Weight Question...!!

I have seen a really under weight very very very poor feeder that looked well under weight, her ribs we easy to feel and her belly was U shaped it was actually really really obvious that she was WAY under fed and the owner was going crazy with her (breeder actually, with over 200 animals and 3 real problem feeders) She is on the mend now as he passed her and the other 2 along to a friend to work closely with them to get them feeding so far capped ASFs seems to be working.

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Originally Posted by snakesRkewl

I weighed two 6 day old rat pinks at 10 grams each so feeding a 117 gram snake two every 5 days is about right unless the OP is feeding freshly born pinks.

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I feed her 2 rat pups. Together the rat pups weigh about 18 grams. I weight her today and she is 125 grams.

Here a picture of her now.. pictures made today..

http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...1/imag0103.jpg
http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...1/imag0104.jpg
http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...1/imag0105.jpg
http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...1/imag0106.jpg

She looks great. Very nice!

just listen to jlc, most people keep there snakes over weight. I mean snakes in the wild only eat a few times year in the wild , but all snakes are diffrent.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with your snake's weight.

Now if this snake were a year old or more, then yes it would be considered underweight, but not for 3-4 months old.

I think what you are feeding is fine for now. As to how do you know when to go up a size, I let my snakes tell me. When what I am currently feeding has them hunting for more food 2 or 3 days after eating, I think about bumping the prey up a size. I try a slightly larger item, if they take it no problems and seem content to wait the 5-7 days again, that is what I go with.

If they refuse the larger food, or if eating the larger item causes refusal to eat for around 2 weeks, we'll go back down a size and give it another month or so. This plan works well for me. 90% of my snakes eat weekly, two are every-other-week eaters, and of course my adult boys are having their wintertime lovesick fast right now.

Gale

Quote:

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Originally Posted by angllady2

There is absolutely nothing wrong with your snake's weight.

Now if this snake were a year old or more, then yes it would be considered underweight, but not for 3-4 months old.

I think what you are feeding is fine for now. As to how do you know when to go up a size, I let my snakes tell me. When what I am currently feeding has them hunting for more food 2 or 3 days after eating, I think about bumping the prey up a size. I try a slightly larger item, if they take it no problems and seem content to wait the 5-7 days again, that is what I go with.

If they refuse the larger food, or if eating the larger item causes refusal to eat for around 2 weeks, we'll go back down a size and give it another month or so. This plan works well for me. 90% of my snakes eat weekly, two are every-other-week eaters, and of course my adult boys are having their wintertime lovesick fast right now.

Gale

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^^^
Very good advice. I was going to say that I noticed when I fed my babies mice that come feeding day the next week, they would be posed and ready to strike when the tub slid open. Since I've switched to young rats, my babies still eat weekly, but they aren't posed at the opening ready to strike so hard they fly out of the tub. If your snakes are ready at the cage opening on feeding day, you might want to opt up a size in feeders and see if that helps. ;)

Btw, from your pics, the snake's weight looks fine.