Is my ball python underweight or overweight?

[EldritchPreacher]

It’s been a long time since I posted and the last time everyone was very nice and helpful. My ball python was already about the size of my palm maybe slightly bigger when balled up. That was last august, now she is about two feet long and 223 grams in weight. I looked at charts for weight and she seems underweight but pictures for overweight look like her too. I was wondering if anyone had any advice.

[hilabeans]

Who knows?? It kinda depends on body condition which is hard to tell without pictures. If you're able to post some pictures of her stretched out that may help. They shouldn't be a perfect circle if you look down their body straight from head to tail, you should see more of a full but triangular shape with some spinal definition. Too much spine, however, could indicate being underweight.

I find posting pics via the Tapatalk app the easiest.

[vivi]

I would take a look at the below document as well. Pictures would help.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...WitIdcm-k/edit

[EldritchPreacher]

That’s the picture I went by for the overweight side of it a while ago but she has slimmed down slightly. I’m unsure how to post pictures though because I’m on mobile.

[Moose84]

What are you feeding her and how often?

[EldritchPreacher]

I’m currently feeding her one medium mouse every other week because she slightly had the physique of the middle (overweight) python in the picture. She eats readily but hasn’t pooped for a couple weeks and it’s worrying as in that time she at a clump of sphagnum moss.

[vivi]

What does her spine look like?

Did you look at this document? https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...WitIdcm-k/edit It describes the different weights of a BP and what they look like.

[Moose84]

I’m currently feeding her one medium mouse every other week because she slightly had the physique of the middle (overweight) python in the picture. She eats readily but hasn’t pooped for a couple weeks and it’s worrying as in that time she at a clump of sphagnum moss.

She is being underfed. She should be double that weight if not more. A medium mouse is waaaay too small as well. By 9 months all of my animals are on small rats and 500+ grams. She should also be fed weekly as well especially if she was being given mice. The animal isn't passing anything because it is using everything for nourishment. I haven't heard of snakes eating moss but in this case it wouldn't surprise me because unfortunately she isn't being fed appropriately. I would go to weaned rats every week for a month and then move her to smalls.

[EldritchPreacher]

She is being underfed. She should be double that weight if not more. A medium mouse is waaaay too small as well. By 9 months all of my animals are on small rats and 500+ grams. She should also be fed weekly as well especially if she was being given mice. The animal isn't passing anything because it is using everything for nourishment. I haven't heard of snakes eating moss but in this case it wouldn't surprise me because unfortunately she isn't being fed appropriately. I would go to weaned rats every week for a month and then move her to smalls.

she isn’t wide enough for a rat sadly, I used to feed her every week but her body started being larger and you could see a bulge where her tail started like she had hips a bit. She ate the moss by accident when eating a mouse, it got caught on the mouses leg and she eat it when swallowing her meal.

[EldritchPreacher]

What does her spine look like?

Did you look at this document? https://docs.google.com/document/d/1...WitIdcm-k/edit It describes the different weights of a BP and what they look like.

live seen that document before, she looks in between the overweight and ideal look with her weight.