Is it important to weigh a snake?

I keep asking to weigh our BP but my partner gets very confrontational about it. She says buying a scale is unnecessary and will just add to our clutter. I wanted to know if documenting weight is important or of you can simply go by length and width. They seem healthy, but I just want to know for future reference to their diet and such.

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The reason why most people weigh snakes is to keep track of their health. Snakes are very good at hiding illnesses so regular weigh-ins can help tell you if there's a problem. It's ultimately up to the keeper, but I personally like to keep a record.

For pets, no, not really. It isn't even that important to know length or width, as long as you can eyeball your feeders compared to your snake and know you have the right size, and know when your snake is looking thin or overly thick. If you're planning to breed it's more important to get weights and I would consider a scale a valuable tool of the trade.

to me weight is more important than anything else.

I think a scale would be extremely important if your BP goes off it's food. After a 5 month fast you need to know if your snake is maintaining or dropping, and sometimes - especially with larger snakes - a drop in weight isn't immediately noticeable. Scales don't have to cost a lot of money or take up a lot of room - I have an UltraShip shipping scale (that I actually bought to monitor the weight of a bird I have when I first brought her home, she's very small so I needed a very sensitive scale). It works great, goes up to 35 lbs, which is plenty for a BP.

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Originally Posted by PitOnTheProwl

to me weight is more important than anything else.

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I agree with this whole eartedly. Imagine your looking for a particular female and someone is selling the exact morph you've been looking for. It is a 2011 Blah Blah so being 3 years old it should be ready to breed. But when you recieve it you find you have a three year old snake that weighs 900 grams. Either the snake is sickly or its a finicky eater or it has been malnourished/neglected, etc.. Regardless of why, the weight is the indicator that tells you something is amiss. The same is true for animals in your possession. Especially when they go off feed which they will. It isn't a matter of if, it's a matter of when. Weight is the way you know how they are faring through the period in which they are off feed. Hope that helps.

A scale is not gonna add to the clutter it's very small.

Now do you need to weight a snake? It's up to you. I VERY rarely weigh mine almost never, most of the weighing I do is on customer's request.

Length means nothing. Weight's important for both breeders and pets.

Breeders already know why they need to monitor weight, but it's useful for people who just keep BP's as pets. Situations like fasts where the snake hasn't eaten for three months tends to cause some people to panick and think it's losing large amounts of weight. A reguarly weigh-in can keep you from panicking. It's also always good to have the weight records when you go to the vet in case they request it.

Thank you, all :) she just took her first small rat last night so I'm thinking she's just fine 😉 She was definitely looking tubbier than usual after a meal...before I never noticed a change. I can't wait to see her grow more :)

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Create clutter? A scale won't be much bigger than a dinner plate.

I have a caddy where i keep my snake stuff, and the scale $11.00 from wallyworld, is a slim thin thing that hardly takes up any room at all.

Exactly I have the same thing!

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She insists it's a waste of time

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Is it clutter or a waste of time? A scale takes up no space, and how much time could it possibly take to weigh two snakes?

Not really...I never weigh keepers, only snakes that are for sale.

I think it's a really good way to keep track of your snakes' growths, but not really necessary. I have a small kitchen scale that's barely bigger than my smallest dinner plates and only 1 inch thick, so it's not a lot of space at all. Plus it wasn't that expensive. It sounds like she's just making up excuses to be honest with you, doesn't make sense to me why you wouldn't record weights if you wanted to.

:) well I just got a job at my local Petco so I'll be learning more about this and investing in a small scale 😁

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Originally Posted by SCWood

:) well I just got a job at my local Petco so I'll be learning more about this

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This is was a great thing to read first thing in the morning.
I hope you learn more on how and what not to do as you have already been given great information and know where to find it.
Im not making fun of you however I have friends and contacts that have and do work for both big stores...........

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Originally Posted by PitOnTheProwl

This is was a great thing to read first thing in the morning.
I hope you learn more on how and what not to do as you have already been given great information and know where to find it.
Im not making fun of you however I have friends and contacts that have and do work for both big stores...........

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Oh I have been quite attentive. The more I learn the more I excercise. :) I'm very excited and am already slightly obsessed

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Tell her you need the scale to watch its health. If she thinks that is clutter than tell her to get rid of some of her personal things so there is more room for the scale!!

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Originally Posted by blk02ssmonte

Tell her you need the scale to watch its health. If she thinks that is clutter than tell her to get rid of some of her personal things so there is more room for the scale!!

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I think I might lol

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I mainly weigh the females that are going to be breeding in the near future and any that go off feed to see if they are dropping weight or not.

about once every two months, because snakes hide their illnesses and sometimes sudden weight loss is the only clue that something is wrong. If you don't have a baseline then you don't know if you have a hidden problem. It doesn't make any sense to weigh more often, since most snakes grow slowly after the first year. In fact considering that snakes may eat 10% of their body mass per meal, the snake's weight will swing by up to 20% based on the defecation/ eating schedule, so more frequent weigh ins don't help as much.

I always weigh in on a Wednesday after the snake defecates. Since I feed on Thursdays I don't want a fresh mouse throwing my weights off.

David

I don't think you need a scale for pet snakes, I know enough already that I can just look at a snake and tell if it's fat or underweight. If you sell or breed snakes then you need one for sure.

I don't weigh on a schedule - but a scale is one of the first things I bought, after a thermostat and heat tape. I see my snakes every day, and sometimes, I can't tell if they've grown or not. Then I weigh them - and realize that one has put on a hundred grams in the past month! To me, it's a very important supplement to visual monitoring, since it offers the confirmation of what you think that you see. I was astonished last night to weigh my Black Widow boy, and realize that he's 850g now! However, that's while fat with his last meal, so it doesn't count.

Not really, only for breeding purposes only. You can check your snake's health by looking at it.

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Originally Posted by RoyalRegius

Create clutter? A scale won't be much bigger than a dinner plate.

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They are also about $12-15 at Wallmart.
Most people spend that on fast food and fancy coffees without even thinking about it.

These scales are very useful aside from snakes.
Learn to bake bread, and it will pay for itself within about two weeks.

(Honestly, it is NONE of my business, but if a partner of mine had an issue with how I spent $15 of my own money... I'd be making other arrangements!)

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Originally Posted by cchardwick

I don't think you need a scale for pet snakes, I know enough already that I can just look at a snake and tell if it's fat or underweight. If you sell or breed snakes then you need one for sure.

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How can you tell if it's having health problems? Sometimes weight loss/gain is your only symptom... Most folks here aren't suggesting to weigh to see if the snake is obese or underweight, but rather so the owner has a baseline to determine if the snake is losing too much weight by going off feed, or is getting ill.