Size question - Male

[Crowfingers]

I know they grow as long as they live but slow way down at some point and eating habits / prey size / and genetics play a big role, but is there a way to know when your snake as reached the "about as big as he'll get mark"?

Mine is a 2015 male, didn't start fasting until his second winter. He eats every 30-70 days December to April, then around May/June picks up to every 14-20 days. He's on small rats that range anywhere from 50-75 g with the occasional 80+ in the shipment.

He hit 1000g last year and has since remained around 1020-1050g empty. Is there any way to guess if he'll ever crest the 1500 to 2000 mark, or is he just going to be a smaller male.

Just curious, also I am really interested in getting a female, not to breed, but mostly for the size...when I was first looking into getting a ball python I went with male specifically because they are smaller and I was unsure about caging and handling as I'd only had garter snakes in the past. At this point I want a bigger snoot; not a giant (like a retic or something), but something with a bit more mass lol

[C.Marie]

What about a woma python larger than a royal but still a manageable size and care I believe isn't to complicated, as for your male as long as he is a healthy looking noodle and you are not breeding sounds fine to my untrained ear for him to be at that weight sure someone with more experience and knowledge will also chime in, best wishes always

[Alter-Echo]

I know there are probably exceptions somewhere out there, but most males don't exceed 1500g. Ive seen a few personally around 1700g back when i worked at an exotics shop, but those were the biggest I've seen.

[Crowfingers]

What about a woma python larger than a royal but still a manageable size and care I believe isn't to complicated, as for your male as long as he is a healthy looking noodle and you are not breeding sounds fine to my untrained ear for him to be at that weight sure someone with more experience and knowledge will also chime in, best wishes always

Thanks, yeah - his body condition is great, good muscle tone, active and healthy. It may be silly, but now that I have him and have gotten care and stuff all down to a T, I can't help but wish that I'd gotten a female. The only female I'd seen / handled personally was one that was dropped of at the rehab center after being abandoned in a foreclosed house for who knows how long - she was 2500g emaciated and mean as snot (understandably). So the thought of a possibly 3000-4000 female was a little intimidating.

woma's are cool - but I have my heart set on an Ivory. I thought for years that I wanted a pied, but now that I've seen a few Ivorys in person they have topped my list and outshine the pieds IMO. (and I think I have finally gotten my fiance behind a second snake lol - who needs a wedding ring when you can get a python instead)

[C.Marie]

Sounds fabulous, I for one love the look of the Puma pastel or it Pastel Puma? I never know what order to put morphs in�� and agree python beats the heck out of a ring any day, good luck on your next new noodle bet it will be amazing. Make sure to spam with pictures

[Aerries]

Lol ask Zina her boy is massive lol but an abnormality tbh but still GORGEOUS!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[redshepherd]

My oldest male (which isn't that old lol) is also a around March 2015 male, and he's slowly hit 1200g last year and hasn't had significant growth since. It sounds similar to your male's growth, but your male sounds like he really doesn't eat often, so he may still have a ways to go.
I also started with a male initially, because I was unsure of how large a grown adult is exactly and how much I would be okay with handling. And then I did end up getting a dumeril's boa for the exact same reason you are looking for larger/more mass haha

As for other docile species, a lot of people enjoy boa constrictor species like BCI, which are both docile and active. There's also short tailed pythons- sumatrans and blood pythons which are REAL heavy animals, and apparently are majorly docile now being bred in captivity, but activity-wise and temperament are similar to ball pythons, but even more terrestrial. Depending on the breeder, some seem to strictly produce very docile animals 95% of the time.

And there's female dumeril's boas, which are also very terrestrial, docile, and honestly practically a strictly burrowing species as adults. They're very much ambush predators hiding under leaves/dirt and remind me of seeing gaboon vipers in videos, provided you give them thick substrate. Mine is 5 years old and 6 feet long female, very sturdy and hard feeling compared to pythons. She hasn't put on significant growth in the past yearish, so I assume she's sort of at her "max" size.

[Slicercrush]

Lol ask Zina her boy is massive lol but an abnormality tbh but still GORGEOUS!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Zina if you see this, you know the drill- I demand pics!

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

[Craiga 01453]

Just curious, also I am really interested in getting a female, not to breed, but mostly for the size...when I was first looking into getting a ball python I went with male specifically because they are smaller and I was unsure about caging and handling as I'd only had garter snakes in the past. At this point I want a bigger snoot; not a giant (like a retic or something), but something with a bit more mass lol

If you're looking for something similar to a BP but with more mass, you might look into Blood Pythons, or Borneo or Sumatran Short Tail Pythons.
Awesome animals in my experience so far. And plenty of gorgeous options out there.

[Zincubus]

Yep , my first thought as well .

Maybe a Dwarf Burm if you have them over the pond ??


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro