How to tell if a snake is overweight?

[saximus]

Hey guys,

I have a jungle who is about 5 or 6 years old and I think he seems a bit chunky around the middle. He is about 4' long and was on a medium rat every two weeks. I am considering moving that down to once a month but before I go starving the poor boy I wanted to know if there is a way to work out if he is actually overweight first. Is there a general length-weight or length-girth ratio?

Cheers
Daniel

 

[chewbacca]

If his head looks alot smaller compared to his neck then his fat lol, you should post some pics, you will hear it from everyone, it's hard to judge something we can't see..although an adult jungle could be on 1 large rat every 10-15 days..even give him a rabbit and wait till his "pooped" or a phew days after to feed him again

 

[saximus]

My mum took these pics for me because I'm not at home. They don't show it that well but I will have to wait till I get home to get better ones. To me his head isn't bad compared to his neck but then he tapers and gets quite thick in the middle especially campared to my diamond. Or maybe I'm just crazy and jungles are meant to be more stocky?

 

[pythons73]

Looks as thou his in good condition,maybe a touch on the cuddley side..IMO obsetity is a concern in captive repties...

 

[chewbacca]

Mate he looks fine, you could feed him a rabbit once every 3 weeks or so ( taking a guess) correct me if I'm wrong? But he looks well over 4 feet aswell

 

[saximus]

Ok cheers guys. Haha yeah he probably is actually longer than that. I'm terrible with estimating things like that. He couldn't do a rabbit but I'll try him on large rats. Thanks very much for the replies

 

[Kurto]

realistisly a python might not eat but once a month in the wild. sometimes not for several months at a time. all my younger pythons get a consistant feeding routine. but I only feed the adults maybe twice a month during the warmer months.

 

[byron_moses]

there was a great article in a scales and tails mag a year or so ago perhaps u could ask joy which issue