Am I overfeeding?

[Aryia]

It just came to my attention that a couple of my young females are starting to look plump and round. I started them on mouse adults but switched to rat weanlings to let them get a bit more food in, but have a feeling it might've been overkill. These are are the "widest" out of my collection, the others actually didn't seem to change much at all. If you could take a look that'd be great. I'm a beginner at ball python keeping, so I may have missed that the ball python was round to begin with and applied the "girth" rule a little too generously.

These girls have been on a 6-7 day feeding schedule, and have taken 3 weanlings rats each, and about 3 mouse adults before that. The mystic girl in the picture was 265g on 5/17 and is now 430g. Is this kind of growth normal? She hasn't defecated since 5/17 either (unless I missed it in my records). Also I see a lot of white between the scales in her yellow areas, but none in her darker areas. What exactly does an obese snake look like?

[Daybreaker]

Lookin' good to me

[Aryia]

Lookin' good to me

So would it be okay to keep on weaned rats or should I scale it down for a while? Thanks in advance!

[sakura_noir]

So would it be okay to keep on weaned rats or should I scale it down for a while? Thanks in advance!

I think your girls are doing just fine. My champagne girl is growing fast too. Saffron normally eats two fat rat pups a week, and she's my most enthusiastic eater. She's definitely looking well rounded and is so bright and curious...this week she did not want the second one. She stopped when she was no longer hungry. You don't have anything to worry about except preparing for a monster poop soon!


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[brock lesser]

Enjoy it while it lasts, if they hit the thousand gram wall ugh!
They grow faster when they are smaller so as a defense in the wild.
As the get some size the growth will slow down.
They look good, relax.

[grcforce327]

Enjoy it while it lasts, if they hit the thousand gram wall ugh!
They grow faster when they are smaller so as a defense in the wild.
As the get some size the growth will slow down.
They look good, relax.

THIS^^^^^^

[Aryia]

I think your girls are doing just fine. My champagne girl is growing fast too. Saffron normally eats two fat rat pups a week, and she's my most enthusiastic eater. She's definitely looking well rounded and is so bright and curious...this week she did not want the second one. She stopped when she was no longer hungry. You don't have anything to worry about except preparing for a monster poop soon!


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She finally pooped.. I weighed her before and after... 55g of poop =.= I really didn't know something so small could.. well.. leave something so big (and smelly! haha).

Thanks for all your replies ^^ I'm glad I'm not messing up. Always so paranoid dealing with a new species.

[kc261]

Yup. They sometimes save up their poop for a surprisingly long time. I knew when I read your earlier post (I only saw the thread today) that this was going to be the explanation when you said she hadn't pooped since 5/17.

BPs are supposed to look "plump" and "round". Yours look great.

[Borgy76]

I'm dreading the day my burm unleashes his bowels. 4 squirrels and 2 bunnies he has been storing up. May have to call in Hazmat team.

[coldbloodaddict]

I'm dreading the day my burm unleashes his bowels. 4 squirrels and 2 bunnies he has been storing up. May have to call in Hazmat team.

You fed your Burm squirrels?