New to forums, and a question (fat snake?)

[electronfox]

Hi all! I've perused the information here many times before but never posted until today. I adopted a normal male BP back in February of this year, approx. 3 years old, and he's healthy, has a good appetite (eats one medium rat every two weeks), and is very patient with being handled.

I didn't get a scale to weigh him with until July, and the first measurement that I have of him is about 1270g at that time. He's grown a lot since - he's about 45" long (hard to get him to hold still to be measured properly) and I weighed him four days ago immediately before and after feeding: 1597g/1714g respectively. I don't see any exposed skin between scales, and so given his age, I assume this is within normal bounds (since I know BPs are supposed to be pretty thick-bodied snakes). I just wanted to check it with you guys and see what the consensus was, since he's kind of starting to look like a tank! Thanks for any input!

A few pictures follow, and my apologies for the poor quality of all but the first (mostly taken with camera phone):

[BbyBoa]

my question to u is.....is it possible that "he" is a "she" ?

[electronfox]

my question to u is.....is it possible that "he" is a "she" ?

It isn't impossible. They said he'd been properly sexed by a vet before, but you never know.

[Cody John Steele]

Welcome to the site!

He seems fine. I've heard of males reaching upto 2000g's easy. As long as he feels like he's still got good muscle tone, he's fine.

[electronfox]

He seems fine. I've heard of males reaching upto 2000g's easy. As long as he feels like he's still got good muscle tone, he's fine.

He certainly has muscle tone, so that's very comforting to hear. Thanks for the information!

[JLC]

He looks like a beautifully healthy snake! He's seriously a very handsome boy! I've got a 2500+ gram male...who isn't remotely fat. It's not common, but certainly possible for them to get that big.

Welcome to BP.net!

[electronfox]

He looks like a beautifully healthy snake! He's seriously a very handsome boy! I've got a 2500+ gram male...who isn't remotely fat. It's not common, but certainly possible for them to get that big.

Welcome to BP.net!

Thanks for the welcome and also for the reassurance that nothing is abnormal! He's my one and only pet, so I kinda (well, okay, seriously) dote on him and I'd hate to think I'd been overfeeding him or anything of the sort. I'm very fond of the not-so-little guy and hope to keep him around for a long time to come.

(As an aside, your avatar is hilarious.)

[shadow120]

dosent look fat. i weighed and measured my male today and he's 47" and 1962g. and not fat at all.

[Jeo123]

Just because I'm sure a lot of people wonder about their snakes too...

Does anyone have any pics of what a fat snake looks like or some of the indicators that your snakes over weight?

[Akren_905]

3 words, fat and happy. and welcome (makes it 4) lol