IS there such a thing as a fat ball python?

[Miranda2]

Just curious if anyone has pics of a fatty versus a normal size?
My guy just keeps eating and eating, he is never full..I am tempted to bump up to medium rats but Ive done some research and the majority of people seem to feed males smalls.
He is eating a small rat every week and acts hungry between times. In fact he has taken another small rat a few days after eating but I decided that might not be good for him to feed him that often.

[StillBP]

Yes there are obese ball pythons. You can always tell by they look like their spine is dented in.

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[tttaylorrr]

absolutely. there was a thread on this topic earlier today (with pictures).

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/showthread.php?t=250033

[AbsoluteApril]

Yes, any snake can be obese. With some snakes, like ball pythons and especially blood pythons, it can be a bit tougher to tell because they are heavy bodied (thick body) snakes.

Generally too thick around, scale separation, sunken spine, 'fat wrinkles' are signs a snake is overweight.

For example, this is an older photo of Karma, my black pewter. I call her fat butt.
She puts on girth instead of length much to my chagrin. She's not hugely obese but she is too fat.
You can see her mid body is super thick and round, scale separation and fat wrinkles at the curve of the tail:


Now compare her to Snooki, you can see she's got definition and isn't round like a coke can:


I hope that helps!

[DennisM]

Want to know if your snake is over weight? Look at pics of it's wild relatives. That's pretty much what they should look like.

[hollowlaughter]

Best to view from the front so you can check spine definition.

This is obese. Notice how there is a divot rather than a raised area where the spine is, and at every angle the snake turns more sharply, there is multiple rolls in its figure. Width isn't overall indicative of it.




Overall good chart. Intended for Bloods, but works for BPs.

[Monty44]

[Miranda2]

Thanks, Im going to try and get a weight on this guy.My scale is pretty small so hopefully it will work. I pretty much think all ball pythons look fat since Ive been dealing with mostly corns for years.

[hollowlaughter]

Yeah, colubrids and pythons definitely have starkly different figures. Colubrids are GENERALLY more active hunters, vs BPs which have GENERALLY shown more ambush hunting disposition.

No scientist or anything, but probably the weight differences are indicative of their natural habitat as well, with there being some research that says that BPs mostly only hunt during rainy season in the sub-Sahara, which means (if true and iirc) they have extended fasting periods and thus need to store their fat vs colubrids who are used to hunting every few days or more often if need be.

Edit: Having a scale with tare helps. Turn it on, put a bowl big enough for the snake on it, press tare, put snake in bowl. Tare subtracts/negates the bowl's weight and the bowl keeps the snake in one spot.