growth ????

[new2BP]

right now, my BP is about 2 ' in length and wieghs around 325 g. so far it seems to gain about 20 - 25 g between each meal which right now is 1 adult mouse every 5 days. is there a time when the wieght gain will increase as she gets larger, and the meals also get larger, or will it stay constant untill she becomes full grown. Or... does it vary from each Bp to the next. I know each BP grows at different rates, but is there a rule of thumb when it comes to wieght gain vs size of the BP or age of the snake. thanks

[daniel1983]

if you are feeding 20- 25 gram mice each meal....the snake's total weight will increase 20-25 grams each meal. The snake's overall weight (empty) is a result of what you how much you feed it and the actual amount of weight retained from each meal (i.e. 1 mouse puts x# of grams on the bp). However, the amount of each meal actually retained will vary from feeding to feeding. I record the approx. weight of each meal that I feed my snakes, then I monitor empty weights. As a ratio of grams of food feed to empty weight gain for the first year of a ball pythons life, I have noted between 25% to almost 70% of the food intake actually being retained. The percent retained for one ball python could be 25% one month...50% the next...it all depends on what is going on with the ball python (i.e. how fast it is growing, how much energy it is using, what conditions it is being kept at...basically everything).

So, there is no good way to predict how much weight your ball python will gain from each feeding. And as far as a 'rule of thumb', a guess at what the ball python should weigh for a certain age or length can be made....but that is all it will be is a educated guess based off of prior experience with raising ball pythons.

[new2BP]

thanks for the help. i do realize that if i feed my bp a mouse that wieghs 25 g it will gain 25 g. i have also been monitoring what the mouse wiegh, and what the snake wieghs. i always wiegh my snake just b4 feeding, and 2 days after. i do know that thye loose some of there wieght after they eat, i just wasnt sure how much on average. my chart isnt quite long enough to make any conclusions, i have only had my bp for 3 months. for some reason i just find it so interesting trying to figure out all of these statistics on my snake. at the same time i just want to make sure my bp is gettign what it needs.

[daniel1983]

As long as your snake has a healthy look to it and is not loosing weight, you are probably feeding enough. If you dont already, record the empty weight of your snake. I think that is one of the most valuable weights that you can record. Unless the snake deficates in those two days, the weight increase will just be from the mouse and any water consumed...but a empty weight will give you how much actual weight the bp has retained from weight to weight. Just trying to help out.. ....I also record weights randomly too. But it those weights usually are close to the last empty weight + what I have feed +- a few grams....

Collecting data on bps fun.....It gives me something fun to do in my spare time

[new2BP]

i'll continue to monitor its wieght before feeding and as long as the wieght that is retianed is under the wieght she is taking in, than i am doign all i can. i am asummign though that when the wieght that she is retianing gets close to teh wieght of the meals, than it may be time to up the meal size. does that make sense?

and, yes i do record the empty wieght

[Adam_Wysocki]

i'll continue to monitor its wieght before feeding and as long as the wieght that is retianed is under the wieght she is taking in, than i am doign all i can. i am asummign though that when the wieght that she is retianing gets close to teh wieght of the meals, than it may be time to up the meal size. does that make sense?

and, yes i do record the empty wieght

Sometimes my snakes will gain 100 grams a month, and some months, some of my snakes will lose 5 - 10 grams. Don't get too twisted up on the numbers ... these are living creatures, not video games ... they WILL humble you!

-adam