Overweight?

[Mtspawn]

Not sure of the sex or age of this snake. It was dropped off at a pet store. We have had it for about 2 months. Weighed it last night and was 1737 grams. Trying to figure out what is good size food to feed. Someplace I saw that they should eat 10%-15% of there body's weight. Been feeding one time a week and was doing like 4 large mice, but this last feed did a medium rat. But now have a scale and wanted to be sure that it was getting correct diet. Any info would be highly appreciated. Thanks Justin

[thewesterngate]

It looks healthy! Beautiful, and it seems proportionate as far as length/weight goes. I've heard you can tell if a snake is too fat if the scales have space between them.

[Amp625]

a tel tale sign is if you can see skin between the scales

[Mtspawn]

What about for feeding? How much and how long apart?

[Ash]

A good rule of thumb is to never feed anything larger than the widest part of the snake's body. Big ball pythons like that should do fine with medium-sized adult rats. It's not terrible if you feed something to big or too small on occasion, though. It's hard to get the exact same sized food item with any consistency.

However, I'd recommend only feeding pre-killed or frozen-thawed rodents if you're going to use larger rats. The bigger they are, the harder they're going to bite and scratch. I personally only feed thawed rats. If you go that route, make sure to thaw them completely before feeding. If they're still frozen in the middle when the snake eats it, it can be very harmful to their health.

Feeding once weekly will be ample. Some people feed less frequently when the snake is a large adult like yours is, such as every 10 to 12 days. Whichever way is easier for you will be fine.

She's certainly not overweight. These snakes can get up to 6 feet long and well over 3000 grams, although it's unusual. Very pretty animal. Good luck!

[Mtspawn]

A good rule of thumb is to never feed anything larger than the widest part of the snake's body. Big ball pythons like that should do fine with medium-sized adult rats. It's not terrible if you feed something to big or too small on occasion, though. It's hard to get the exact same sized food item with any consistency.

However, I'd recommend only feeding pre-killed or frozen-thawed rodents if you're going to use larger rats. The bigger they are, the harder they're going to bite and scratch. I personally only feed thawed rats. If you go that route, make sure to thaw them completely before feeding. If they're still frozen in the middle when the snake eats it, it can be very harmful to their health.

Feeding once weekly will be ample. Some people feed less frequently when the snake is a large adult like yours is, such as every 10 to 12 days. Whichever way is easier for you will be fine.

She's certainly not overweight. These snakes can get up to 6 feet long and well over 3000 grams, although it's unusual. Very pretty animal. Good luck!

When you said "She's certainly not overweight" are you implying that it is a female because of the size and weight?

[thewesterngate]

While there are exceptions to every rule, it does seem that female snakes get bigger.

[Ash]

Female ball pythons get bigger than males. If I had to bet money on it, I'd say you've got a female. It's not the most solid evidence you could have, though! A vet will tell you for certain.

[lizlopez]

How long is the snake? I have one at the same weight so would like to compair size and while the pict helps I am 6ft 1 so my comparison might be off