Is Hurly packing on too much weight?

Hurly is (about) 2 years old in March 2014. He weighs exactly 453.592 grams. He is about 3 feet long. Is this too much or exactly right? I have been feeding him every week except when he's not interested. (If he is not interested, it is every other week.) Is this too often? The vet said he is a little fat guy so I am concerned.

This is i have a male mojo that is same age but is 800grams. But is really lean. I guess its just like ppl some are tall and thin some a small and chubby.


Joe Tully

Yeah honestly for a 2 year old BP that's kinda low, my 3-foot girl is 700-something and growing rapidly, and she's only 1.5 years. Then again, I know females grow larger than males. Still... I'm pretty sure some folks have 500g males at 6 months old.

Do you have a photo you could upload, so we can see his proportions?

Pictures would help us evaluate your BP.

Is your vet an exotic specialist? That sounds low for a two year old ball python and to call it fat is... unusual. I have a spider male about 6 months old that is almost 500g and he refuses food on a regular basis.

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Originally Posted by marya1962

Hurly is (about) 2 years old in March 2014. He weighs exactly 453.592 grams. He is about 3 feet long. Is this too much or exactly right? I have been feeding him every week except when he's not interested. (If he is not interested, it is every other week.) Is this too often? The vet said he is a little fat guy so I am concerned.

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Let's see a picture of him...and a pic of your vet too...I'll bet he's really skinny...

How'd you guess the vet's a real skinny guy? The exact word he used was overweight. No, he's not really an exotic specialist, I was just hoping he was so I wouldn't have to take both snakes forty miles to the other vet. (The other vet in Apple Valley advertises himself as an exotics vet. He at least knows more than the one I to which I just took them.) I'll try to get my son to post a picture for me since I'm not a techie at this. Hurly is a skinny guy that weighs exactly 1 pound, hence the gram weight of 453.592 grams with which I came up (yep, the vet didn't even weigh Hurly in grams even though I told him to do so).

This guy clearly just does not know ball pythons well enough to judge their *body condition* appropriately; these are not freaking colubrids. My yearling is close to 800 grams. My 'little' guy is well under a year and 450 grams (give or take a few) and WAY under 3 feet long. And too skinny on top of it.

My male who's around 20 months old is 919g today, empty. Your guy sounds light. When you look at pics of other people's BPs, do Hurly's proportions look similar?

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Originally Posted by marya1962

How'd you guess the vet's a real skinny guy?

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lol...It's a gift...

As said by a lot of people already, he sounds really skinny. Even though every snake grows at their own rate, 454 grams for a two year old is really light.

I've got guys under a year that weigh that...

I would def up his feedings, or go to larger prey. But pics would help diagnose the BP.

Ok, trying to add pictures.
http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/05/11/me4ubytu.jpg[IMG]

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/05/11/a3u8ypy4.jpg[/IMG]

http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/05/11/etyse9ub.jpg This is Hurly. He eats rat pups currently and struggles to eat one or two at a time. Often he shows no interest in food although offered weekly. It helps if I dip his food in boiling hot water before offering it to him.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalkhttp://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/05/11/a7ynyqat.jpg

He is not fat by no means. I would say he is actually small for his age. My female is 4 months old and as of her last weigh in on 4-27-14 she was 310 grams empty.