Age old age question

[WolfJob]

Hey all! I adopted a rescue ball python about a year ago. The person I got her from gave me an estimated age from 1 year to 6 years. I know weight/length don't equal age, but I was wondering if someone could help with an estimate? She is 4 feet and around 1700 grams. Thanks in advance for any opinions/answers!

[Kira]

It's pretty much impossible to tell based on weight and length since ball pythons grow at different rates. I will say that she is most likely not one. It takes 2-3 years for a female ball python to be fully grown.

There's unfortunately no way to tell for sure. Welcome to the forum by the way

Edit: How did the rescuer get that estimate anyway? Is it just a random guess? Because ball pythons can live 20+ years so she could easily be almost any age.

[WolfJob]

Thank you!! 😁 And yes, I believe it was just a guess on the age. Unfortunately, they did not seem to know what they were talking about, but I got a great snake out of it!

It's pretty much impossible to tell based on weight and length since ball pythons grow at different rates. I will say that she is most likely not one. It takes 2-3 years for a female ball python to be fully grown.

There's unfortunately no way to tell for sure. Welcome to the forum by the way

Edit: How did the rescuer get that estimate anyway? Is it just a random guess? Because ball pythons can live 20+ years so she could easily be almost any age.

[Kira]

Thank you!! 😁 And yes, I believe it was just a guess on the age. Unfortunately, they did not seem to know what they were talking about, but I got a great snake out of it!

Yeah what matters the most is that you now have a great pet I hope you post pictures soon!

[WolfJob]

Absolutely! And will do 😁

Yeah what matters the most is that you now have a great pet I hope you post pictures soon!

[CloudtheBoa]

Yup, like mentioned, literally impossible to tell. She could be a year if someone hardcore power fed her, but she could be older. I have an 11 year old ball python that is 3.5' and 1,400 grams, probed female, but not 100% convinced on that since it was my first probing on my own. I may see if the person caring for him/her will have them probed to see for sure. But, I only know the age because I got him as a hatchling in 2006, I don't know his exact birthdate, so he could be several months older than I think he is.

Feeding regimen and genetics impact so much that there's no way to tell. Even within the same clutch, each individual will grow at their own rate, and end up at different sizes. All we can say is your beep is an adult. haha