How Common Are Fat BPs Really?

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Originally Posted by AbsoluteApril

Weaned rat every 7-10 days just like all the others. She just kept putting on girth instead of length. So I moved her out to 10-14 days for a while.

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do you have a more recent photo of her? i'd love to see how she slimed down.

Was pretty interested in what others have to say on this too. Personally I haven't seen any, but i'm sure they exist from what i'm reading above.

I've also learned to avoid facebook groups, in my own experience. They always seem to be giving different information every 5 seconds.

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Originally Posted by AbsoluteApril

Weaned rat every 7-10 days just like all the others. She just kept putting on girth instead of length. So I moved her out to 10-14 days for a while.

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Could just be genetics then-more efficient metabolism-probably would gain back weight faster after eggs and be ready to go again...

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Originally Posted by Slicercrush

Was pretty interested in what others have to say on this too. Personally I haven't seen any, but i'm sure they exist from what i'm reading above.

I've also learned to avoid facebook groups, in my own experience. They always seem to be giving different information every 5 seconds.

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Tell me about it. This came out of a Boa group BTW. I am only part of it to see the pics at this point. There are some pretty elitest people in that group.

Fat bps tend to be adult females, as babies grow faster after being fed more, and males tend to fast more as adults. Back when the bp breeding boom was happening, I saw alot more fat snakes due to power feeding in a rush to get them pumping out dollar bills, but these days it's less common.

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Originally Posted by MasonC2K

Tell me about it. This came out of a Boa group BTW. I am only part of it to see the pics at this point. There are some pretty elitest people in that group.

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I hear you on that one. I think many people on FB groups just regurgitate what they have been told by mods, etc. as the gospel with little or no experience. The person on the boa group was probably just applying what they've seen to BPs (i.e. if there are a lot of fat boas, there must be a lot of fat BPs) or they don't know the proper body shape of BPs vs. what you would want in a boa.

I've honestly had a hard time getting my BPs to put on weight and eat consistently.

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Originally Posted by artgecko

... or they don't know the proper body shape of BPs vs. what you would want in a boa.....

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I suspect this is half of the problem. :rolleyes: I've seen some obese boas for sure, but can't think of any obese BPs. And most boas are always willing to eat, so many
new keepers just over-feed them.

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Originally Posted by tttaylorrr

do you have a more recent photo of her? i'd love to see how she slimed down.

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I'll see what I can do to get a new photo, all the beepers ate last night so it may be a few days.

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

I've seen some obese boas for sure, but can't think of any obese BPs.

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first one that pops up on a google image search, this one: http://wheremyscalesslither.tumblr.c...e/135342936503

There was a user here that posted their breeders, I considered they were obese, I went back but they deleted all the photos from their gallery and threads. /shrug

I do agree though - obese boas are seen a lot more often. Body shape of a python is simply different from a boa and it's a lot more obvious in boas although I don't know if I can correlate that to mean it's more common as well. Might be though!

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Originally Posted by Alter-Echo

Back when the bp breeding boom was happening, I saw alot more fat snakes due to power feeding in a rush to get them pumping out dollar bills, but these days it's less common.

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agreed, and this is a good thing. :)

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...com/55h4ed.jpg

This girl is getting pretty chunky. It may not be obvious just from looking at her, but her body is a lot more squishy than my other snakes. I keep meaning to dial back the feedings a notch, but she's my garbage disposal. Seems like every time I try to skip a feeding someone else refuses to eat and it ends up in her tub. I think there's a conspiracy.


While I think it's possible to overfeed a BP, I don't think it's common. I haven't seen many that I'd consider overweight.

I'd think the idea that no BP could become "obese" and have health complications based via overfeeding would be naive, no? The simple answer would be no, but that's often in comparison to other relatable species like burms which are prone to being overfed. Overfeeding with BPs would typically refer to oversized prey rather than quantity of meals. But yea, you'd be hard pressed to find someone who can successful throw rodent after rodent in every other day and have their BP take them down and pass them on the regular without issue.