition do. At 5 years, as long as she has great body condition she'll be fine

[EL-Ziggy]

I agree that it's probably best to wait until next season to breed her and I'd probably feed her a medium rat every 7-10 days for now and scale it back to every 10-14 days once she's up to size. Best wishes with the new addition.

[Albert Clark]

Congrats on acquiring the python. Be sure to quarantine her for an appropriate amount of time (90 days). Her weight will be a important consideration along with her age. I would definitely consider getting a scale to track her weight as you go forward with breeding plans.

[crenfrow524]

I would have to agree with what has been said already and wait 6 months to a year to breed her. This is partially to give time to quarantine and to make sure she is healthy. It is always better to wait and have a nice healthy clutch than to rush and hurt the female or produce a bunch of slugs. If her age is definitely 4 years old she is mature enough to breed it's the other health factors that is important now.

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[treaux]

One thing to take into consideration if you want to breed her is what you will do with the babies once they are born. It all depends on what morph you breed her with, but unless you get a male with multiple gene morphs, you will end up with more normal BP babies which are not very desireable (many breeders even give them away).

As was said with the feeding, there is no need to power feed her. A medium rat every 10-14 days would be fine.

[Damayor305]

Thank you guys for all the responses!!

I did buy a scale 2 days ago and she came in @ 2.240 gramms.
I guess she's not that small after all.

I fed her a (larger) medium rat about 4 days ago.
So i know the weight should be around 2000gramms.

I fed her this because my pet shop here sucks! And this was the only size they had.

The funny thing was, that it seemed as if she struggled at first, because it took little longer then ususal, but it went down smooth.

What i seemed strange was that after she was done, i put her back in the tank,
Where she seemed to be looking for mord food.
I didnt give her more then 1, but should i give her 2 next time?

Thanks for the replies

[CALM Pythons]

Well if your not "new" to snakes then you should know they stay in Hunt Mode after eating. The next day they may even peak out of their hide if you pass by their enclosure seeing if your prey.
Staying on a schedule is whats best for a snake. 1 Med every 2 weeks is fine for a full grown 5 year old. Balls dont eat more than a medium Rat generally as you mentioned she struggled. They are a thick bodied but small headed snake. While a Boa or other Pythons will tackle Large rats or Rabbits no problem you should not give your Ball prey larger than the thickest part of its body.
As far as breeding i think its best you wait, seems theres quite a bit you can learn between now and then.