Fat??

How do you know if your snake is too fat? I have all my babies on a 5 day feeding schedule, feeding 10% of body weight. My male pastel went from 536 g on 6/23 to 616 g on 7/8. He is being put on a diet, but i'm wondering if I should go to 7 days or 10 days?

Too me he doesn't look that fat, but he is a big boy. He also doesn't look proportioned to his head like my female normal. She's a little smaller than him, but her head is bigger. He moves fine, so how do I tell if he is getting too fat?

Here is a pictur of him with my smallest female, 285 g mojave. All weights are current and after a poo.

http://www.iherp.com/Gallery/90669/2...aXahmqtiCd.jpg

I forgot to add that all my babies have reached 500 and will be going to 7 days at 10%. Except my little mojo. Thanks!

If you start seeing skin between scales then your snake is obese. The snake above looks fine to me.

Oh. That's right. no skin is showing. It just seemed like a huge weight gain. I'm going to switch to 7, and check again in another month. Thanks!!

How long and how old is he?

with weight gain like that, are you recording weather you're weighting them empty or with food in their bellies and feces in their gut? Because this will add weight to the animal that they dont actually have.

Yeah I would switch to every 7 days. I switched once the snakes hit 500g.

The snake doesn't look obese but I think feeding every 5 days is a bit much for how big that snake is.

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Originally Posted by Kaorte

Yeah I would switch to every 7 days. I switched once the snakes hit 500g.

The snake doesn't look obese but I think feeding every 5 days is a bit much for how big that snake is.

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I agree! He looks good but he should be on a 7 day schedule.

Almost a 100g increase in less than half of a month? Wow. You should weigh your snake before you feed them and after they poo. An increase like that makes me think there is still a 60g rat in its tummy.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by stratus_020202

How do you know if your snake is too fat? I have all my babies on a 5 day feeding schedule, feeding 10% of body weight. My male pastel went from 536 g on 6/23 to 616 g on 7/8. He is being put on a diet, but i'm wondering if I should go to 7 days or 10 days?

Too me he doesn't look that fat, but he is a big boy. He also doesn't look proportioned to his head like my female normal. She's a little smaller than him, but her head is bigger. He moves fine, so how do I tell if he is getting too fat?

Here is a pictur of him with my smallest female, 285 g mojave. All weights are current and after a poo.

http://www.iherp.com/Gallery/90669/2...aXahmqtiCd.jpg

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Good to see you are looking at feeding schedules and are concerned over weight gain.

They need weekly feeding when they are growing but once they hit about 800g I'd cut back feeding to once every 10-14 days.

Weigh your balls after they poop, this will give you a more accurate reading of their weight. Weight gain of 50g a month is imo a healthy gain, anything more would indicate that the fat reserves are building up too quick.