Female ball python weight gain

I know this may be a rookie question, but I am a rookie, so there it is. LOL.

My question is this, I have a female ball python who has gained 350 G in the last month. I'm feeding her once a week, with an appropriate prey item. 15% of her body weight. I weigh all of my snakes at the beginning of the month, and last month on the second, she was 660.6 grams. I just weighed her today, and she is 1013.3 G. Is this too much of a weight gain over a month period?

She is doing everything normally, she is active, not defensive, and relieves her waste religiously every week. She does not turn down a meal, either. Frozen or live, she will take whatever is offered. She eats weekly.

I'm just curious, because none of my other pythons gain this much weight over a month. Last month, she gained a little under 200 grams. Am I overfeeding, by feeding her weekly? Or am I just tripping, and this is normal?

Was she empty or full? Is she gravid? An how old?

What type of prey is she eating?

To me that is a fast weight gain.

Take a look here:

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...=feeding+guide

She ate on Thursday. Medium Frozen thawed rat. 15% of her body weight, and less than the girth at her widest point. She has not been bred yet. As far as how old, I believe this is going to be her second winter.

The medium rat is not exceeding 15% of her current body weight, or bigger than her girth at her widest point.

Feed her every 10 days. How often are you weighting her? X

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Once a month. I weigh at the beginning of every month.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CrazyCajun

Once a month. I weigh at the beginning of every month.

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I'd recommend to weigh after their bowl movement (usually after shed) in order to record an accurate "empty" weight.

Overfeeding. You are giving a 600 gram ball python medium rats, weekly? My ball python about that size eats a small every other week. My 14 year old bp gets a small, once every 2-4 weeks. My short tail pythons coming up on 10 pounds eat a medium rat about once a month.

Everything I have seen says the 10-15% of body weight rule is done once the snake reaches 500 grams. Small rats weekly, or 10 days after that point. Medium rats only go to the largest of the BP examples. Most agree medium rats are not necessary for BPs. I would say the current size of your snake, they are certainly not necessary.

Over feeding. That's why I posted a feeding guide. Now, if she is eating every week your lucky. I keep pets not breeders, so I feed ever other week over 400g. Slow growing is better for the snakes health. If you can drop back to 10 feeding to slow the weight gain. 14 days would be better IMO.

You have a concern, so whatever you are told take with a grain of salt. Use what works best for you an your snake.

Good luck!