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  1. #1
    Registered User Manglewantsmacaroni's Avatar
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    Question about measurement (these are new questions)

    I have tried to look up healthy weights for ball pythons and Im not getting any straight answers. I do not know her age or any of her history. I bought a scale to weigh her.
    She is 36 inches (3 feet) long.
    What is a normal weight for a ball python this long?
    Is there anyway I can estimate her age?
    She is a female, confirmed by probing from an expert.
    Thanks

  2. #2
    BPnet Lifer Sauzo's Avatar
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    They all grow at different rates, kind of like people so you cant really assign a fixed weight to a length. You just need to look at the snakes overall condition. Does it look well rounded, the spine isn't sticking out or it doesn't have loose folds of skin hanging off of it? As for age, I am not aware of any way to just look at a snake and knows its age. Length really means nothing to age as it could have been powerfed or underfed or perfectly fed which would all yield different lengths at the same age plus snakes go through growth spurts as well. Best thing you can do is just remember the month/year you got her and go from there since you don't actually have the breeder to verify the date it was born.
    Last edited by Sauzo; 03-01-2015 at 07:10 AM.

  3. #3
    BPnet Senior Member kitedemon's Avatar
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    As already pointed out there are too many variables. Male / female have different growth rates, genetics some animals are longer and finer than other whom might be thought of as short and stocky. I know not very helpful. Like dogs you should be able to press on the side a feel ribs (gently) but the body should be rounded and not have an angular look and the spine should never form a point. It should be surrounded by large muscles (spinal and semi spinal muscles) and not be protruding. This is not the case for all snakes some arboreal snakes have a diamond shape and more pronounced spinal structure to support more mass farther.

  4. #4
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    Re: Question about measurement (these are new questions)

    Quote Originally Posted by Manglewantsmacaroni View Post
    I have tried to look up healthy weights for ball pythons and Im not getting any straight answers. I do not know her age or any of her history. I bought a scale to weigh her.
    She is 36 inches (3 feet) long.
    What is a normal weight for a ball python this long?
    Is there anyway I can estimate her age?
    She is a female, confirmed by probing from an expert.
    Thanks

    There really is no right or wrong weight as long as she's in good body condition. For example, my BP (boy) is 2.5 or almost 3, about 3 feet long and weighs 1060grams. He went from 1160 to 1060 in the last 2.5 months but his shape is round and the vet says he's doing good. I've never been able to find a good online chart so I'm going to be keeping track of his weight now. Before we would just go off his appearance but now I'm curious.

    What does yours weigh?

  5. #5
    BPnet Senior Member kitedemon's Avatar
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    That is a good demonstration of how variable it can be. I have a female whom is 3.5 years and about 38 inches and 1950gm. My youngest male is now just 3 years old and just over 3 feet and 1390gm. My oldest male (27+ years) is just under 4 feet and 2000 gm. There is quite a variation, I tend to feed adults (over 100gm about 2-5% of the body weight.) every 7 days that is what works for me, not what more would suggest as over fed, I also have a number of subsaharan animals of pure or mixed linage.

  6. #6
    Registered User Citrus's Avatar
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    Question about measurement (these are new questions)

    Just make sure it looks like a big version of this:

    And not a big version if this:
    Aside from the poor quality of that second photo, you can see how malnourished my pastel was when I got her. The sides go in and the backbone is practically popping out.
    You can get a cheap kitchen scale that is of appropriate size and place a wood board or something on top. Then hit the reset button and put your snake on that for the size.

    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    Last edited by Citrus; 03-01-2015 at 06:06 PM.

  7. #7
    Registered User Manglewantsmacaroni's Avatar
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    Re: Question about measurement (these are new questions)

    I weighed her yesterday and she is 750 grams. I am going to try to feed her rats like some suggested to me since mice are a no go

  8. #8
    Registered User Citrus's Avatar
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    Re: Question about measurement (these are new questions)

    Yeah rats are definitely the way to go for a snake that big


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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