Underweight????

I was looking at some hatchlings a breeder has for sale and have some weight questions. They were born on 8/20/15 and only weigh 112 and 113 grams. Is this on the light side? He said they eat great but just feeds them enough to maintain them versus power feeding them to get them to breeder size ASAP. What do you guys/gals think?

Maintenance feeding is something some breeders do to cut down cost, you also have to take in consideration that not all hatchlings grow at the same pace, it also depends on their size out of the egg, feeding frequency, prey size, feeding consistency etc.

I don't weight my animals I go by overall look ad proportion that is more important than a number.

Feed you BP an appropriate size prey every 5 to 7 days and everything will be fine.

A lot of people stuff their babies with as much food as they'll take to get them up to size for breeding quickly. Personally I don't think that's good for the animal's long-term health, and people have reported fatty liver disease killing off their ball pythons at a young age. These guys are designed naturally to survive long periods with little or no food.

Others feed their snakes just barely enough to keep them alive. If the spine is prominent then they're too thin.

I would look at the pictures. As long as the snakes don't look underweight and the body condition is good, they're likely fine.

I agree with Deb that some breeders maintenance feed their stock to keep costs down and hopefully the snakes sell quickly. Once you get the snake on a more growth oriented feeding regiment you should be fine. If the snake looks healthy, and you trust the breeder, the animal will grow fairly quickly in your care.

A lot of people, particularly new owners, always seem to get hung up on the idea that their snake should be at a certain weight by a certain time. These snakes are individuals and will grow at different rates. As long as your snake is feeding regularly on appropriately sized prey, is active and has good muscle tone, then they're at the right weight.

I agree with all of the above comments, I have a youngin a little older than that who MIGHT be 300g (her next weigh in will be this week). She eats like a champ and is perfectly healthy, like us, snakes are individuals with different growth rates.


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In the medical field there is a certain amount of weight a baby should obtain at different ages which is important for mental growth as well as physical growth. It's always nice to have a well started hatchling who maintains adequate development. So it's extremely important in pediatrics, and it's a good thing to correlate that with growing hatchling ball pythons.

As others have said, if they appear healthy and proportionate, i don't think you should worry. My girl was born in Sept, so she's just under 6 months old and just passed the 200g mark. She looks great, is healthy, and a great eater. The past month she's definately been growing faster than before. I've talked to some people who have snakes this age almost double the weight. Just like people, there's a pretty big range for "healthy" when it comes to size/weight.