Title says it all. How much should a one and a half year old male ball python weigh? I’m starting to think mine is a pygmy or something
There can be a fair amount of variability based on how often they fed, size of prey, if they’ve had health issues, etc. How much does your male weigh? What size prey are you feeding and how often?
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Currently around 600 g. He currently eats 1 small rat every week to 2 weeks depending on how picky he is. But he does not look unhealthy or skinny he looks healthy
That seems fine and well within the range of normal, I wouldn’t worry about it.
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@chesterhf is correct. 600 grams for a male that age is perfectly acceptable and normal. He’s in good health at that weight.
Now if he was power fed and more around the 1,000 gram mark, I’d be more concerned. Better to slow grow any snake in my opinion.
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There are a lot of of variable weight out of the egg, how fast an animal is started once it hatches, prey size and frequency, food refusal, fast etc.
The best way to look at an animal is often to look at the body condition, 600 grams for a year and a half male is nothing out of the ordinary.
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What about a 2750 g 2.5 year old female?
I dont have too much experience but even to me a 2.5 year old female should not be that big my 2.5-3yr old female albino is only 1200 grams
I would say that’s a little on the large size
That’s weird because I haven’t been trying to power feed her or anything. I just feed her when she is out and about roaming and showing feeding responses. Like maybe 1 large rat every week or other week. She actually went on a hunger strike from about last September to may this year as well
One of my females is around 2 years old and 1300 grams. She’s a little overweight but is growing like a weed.
Some snakes do grow faster than others, so unless the snake is overweight/underweight there really isn’t an issue.
AKA, weight shouldn’t be your worry, it’s the body condition you should be keeping an eye on.
Here’s an incredibly useful chart that shows the different body conditions:
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Hmmmm I’ll go grab a pick of her for you. There is also a decent chance that she might be pregnant so I’m not really sure
I feed mine a medium rat once every other week
If she gained weight drastically and was being paired, then there is a chance that it is due to follicular development and/or her becoming gravid.
I had a female go from 1400 grams to around 2000 grams when I bred her. She laid a slug and 3 good eggs that will be hatching the end of this month.
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I think there also tends to be a difference in healthy body condition between males and females, especially during building periods. My males tend to look like the “Good” in the above picture, maybe a little bit thicker out of breeding season. My females are between “Good” and “Overweight” picture depending on their reproductive stage. If any of my snakes pass the look of the “Overweight” drawing, I personally choose to reduce their feeding frequency. Most of them seem to self-regulate though.
If she’s not gravid, from that picture she’s overweight in my opinion.
But if you are trying to breed her, I wouldn’t worry just yet. She will use a lot of her fat storage building eggs. If you don’t want to breed her, I would cut back her large rat every week to every 3 weeks or so. But like @crypticoils-pythons mentioned, balls self regulate really well.
What is the weight range in grams for a “large” rat from your source? Based on the sizing from most places I’ve seen, a “medium” is the biggest that most ball pythons need.
My feeder rat supplier calls 90-130grams a “medium” for reference. A female who has just laid I might bump up the size to 130-180g (they call this “medium-large”) for a few meals, but I’ve personally never fed that size on a regular basis, and never gone above that size either.
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No idea I’ll weigh them tonight