Age Estimation?

[SpencerShanks]

I recently got a ball python from Petsmart (I know how bad it is, I didn't buy and it was 50$ off.) They didn't have a very accurate guess as to how old he was, besides a few months. He is about 17 inches long and weighs 77 grams. I believe he's been eating pinkies (Thats what the woman sold us, he should probably be on furries by now, however) Could anyone guess about how old he is? It'd be nice to know so I could pick a birthday for him.

[Subdriven]

hard to say.. either a 2-4 month under fed, or a 1-2 week old good fed. Real hard to tell, since you don't know how often it ate or what it was eating..

[rabernet]

Why don't you just make his birthday be the day you got him?

[steveboos]

Yeah you'll never get the correct date as even the PetSmart employees don't get a hatch date. We don't even get an age, just juvenile ball python. I would just make his birthday the day you got him and consider he's probably 2-3 months old.

Although from a good breeder, a 77 gram ball python would be like a week old if not just out of the egg!

[SpencerShanks]

Thanks for the feedback. If I couldn't get a little more precise answer I was going to say the day I got him. I'm just going to say the day I got him minus two months

[Lolo76]

Yeah, he's either really young or has been underfed - I'd wager the latter, since even newly hatched BPs don't need pinkies! One of my babies (hatched in August) weighed 72g out of the egg, which should give you an idea of how tiny your snake is... I'd recommend getting him on hopper mice soon, and in no time you'll have a chubby/healthy snake.