Is my ball python underweight or overweight?

[EldritchPreacher]

Something isn't adding up here. That snake from what you have told us is going on 11 months old. I have 5 month old BP's that are bigger than that. I don't powerfeed any of my animals.. Even the breeding females. But, with that being said for a female that is almost a year old she is too small. Just based off of that picture I would have no issues feeding it a weaned rat. Thickest part of her body is the size of two fingers put together and to be honest that would be about a small. She's just not going to grow at normal rates if you continue to feed her medium mice every 14 days. She will start to become aggressive and that can lead to undesirable situations.

that’s what I’ve been trying to figure out, I got her at a convention mid to early august and she was about a foot maybe foot and a half at most and now she’s two feet but I thought she should be growing more. I’ve been feeding her mice the width of her stomach and tried to keep her up on feedings but then she started getting fatter and the charts for weight issues got me worried.

[Moose84]

A medium mouse is not the width of her stomach. I know it might LOOK like that but it isn't an adult mouse is not the width of her stomach either. If you are feeding FT take the mouse by the tail and by the head and stretch it gently. You will see that they are a lot smaller than they look frozen. If you are feeding live the same thing goes.. Once the snake has killed the animal the body is obviously limp and much smaller than it looks alive or frozen. Mice are very lean too. Another reason why are you aren't seeing the animal poop as much because it is using everything in the meal it has every two weeks. Switch her to weaned rats for a month and then go to smalls. She will put on size pretty quickly. I will reiterate the fact that you will run into biting and constant searching around the enclosure if you don't up her prey size.

[EldritchPreacher]

A medium mouse is not the width of her stomach. I know it might LOOK like that but it isn't an adult mouse is not the width of her stomach either. If you are feeding FT take the mouse by the tail and by the head and stretch it gently. You will see that they are a lot smaller than they look frozen. If you are feeding live the same thing goes.. Once the snake has killed the animal the body is obviously limp and much smaller than it looks alive or frozen. Mice are very lean too. Another reason why are you aren't seeing the animal poop as much because it is using everything in the meal it has every two weeks. Switch her to weaned rats for a month and then go to smalls. She will put on size pretty quickly. I will reiterate the fact that you will run into biting and constant searching around the enclosure if you don't up her prey size.

ok I’ll go up in size but I’m unsure where to go to get frozen mice with everything closed, I had stocked up on mice that I believed were good for her but I’ll try and figure out something. It was hard to tell as any time I’d get a mouse close to her or try and get a measurement she would move around

[Moose84]

You don't have to get rid of the mice. Just feed them to her weekly until they are gone. If you notice her hunting around the enclosure a day or so after looking for food again, give her two mice when you feed her until they are gone. A medium mouse is at best 15 grams.. Two of them during feeding would be roughly 10% of her bodyweight. Also, there is nothing wrong with it showing a lump in the snakes belly. Doesn't have to be pushing scales out but you SHOULD see a bump. Nothing wrong with that.

[EldritchPreacher]

You don't have to get rid of the mice. Just feed them to her weekly until they are gone. If you notice her hunting around the enclosure a day or so after looking for food again, give her two mice when you feed her until they are gone. A medium mouse is at best 15 grams.. Two of them during feeding would be roughly 10% of her bodyweight. Also, there is nothing wrong with it showing a lump in the snakes belly. Doesn't have to be pushing scales out but you SHOULD see a bump. Nothing wrong with that.

Ok, I’ll stretch out a mouse I have to see how wide they actually are. I just want to do the best I can for her.

[Moose84]

I understand totally. Don’t put too much pressure on it. Hahaha. FT will break apart if you unthaw then too quickly. Keep us updated.


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[EldritchPreacher]

I understand totally. Don’t put too much pressure on it. Hahaha. FT will break apart if you unthaw then too quickly. Keep us updated.


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I did my count of mice I had stocked up on and I think I have around eleven. Any advice for a feeding schedule? I used to feed her every Monday

[Craiga 01453]

Ok, feed off the mice you do have and get her onto rats.

Also keep in mind length means nothing. I see you referring to her length. Try to get length out of your head and focus on appropriately sized meals on a consistent 7 day schedule for now.

Not trying to be rude, but this is all stuff you should know BEFORE bringing an animal home. Please do your snake a favor and do some independent research on the species as well as keeping them in captivity.

[Moose84]

I would feed her tomorrow and then again next Monday. If she is still acting hungry and searching around, the following week I would thaw two and give them to her. Wait about 20-30 minutes after the first one is down and give her the second. Do that until the mice run out and then try and get her on rats.

[EldritchPreacher]

Ok, feed off the mice you do have and get her onto rats.

Also keep in mind length means nothing. I see you referring to her length. Try to get length out of your head and focus on appropriately sized meals on a consistent 7 day schedule for now.

Not trying to be rude, but this is all stuff you should know BEFORE bringing an animal home. Please do your snake a favor and do some independent research on the species as well as keeping them in captivity.

it’s fine, I had done research in feedings and stuff but I was always told ball pythons couldn’t really get fat. I didn’t think about something like that and I feel bad about not doing more research into over feeding or how to fully tell a mouses width as I always used the frozen width.