What a surprise

Well after several weeks of trying to breed my large 5'-2" (female) BP...with no witnessed locks, I decided to double check her sex. I was always somewhat suspicious of her sex as "she" has a longer tail and quite large spurs for a girl. I have tried popping her in the past with no visible hemipenes (So I figured with the large size and lack of penes...it's a girl). Anyway...last night I tried popping her yet again, to find what seemed to be very large sperm plugs. Still somewhat in doubt as to what I was seeing, I decided to give one more effort with popping her...sure enough, out comes a pene! This would explain the lack of interest between her and my male pastel! What a shocker!

Does anyone else have a male this size? It seems unusually large to me!? :O:confused:

There is nothing preventing a male from getting as large or larger than females. The reason we see smaller males more often is because they can breed at a younger age. Their metabolism slows down a little bit more as they grow older but they still can get up into the 2,000-3,000g range.

Alright...I was just always under the impression that females tend to grow larger than males (from my readings anyway). This obviously proves that theory wrong and I guess there are exceptions to just about every rule.

I've never seen a 5ft ball python, let alone a male.

Are you SURE you are measuring it correctly? Take a picture of it with a ruler and use the online snake measuring tool to calculate it's size.

How much does it weigh?

Females do grow larger than males on average.

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Originally Posted by blackcrystal22

I've never seen a 5ft ball python...

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http://i47.tinypic.com/sli71i.jpg

Now you have! (Tiles are 1ft x 1ft) :) She's a pretty nice sized girl though. She's either right at or just under 5 feet.



And that sucks that he's a male.. Bummer. Good thing no combatting went on that you know of. Oh well! At least now you know! :gj:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by blackcrystal22

I've never seen a 5ft ball python, let alone a male.

Are you SURE you are measuring it correctly? Take a picture of it with a ruler and use the online snake measuring tool to calculate it's size.

How much does it weigh?

Females do grow larger than males on average.

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I am possitive he is 5'-2". I measured him 3 times while he was slithering along a wall on the floor. This kept him very straight and true. I have a busy day and weekend coming up, but i'll try getting some pics against a ruler/tape soon.

I'm also glad there was no fighting/combating that occured. He is a very docile snake!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kaorte

There is nothing preventing a male from getting as large or larger than females. The reason we see smaller males more often is because they can breed at a younger age. Their metabolism slows down a little bit more as they grow older but they still can get up into the 2,000-3,000g range.

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I don't know how long Winston is, but he's about 2300 grams.

I've got a male that is 2000+ grams as well so it's not un common

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Freakie_frog

I've got a male that is 2000+ grams as well so it's not un common

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When I rescued this guy he was supposedly off feed for a while and skinny as a rail and still weighed in at 2,200 grams. He has been eating like a champ under our care, but I have yet to weigh him again. I'm assuming he will be close to 3,000+ grams once he is at a healthy weight again.