Just like it says on the tin. My BP is about 3 yrs old and she is 1262g. However, quite a bit of that weight is clearly fat. She’s pet only, so I’m not looking to make her “breeding weight” I just want her to have the best quality of life I can give her. I think improving her body condition and keeping her at a healthy weight is a big part of that. She’s not too overweight right now, but I want to take care of it before she gets obese.
I’ve seen conflicting reports on how to get snakes to lose weight safely, so I’m turning to this forum for advice.
A medium rat every 3 weeks. From what I understand that’s a fairly normal feeding schedule. She’s just a very sedentary snake. I’m just a bit confused over conflicting advice I’ve found on whether it would be best to feed her smaller meals, feed her less frequently, or handle her more, as I’ve seen all that advice as well as places saying I shouldn’t do that and so I wanted to get a second opinion.
imo… I would switch to smaller meals… a small rat every 2 weeks. Or a medium once a month. Either isn’t the wrong decision. Keep in mind that these snakes will prepare for breeding whether you want them to or not so she may be storing extra weight in preparation for building follicles. Ball Pythons in general are and should be sedentary. There wild diet is normally asf… they are much smaller than a medium rat and closer to a large mouse. because they only eat in the wild when they can they are more likely to store the nutrients.
Agreed with above.
Pictures bit too, Weight vs age does not tell much. Size vs weight is more important and can only be seen in a picture.
it could be many other things blotting her and so the solution would be different.
For one example, I had one that looked over weight when I got it, it was jus impacted and a swim in the bath sorted it out.
