ideal length vs weight ratio?
Hi I have a male pastel bp that's a problem feeder. He has refused eating twice. THe first time he stopped eating for almost 4 weeks, then eat 2 medium sized rats ( around 50 -70 grams each), and hasn't eaten again for another 3 weeks and counting. He's not really losing weight, but he's not as "solidly built" as my 2000 gr female normal or my 450 gr female bumblebee.
He is at around 1000 gr and he is around 1.1 m long. Is he underweight? is there an ideal length vs weight ratio for BAll pythons?
please help
here's his most recent pic
http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x...1/IMG_5888.jpg
Re: ideal length vs weight ratio?
I was mistaken...the last time he ate was 1 st march, so he hasn't eaten for 7 weeks :(
Re: ideal length vs weight ratio?
i think length vs weight ratios are too difficult to use, heck there's so many problems with the BMI charts we have for humans.
Basically it's not too hard to look at a snake and tell if it is a healthy weight. Too skinny is pretty obvious, and too fat snakes will have skin showing between the scales. Hopefully someone can help you out more and post pics of malnutritioned snakes or obese snakes.
Re: ideal length vs weight ratio?
I would by a food scale at Walmart, and keep track of his weight. Grab a fecal sample and take it to the vet to be sure. They stop eating all the time, so it's not unusual. I would still by a scale so, you can keep track of his weight.
Re: ideal length vs weight ratio?
Really, measuring length is such a chore and usually not accurate at all whatsoever.
Sounds like a healthy weight to me. I wouldn't worry about him not eating as long as he isn't loosing a significant amount of weight.
Re: ideal length vs weight ratio?
The most signifigent sign that a snake is starting to loose weight is when you can start to really see the spine. So if you can see a signifigent weight loss just by eye then your not in danger yet. However, BP's generally don't go off feed unless something is wrong. My snake eats all year round and has rarely gone off feed, and when she did it was because of something wrong with her conditions.
But the others are right in that they can go long periods of time without eating and be ok. So 7 weeks is really on the lower end of the scale as far as ur snake going off feed so don't get too scared yet. I would check your tank and see if something is off that is stressing your snake out.
Re: ideal length vs weight ratio?
thank you for the replies.
I'll keep an eye on him. For aditional info, he's always active at night, exploring his enclosure.
Re: ideal length vs weight ratio?
thats pretty normal. My BP always seem to be very exploritory at night. They are nocturnal so that is their most active time.