Greetings form Scotland

[snakesurvey2016]

Hi, I'm an American that is attending veterinary school in Scotland and recently joined snake club.

My main reason for joining this forum is because for my final year research project I have decided to focus on bringing awareness to the issue of snake obesity. Odd choice I know, but after having worked at an exotics heavy veterinary practice for several years I have seen a few too many chunky noodles.

I posted a thread in the General BP forum explaining more about my project and hope to generate a few responses from here and other sites.

[dr del]

Return greetings, also from Scotland.

[EL-Ziggy]

Welcome and best wishes . Great research topic btw.

[Hammertime1977]

I'm just concerned that the results won't be accurate and will lead to people stressing over the sizes of their snakes. Ball pythons are notoriously picky eaters which seems to be a trade off for their docile nature.

I'm just afraid that my male ball python that gets one small every 7-10 days will be in the middle, but there will be picky eaters the same age that will be 200 grams behind him and also some 200 grams ahead because of the poor way breeding snakes get treated by basement breeders.

That basement breeder is going to feed 2-3 rats to my 1 in order to bulk his guy up.

I did my research, I had my enclosure dialed in before I even owned a snake. I plan on feeding my guy small frozen thawed rats his whole life if possible so that I don't stress him out and so that he stays healthy. I know there are other factors, but these are the ones we control.

I understand with statistics that you disallow anything too high and too low and that you're just trying to find an average, but some of the breeders here will be 200 grams ahead of the rest of us by 1 year...if not more. They know the tricks and are willing to push the limits and possibly risk the long term health of the animal to get an extra clutch next season.

I think it's important to separate those who keep snakes as "display pets" and those who "rack em and breed em"

No offense to the 2nd group there. It's a free world and you're free to do things as you wish.

[Hammertime1977]

Hi, I'm an American that is attending veterinary school in Scotland and recently joined snake club.

Really cool to hear!

Do yourself a huge favour for when you're older. Make sure you go to Islay and tour the finest and oldest whiskey distilleries in the world. I own land on Islay and can't wait to get another taste of that single malt whiskey! My collection is unable to grow as I consume it too fast...