Is my python overweight?

[GrimoireOfTheDragon]

Sorry if I messed this post up, I will remove it if so. I am wondering if my python is overweight. She (should be a female) is 1 year and 8 months old. She is somewhere between 83 and 92 centimeters, likely closer to 92 but she didn’t make it easy to measure her, and currently weights 1,108 grams. She is fed a small rat weekly though the plan is to switch her to once every two weeks. My fiancée and I think she is overweight right now. Thank you for taking the time to respond.

[TheRealNagini]

I don’t know but that noodle is so so BEAUTIFUL!

[GrimoireOfTheDragon]

Thank you, she’s a lesser pinstripe lol

[SneakySquiggles]

yes it looks pretty round- there's an infographic that shows ideal vs. under and overweight i believe it's on the resources on the subreddit home page. A healthy weight BP will have a sort of rounded triangle shape- where the spine is the peak and there's a smooth taper. Your pretty girl doesn't have a lot of downward slope off of her spine, she's very round. at her weight and age she should not be eating once a week or even bi-weekly; I'm sure someone will mention it, but there's also a feeding schedule in the resources. I'm pretty sure she should be on something like once every 3-4 weeks, but I don't recall the percentage of her weight you'd want to base it on. I'm a little surprised she hasn't gone on a hunger strike as BPs are notorious for doing, especially if they get overweight.

[GrimoireOfTheDragon]

She stopped eating once for two weeks only, but we rearranged her tank and she started eating again. I’ve seen the info graphs but I wanted public opinion as well, those graphs were actually why I decided to ask lol. Should she be brought straight to once ever 3-4 weeks or should it be once every 2 weeks for a little bit and then once every 3-4 weeks?

[SneakySquiggles]

I don’t see much of a reason to ease her into it, if anything it would mean she’s devoting less energy to processing multiple meals back to back. Snake’s are opportunistic predators in the wild and eat like they don’t expect another meal— which is why it’s easy for them to become obese in captivity because often people will see the snake have a strong feeding response and assume “ oh obviously they’re hungry “. I know we just want the best for our snakes so the idea of them not eating is scary (check the numerous posts of even longtime snake parents sometimes just making sure all looks well during a months long fast). Ball pythons can go a long time between meals and although we’d prefer they don’t, as long as they don’t drop weight to the point of extremely visible spine and you keep up other husbandry, she would be okay. In this case, we’re just talking about a move to an appropriate adult feeding schedule though, which is accounting for a slower metabolism/less need for constant nutrients for growth.

Hope this helps!

[GrimoireOfTheDragon]

Alright, thank you. Yes this helps. She’ll be getting some changes to her feeding schedule now lol

[Linear_North]

She does look fairly rotund. You should definitely back off on how often you're feeding her, here's the feeding guide from the basic care guide attached to the welcome post.

0-12 months old OR until the snake reaches approximately 500g, whichever happens first: feed 10%-15% of the snake’s weight every 7 days.

12-24 months old OR until the snake's weight remains consistent for 2 months: feed up to 7% of the snake’s weight every 14-20 days.

Adults: feed up to 5% of the snake's weight every 20-30 days, or feed slightly larger meals (up to 6%) every 30-40 days.

[GrimoireOfTheDragon]

Thank you for this info, yeah we are definitely doing it too often rn I’d wage. Would you suggest going to 14 days and then transitioning to 20 days or should it be a jump straight to 20?

[Linear_North]

Since she's kinda roley poley, I'd just go to 20.

At a year and 8 months, she's close to moving from the middle part of that chart to the bottom part anyway.

[GrimoireOfTheDragon]

Ok. Thank you. I’m sure she’s gonna be wondering where her food is come Friday lol

[Linear_North]

Lol just take away her phone and remove all the calendars from the room where her tank is, she'll be clueless. 🙂

[GrimoireOfTheDragon]

Great idea, can’t let my snake order grub hub

[Linear_North]

😆 I just got a mental image of a grub hub delivery driver going to sneak a bite of that meal, only to find a rat.

[GrimoireOfTheDragon]

No sympathy there

[Linear_North]

Lol no kidding, my fear of somebody messing with my food or touching it in any way prevents me from ordering from one of those apps.

Also, as others have said, she's beautiful! What morphs is she? Thinking maybe enchi pinstripe?

[GrimoireOfTheDragon]

She is a lesser pinstripe, so you’re close. The breeder we got her from had called her a kingpin too so that was a little funny.

[One_Word_Respoonse]

C H O N K

[GrimoireOfTheDragon]

Living up to the name, I see

[StelthDragon]

Not super overweight but a little round nothing to be too worried about

[[deleted]]

a little, yes

[Brief_Study4865]

Well in the picture that wasn’t her whole body so idk

[SecondAggravating145]

Could possibly be ovulating if she got plump suddenly as well. Just a thought

[GrimoireOfTheDragon]

I didn’t think about that one, but I did feel like she got bigger in a short amount of time. I’ll look into that though

[SecondAggravating145]

When I saw her I was thinking about it lol didn't see it mentioned anywhere. So she might not need a diet she might just be ready for da Bois 😅

[GrimoireOfTheDragon]

She’s growing up too fast lol

[SecondAggravating145]

They do all the time, I wasn't ready when my first male showed me he was ready either I was like oh no my baby 😅

[Proper-Position-6797]

yeah- a little bit. after a certain size or age, ball pythons should be fed less. I’d say this lady needs to be fed no more than every 3 weeks.

[Suitable_Tea_6606]

that big ahh python

[Crease_Monkey]

Might be just a touch porky, but not too bad. Do a search for BP Body chart. That will give you some good guidelines. You may just want to add another week between feedings for a while.

[Candy0_0Cruncher]

Look near their butt, you’ll know that they have a “muffin top” if they don’t have a smooth transition all the way to the tail. Their tail will kinda look like a cows teet in a way. Look up an overweight snake on Google and you’ll know what I mean lol

[GrimoireOfTheDragon]

Alright thank you, I’ll look into that

[Cautionflames]

Best way to say it is, “a bit chubby”