Growth patterns

Hello all, I just wanted to get a few comments on those of you who have seen your young bp's grow up from hatchlings.

Heres what I've noticed with my Jan '04 hatchling. She's seems to be putting on length much faster than any girth. I would say that she's relatively thin compared to other bp's, and is about to pass 35" long. She's a good weekly eater of rats, and when I first started feeding rats she seemed to gain some girth, but has seems to thin out again.

So my next thought goes out to the debate on smaller prey size more often vs. larger prey sizes spread out more. I can think of pros and cons on either side of the arguement but haven't seen any empirical evidence that one is better than the other.

So I'm assuming that they generally gain length before they get any girth on them.

Just like people every ball python is different and grow at different rates. It depends on feeding requency, genetics, and husbandry. I have seen some pretty fat babies then they get longer.

Yeah, Roo is still a fat baby.
From this morning:
http://home.ripway.com/2003-11/38177/roobig.JPG
She was a (I believe) February hatchling, and she's still much girthier than long. She also ate a few days ago, so she was a bit upset with me when I took her out to snap a picture. Ignore the slight bulges, she may still have some mousie bits smooshed up in there. ;) The ring next to her is slightly smaller than a 50-cent piece all-around.

wow, roo has an awesome pattern!! nice snake :) :)

Thanks. :) She has little alien head shapes on her side, you just can't see it well in that picture.

yeah mine too, the breeder pointed it out to me, it was obvious but i guess i never saw it, by her tummy two of them connect and it looks like they are kissin, its pretty cool/funny.

It would be cool if there was a growth chart of some kind for us to go by. I keep feeding/shed charts, but most of my females were a little grown since I got them. All I have to go by is my baby spiderball. And you know I am watching him. My female pastel is young and thin, but eats like a hog. Some of my older normals have more girth to them as well.
It would be nice if some of our bigger breeders would put up a growth chart.......like a 03' 0.1 ??grams & ?? inches if fed ?? mice/rats ?? times per week. Wouldn't that be cool?