I’m curious about my Sumatrans weight. I’ve heard some conflicting advice from vets regarding what their ideal body shape should look like at the dorsal. Can i see pictures of your healthy short tails to compare? Dorsal pictures will help me the most, but whatever you think will best showcase a healthy body shape/size!
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This image is from Rich Crowley’s book A Passionate Journey with Short-tailed Pythons
Weight is tricky, it’s more about overall body condition. short-tailed people don’t routinely weigh their snakes. Sumatran’s tend to have a slightly more prominent ridge generally.
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Judging body condition on STPs can be a bit tricky, I feel, because they’re built so differently from most other snakes. They’re supposed to look thick and chonky, although they can still be TOO chonky and obese (which I suspect is relatively common, given how they’re usually always willing to eat).
The graphic @stackedbp shared is great, thanks for that! I’ve saved it and will definitely refer to it in the future.
Looking through my phone, I don’t have any good, recent pictures of my blood python with a good dorsal view, but I’ll try to snap one when I get home from work. I feel like her body condition is pretty good. Maybe starting to get a little on the fat side, but I recently decreased her feeding frequency, so hopefully that will help.
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My borneo looks huge, never weighed him but still growing I think, around 2 now 
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Wow! He is totally amazing! And huge! 
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He’s gorgeous! And yeah see that’s what i thought, because he looks like he (while still being chonky) has a ridge like dorsal. Like, if he were a ball python then a dorsal that prominent would be a sign of malnourishment. But for short tails that’s just normal…
And yet my vet for some reason is telling me that my Sumatran is underweight because the dorsal isn’t this standard of ‘ideal’
Also, my Sumatran eats large rats weekly/bi weekly but they are only 2 years old.
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But another vet told me that it’s normal for their dorsals to protrude more than a ball pythons’. I’m more inclined to believe him.
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That picture really helps! Thanks! Compared to the graph, i think shes on the skinnier side, but not too far off from ideal.
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Looks fine to me. I was told by a friend who breeds them that there should be a small ridge showing. I got this one as an adult and he was a bit skinnier than this. This is where I’ve kept him size wise for the last 4 years. Here some pics from a slightly different angle.
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I seriously need an Ivory
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The irony! 
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Lol 
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They are so incredibly beautiful!
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I love all of them, I’m excited to see what kind of babies they’ll make in the future. I managed to set up a 1.3 breeding group!
Percy; 1.0 tpos albino ivory
Ecco; 0.1 normal het tpos
Aurum; 0.1 goldeneye het tpos
Squishy; 0.1 matrix
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You come in my house, and show me this animal casually like it isn’t one of the most beautiful short tail morphs out there. The audacity.
But seriously, i love these guys so much! They are soo cool looking! How many other neat animals are you hiding over there?
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So the pictures yes, very helpful. But also that’s just such a pretty STP. I am in love with his smokey black head in contrast with the deep reds and Burgundies of his body. Is he just a nice looking blood or is there anything else going on?
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