Jag the GIANT Pastel Yellow belly male...

I noticed that some of my ball pythons have bigger heads than others, I was wondering if there was some kind of genetics going on there. I have a few that are the same weight but the heads are bigger, I suppose they have to potential to get much bigger. My biggest one at nearly 4000 grams has a huge head!

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Originally Posted by cchardwick

I noticed that some of my ball pythons have bigger heads than others, I was wondering if there was some kind of genetics going on there. I have a few that are the same weight but the heads are bigger, I suppose they have to potential to get much bigger. My biggest one at nearly 4000 grams has a huge head!

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The 2 BIG rescue females I've had, as well as Jag, all have had large heads. Not freakishly large, of course, but larger then what I'm used to seeing on big Ball Pythons.
I think some Ball Pythons are simply overfed, so they may have the "weight" but their heads are small compared to their girth.

Larger females in the 3000 gr range actually do happen a fair bit. 4000+ becomes more rare, because some of them may actually just be over fed and don't produce well as breeders. But then there are the ones that are huge AND produce well. The priority with most breeders lies in the morphs, though, not in size so much. Unless you have a het, you can "see" what you get with a morph. Buying a hatchling with a promise "it will get huge" is quite the leap of faith ;) Not really a profit to be made there, esp. since most of the huge ones are "normals".

Jag is just my "little" weirdo, because he is a male and big like this. But I still love him. Even though I'm now having to consider to upping his cage size again :rolleyes:

I've not read all the comments, so someone may have mentioned volta blood? I'm not even convinced that it is a real thing anyway.

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Originally Posted by snakequeen74

I've not read all the comments, so someone may have mentioned volta blood? I'm not even convinced that it is a real thing anyway.

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Yes, that has been talked about.

I'm not sure if Jag has some "big BP genes" but I do know that in some form or another he is a bit odd with his growth. I have mentioned before that I bought 5 hatchlings, all approx. the same age that year. They were all fed at the same schedule. I fed conservatively, never "power fed". Not a fan of it.

Even though he was fed at the same schedule, Jag grew bigger and faster, right away. Noticeably so. Why? I don't know.

To this day I have yet to see a male that big. Again, he is NOT fat. Never been powerfed. Not flabby at all. All muscle. Yet, he is LARGE with a proportionally big head.

I have had 2 rescues, one about 14 years ago, the other about 7 years ago. Both were female and were BIG. Not just big/fat, but just big overall. Really big heads, too. One was 4500 gr, the other 3000 gr. They too, seemed "different" to me. And I've had many Ball Pythons (used to rescue, too) and I've seen many.

Is there something to "Volta" ? I don't know. But I do know that some Ball Pythons seem to grow faster and bigger and end up looking "larger" overall (not just fat like some)

To me it doesn't really matter, aside from the whole thing being interesting from a research point of view. I love that big worm and I think he is a pretty cool snake :)

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Originally Posted by zina10

Yes, that has been talked about.

I'm not sure if Jag has some "big BP genes" but I do know that in some form or another he is a bit odd with his growth. I have mentioned before that I bought 5 hatchlings, all approx. the same age that year. They were all fed at the same schedule. I fed conservatively, never "power fed". Not a fan of it.

Even though he was fed at the same schedule, Jag grew bigger and faster, right away. Noticeably so. Why? I don't know.

To this day I have yet to see a male that big. Again, he is NOT fat. Never been powerfed. Not flabby at all. All muscle. Yet, he is LARGE with a proportionally big head.

I have had 2 rescues, one about 14 years ago, the other about 7 years ago. Both were female and were BIG. Not just big/fat, but just big overall. Really big heads, too. One was 4500 gr, the other 3000 gr. They too, seemed "different" to me. And I've had many Ball Pythons (used to rescue, too) and I've seen many.

Is there something to "Volta" ? I don't know. But I do know that some Ball Pythons seem to grow faster and bigger and end up looking "larger" overall (not just fat like some)

To me it doesn't really matter, aside from the whole thing being interesting from a research point of view. I love that big worm and I think he is a pretty cool snake :)

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Yeah, he doesn't look fat, he looks wonderfully healthy. He is beautiful.

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are you feeding him anything larger then a small rat or are u at a medium or larger?

Depends on where I get the rats from. I will give him mediums after he takes a break. But when he is in full on feeding mode he gets large rats. However, the large rats I have aren't huge by any means. If I give him a medium, he acts like he hasn't even eaten and keeps searching for more. The large doesn't leave any bump in him. After a large Rat, he takes two to three weeks in between eating. I've gotten to know him so well, I really leave it up to him. He let's me know when he is ready for more. He is not on a strict schedule at all.


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Looks like he could scarf down a kitten. :O

or maybe a large squirrel!

Rats only! [emoji6][emoji16]


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