Ball Python Weight Question

Hello!

I looked throughout the FAQs and tried to find the answer to my question here and over other parts of the internet but I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for. If anyone could help me here that would be amazing.

I recently got my first ball python a few months ago. I'm not entirely sure how much he weighed when he was born but the breeder said he was born August 5th and the weight posted was 75 grams. It has been about 3 and a half months since them and I use a ~20$ kitchen scale to weigh him, so I'm not entirely sure how accurate it is, but it says he weight roughly 125 grams currently.

I've looked at many different age - size charts and everything says that he should be at least 50 grams heavier than this at this stage in his life. I've been feeding him PetSmart Medium Frozen-Thawed mice weigh roughly 15-20 grams each every 5 days. I'm not sure if I should bump up the size of his food? I know one should look at the girth of the snake and feed it something roughly the size of that or a little smaller, at least that's what I've heard, but I'm just worried about his size.

I've also never held another snake so I'm not sure if he looks underweight or not. Sometimes I feel like his spine sticks up a bit too much? But again, I've never held another snake, so I'm not sure what the "norm" should be.

Thanks so much for any help anyone can provide, sorry if that explanation was a bit long. :C

Here's a link to an image of this little guy: https://imgur.com/a/nj1KUx9

Here's a feeding chart from this thread: https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...ing-Guidelines

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...%2F98qfzDH.png

I've unfortunately already looked at this chart, but it doesn't really answer my question, why is my ball python so underweight?

Weight is related to food, so if the animal is not fed aproprietly, a poor feeder,fasting or not fed frequently enough it will be smaller than another animal. Genetics plays a part as well.

My advice try not to compare weight it's about proper feeding and good overall body shape, weight is a number.

And there is no age/size chart those are made by inexperience people for inexperience people, weight can vary grestly from single to double.

Ah okay. I'll just make sure I keep properly feeding him then. Thanks for the help!

First, welcome to the forum. Now, you might want to feed every 7 days. Then, get some string out, an measure your snake with it. Now, measure the string. Now you can compare length to weight.

The kids weight the young snakes every month before a feeding. Each snake has a file with feeding dates, weights, sheds an the like.

Enjoy your snake!

Hey!

My ball python is around the same age as yours. Got her roughly a month ago. She currently weighs 96 grams. So she's tiny.

But when I got her, the breeder warned me that she'd taken a very long time to eat her first meal and had been picky ever since. She was also small fresh out of the egg. I looked around this forum and concluded that as long as her weight is going up, she's eating semi regularly, and she's doing normal BP things, no need to worry.

Hope that helps!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SpoonHydra

I recently got my first ball python a few months ago. I'm not entirely sure how much he weighed when he was born but the breeder said he was born August 5th and the weight posted was 75 grams. It has been about 3 and a half months since them and I use a ~20$ kitchen scale to weigh him, so I'm not entirely sure how accurate it is, but it says he weight roughly 125 grams currently.

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I have one that might be a month or so older than that, and is about the same weight, She did have a few issues, and a regurge so I couldn't feed her for a few weeks. But she's doing good and starting to eat appropriately sized prey now. She was only 76g on Sept 01 and was probably 2 months old then as a guess

So I wouldn't worry too much, yours sounds like he will be fine, just a little smaller to start maybe