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zsanorah · #1 (**permalink**) 11-23-2005, 11:00 AM

My friend got a new Ball Python today as sort of a rescue. Basicly we were at the local Pet Country and there was an offer for the snake, and tank, due to the fact that they were moving out of state and couldnt have said snake with them.
I totally disbelive EVERYTHING the exowner of the snake told us. Now the problem...
She is REALLY fat, obiese even. She is around 2ft and almost so thick that I can barly encircle her with my thumb and forefinger. They said that they were feeding her 2 adult mice once a week, which is waayyy too much for the snake. Also they had no heat in her cage, which we remidied as soon as we bought her, she seems to be a bit more active now. We think that she is a little stopped up, is there anything that could help her have a BM? Also anyother advice on how to help the poor thing slim down without harm?
Once my sevice is back up I will post pictures of the poor girl, although they will be from cell phone they should get the idea across.
thanks for the help and ideas
(also we're planning on getting her to the vet asap, but they arent open untill friday afternoon)
~Jessica

rachel132002 · #2 (**permalink**) 11-23-2005, 11:10 AM

What is her weight? I'm not saying she isn't but some royals can chunk out very quickly then kind of slow down and go back into proportion. If she does need slimming down it's a long slow process of going to something like 1 adult and 1 small mouse for every 10 days for a bit then every 2 weeks then down to 1 adult and sloly lower it until she's where she should be then go back on the stablising her diet and then work her up naturally.

Rach

zsanorah · #3 (**permalink**) 11-23-2005, 11:19 AM

Atm I have no way of weighing her, not even a guess as to her weight. Just that she is really large and due to her..umm..weight she has just a little stumpy tail, its sad. If i can think of where i can get her weighed i will do so.
So you reccomend just giving her a little less and then a little less and then to a normal feeding schedule? Thats what sounded most logical to me.

rachel132002 · #4 (**permalink**) 11-23-2005, 11:23 AM

Yeah BUT in order to do it you'll need to track her weight and just curious have you kept balls/royals before? As youngun they do look weird big heads, little necks, big body and short stumpy tails but they all have those tails, which is why knowing an accurate weight is important before doing anything drastic. Do all her scales overlap or has she got any soft fatty lumps on her anywhere?

Rach

zsanorah · #5 (**permalink**) 11-23-2005, 11:32 AM

No, i havent had the pleasure of keeping them as of yet, hope to some day though. And she does have spaces where the scales dont over lap and shes all soft. Where is a good place to weigh her? Any ideas?

DeadIrishD · #6 (**permalink**) 11-23-2005, 11:40 AM

buy a postal scale if you can.

also due to lack of heat she may not have been able to digest the food properly, and now that she does have it, things may start to look a tad bit better after a while. (just a guess.)

zsanorah · #7 (**permalink**) 11-23-2005, 11:54 AM

Thats what I was hoping, I know that snakes need the heat to digest ( as should all snake owners) so now that she has some...Also what about soakings in warm water? Would this be of use?

jojo6199 · #8 (**permalink**) 11-23-2005, 02:34 PM

Our royals are kept at a temp of 82-84 cool side, 92-94 warm side with no night drop as we've always been told night drops are only required when going into the breeding cycle of appropriate sized adults.

A nice tepid bath may well help the snake defecate. Just make sure she has all the proper things she needs in her enclosure (two hides, water dish, etc.) and a decent thermal gradient of about 10 degrees so she can thermoregulate properly. Humidity should sit around 50-60% with a push up to 70-75% as soon as her belly goes pink indicating an impending shed cycle.

We start all our new snakes, rescues or not on papertowels so we can monitor their defecation and collect fecals if we need to. Also great to see if any mites drop off (*knock wood* we've never seen a mite yet!).

You might want to pop her into the quietest room in the house and not handle much till she's settled in well. Does she have a stretched look to her scales, like they aren't tight together and you can see areas between each scale? It's not abnormal for balls to look a bit chunky, they are a girthy snakes unlike say a corn or kingsnake. They can get kind of pudgy looking right before a shed and then have a growth spurt and slim out (kind of like kids do when they are growing).

Sounds like she lucked into a good home. I would definitely locate a herp vet just in case, as you suspect really poor husbandry with possibly low temps so keep an eye out for a developing RI or you might want a fecal and proper sexing done.

Best of luck!

JuliusSqueezer · #9 (**permalink**) 11-23-2005, 02:45 PM

All ball python caresheets suck. I've never seen a good one. Being the most commonly kept boid in the US pettrade, it apparently attracted the most noob herp keepers to the keyboard to write caresheets. Since so many people assume that anything published on the internet is gospel truth, these caresheets spread like wildfire. For the record, NO BALL PYTHON THAT ISN"T GRAVID EVER NEEDS OR WANTS A 90 DEGREE BASKING SPOT. 83-84 hot side max...anything down to the low to mid 70s for the cool side. If they have that gradient, they will move around and thermoregulate. Even the finicky wild caughts that never eat for people, will eat within 30 days if they are set up properly. If you provide a 90 degree basking spot, you take away half the cage for the snake because it will never go there. They don't like high temps and will avoid them staying all the time at their true basking temp over on the cool side and then never get a chance to go cool off anywhere unless they have yet another cooler side...which most don't. Luckily though, they are fairly idiotproof in that they adapt well to our errors and are really hard to kill. You can't even really starve one to death since they can go years without eating lol (please don't try this at home kids). For most setups, ball pythons do not need much heating. Just a heatpad on one end of the tank with a hide with a surface temp no higher than the high 80s or whatever it takes to get the air temp one inch above the substrate to 83-84 (I would even stretch this to say that anything above 80 and below 85 is plenty warm enough)...and a hide and waterbowl on the cool side...no lights, no che, no preheat and bake device of any kind. Even though they come from Africa in places where it gets really hot, they stay cool in the wild by going underground. Burrows stay cool. They come out to hunt at night...again, it's much cooler then. They don't play in the scortching sun. Please don't scortch them in their cages.

JuliusSqueezer · #10 (**permalink**) 11-23-2005, 02:56 PM

btw...all snakes do better with a night drop in temp. If they are kept in such a way that they can find a comfortable spot to remain 24/7, they will do that and become sedentary. Sedentary snakes develop digestive issues and lose muscle mass from lack of excercise. Cooling at night, even if just a little, requires them to move around in the morning to thermoregulate which helps them move their bowels and keeps their muscle tone.

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