Hard to fatten up snake?

[MitsuMike]

I would bet if you gave that snake a 60ish gram (small rat) every week for about 2 months she will be up in the 500's without a problem.
To be realistic that snake can prob take down a rat up to 75-80 grams. Now she will look like a sausage but she is fattened up.
To be honest it's MUCH better to wait on normal sized meals until she is up to size rather than "fatten her up". If your planning on breeding, fat = slugs, which means no babies for you.

[SlitherinSisters]

I agree, it may just be that she needs a larger prey item or she may have parasites. I haven't done a fecal float on a snake, but I had one done for my dog and I know it was less than $20, for some reason $12 sticks out in my head. You don't have to take the animal in and pay for all that baloney, all you have to do is ask them to do a fecal float and they will give you all the information you need.

[El_Dorado]

Oh, I thought it was much more expensive to have it tested. Good news is always nice!

I'm not too concerned about fattening her as in, well, getting her fat; I just wasn't sure if she was supposed to be fatter than she is at the moment!

Thanks everyone! I will try to offer two on the next feeding day and keep my fingers crossed!

[MitsuMike]

I haven't done a fecal float on a snake, but I had one done for my dog and I know it was less than $20, for some reason $12 sticks out in my head.

Vets around here "don't do snakes". They say "the fecal test is for mammals not for snakes". I tried to explain to them some insight but were perplexed (shocking) so they sent me to a "herp" vet.
No vet visit needed, but here it cost $25 for a "snake" fecal
Petsmart wanted over $40 for a dang poo test and a vet visit was a must, so add 60 more bucks. Looking at $100 before meds......if the snake needs any.

I swear add the word "reptile" to a vet bill and it gets ALOT more expensive.

Helpful little link if you want to do it yourself or learn about the process:
http://thelizardcorral.proboards.com...ay&thread=1530

[WingedWolfPsion]

I haven't seen evidence that ball pythons under age 3 can actually get fat if offered food when they want it--they just seem to grow faster. They can get plump, but not actually obese. I've only seen obesity with adults (cutting back prey size and feeding frequency for a few months solves it).

I'd feed every 5 days. I feed all my holdbacks every 5 days until they're 3, if they'll accept it. (Some insist on switching to every 7 days between age 1 and 2).

I've only had one female slug out on me during a breeding season, and she was a huge old female that threw 13 egg clutches. Only happened once.

Vets will pretty much universally insist on seeing an animal before they'll run tests. They just want to give it a general checkup and enter it in the system before treating it for anything, understandably. Fecal checks here aren't expensive. You're best off finding an experienced herp vet. ARAV.org will help.

You want the vet to do a fecal float, not just a smear. They need to identify what types of parasites (if any) are present, because different types of parasites are treated best with different drugs.