how many people weight their snakes?

[recycling goddess]

i have a question for you all. personally i've never weighed my snakes... i can tell by looking at them that they are growing... so i haven't bothered.

do you weight your snakes? why?

[markface]

i weigh my critters mainly to get an accurate growth record . though i can see that they are growing without weighing them , i just like to know how much and how fast they are gaing weight . another good reason for weighing is for breeding purposes .

[JLC]

I do. Well, I weigh Kisasa. I don't bother weighing Caesar...never have. But Caesar's just a pet...and while Kisasa is also a much beloved pet...she's also an investment in the future. And that means I take a great deal of enjoyment out of keeping meticulous records for her. Every feeding (or skipped feeding)...every poop...every shed...get noted in her journal. I usually weigh the rats I feed her as well, but sometimes I forget to. And I weigh her once a week, although I'm not anal about that. I realize her weight gains will fluctuate and I don't place a lot of meaning in those numbers....it's just fun to have something to jot down in the journal and watch them ever so gradually increase. If I ever have to take her to the vet, that journal will go with us!

[itzazoo]

I weigh all my snakes every three months. That way I could see if threre's a steady growth and weight gain.

[SiscoReptiles]

I have an index card system. I record meals, sheds, weights, breeding info, etc of all of the ball pythons. I have almost 50 ball pythons and I find by recording weights I can see how well some are growing as opposed to others. It can be used to monitor habits or trends as well. It's also easier to see weight loss, which may be a sign of illness, before it gets to a visual point. It also helps to have the past records to see if this weight loss is normal for this snake in the past.

Rick

[Schlyne]

I weigh them all, even the geckos. However, I don't weigh them on a regular basis. I check my breeding females of course, and I check everybody else periodically. I like to weigh em when they're "empty".

[wolfy-hound]

I weigh all mine, and then you can take all that info to the vet and annoy them by making them go over every last bit, since they want to talk away for an hour on everything that COULD be wrong with your snake. Once i show them a accurately recorded listing of their weight, when they shed, any abnormal looking poos, and any odd behaviors.. not to mentiont he feeding record(did he eat the rat? Kill it but not eat it? Was it a reg rat or an african soft-furred?) and in special cases, I might even WEIGH the rat first. That really gets them to understand that I'm not some idiot up the street that bought a "cool pet" and am keeping it in a ten gallon tank with a phone book on top of it, and no heat. I am experianced, I know what I'm doing, and I make sure that I know if my snakes are healthy.
Now, I'm not saying that you HAVE to weigh your snakes to make sure they're healthy, just that it definately impresses the vet, so you can skip the entire.. "You know this snake is a con-stric-tor.. can you say con-stric-tor? I knew that you could" step. Half the time I have the entire history of the snake, sometimes pictures of some of the other snakes, and a listing of temps and humidities, JUST to bring home the point.
And its fun to watch their eyes bug out.
Wolfy

[Freakie_frog]

I weigh every month at the same time and before a feed. I also weigh their food before feed to kinda keep track of size and weight gain.


Hope this helps -Ed

[rabernet]

I keep all of my snakes' records in the Degei software. I like to weigh them once a month to monitor growth, and I like to look back to how much they weighed when I acquired them and what they weigh now. It gives me self satisfaction to see how they have thrived in my care.

I'm more interested in the big girls (over 1200 grams) I have right now, because I hope to breed next season, so its exciting to watch them continue to grow at a healthy rate and hopefully they will reach a healthy breeding weight next season - if they don't, they'll wait until the season after that - but with my monsters, I'm pretty confident they'll be up to weight - my records show me that they have had consistent growth each and every month (I weigh monthly), which tells me that they're healthy and I'm doing "something" right!

I used to track opaques, sheds, poops and urates, now I pretty much just track feeds and weights.

[West Coast Jungle]

All my snakes are monitored on index cards similar to Ricks for all the same reasons. It is especially helpful when they go off feeding to monitor and make sure they are not loosing weight due to sickness. Obviously breeders need to be monitored closely to make sure they are at proper weight. The more you keep track the more obvious it is when something is wrong or changes.