how old?

how old is my corn?

hi everyone, i am new to this site and to snakes. i got my first snake a week ago, a corn and she is great!
i have found this site very interesting and helpfull, and im sure i will be using this site a lot more in the future.
I have a lil question tho about my snake (i have not a name 4 her yet) They guy in the reptile centre where i got her told me she was about 6 months old, im not so sure tho, I have not had the chance to measure her yet but would say she is 24 / 28 inches long, she is feeding on 2 fuzzies a week, could any one advise plz?

Hi jojO, welcome to the forum. It is really hard to determine age by size in young snakes. They grow at different rates and alot of that depends on how much and how often they are fed. Corn snakes usually mate in the spring, lay their eggs and their babies hatch out over the summer. Your snake is probably a 2001 hatchling but you may not ever know for sure exactly when in 01.
I have some 01s that are that size and eating the same. Good luck with your new corn. If you don't have it yet might I suggest "The Corn Snake Manual" by Bill & Kathy Love. Very informative and will answer most of your questions.

Alicia

I would say that your snake is probably more than 6 months old for a couple of reasons. First, if it was only 6 months old it would've hatched in the middle of the winter and I've never heard of this occuring. Second, my snake is a year old and is 25 inches long and I'm pretty sure that she's a bit small for her age and most yearlings are longer than that.

The guy at the pet shop probably didn't know a whole lot about her and just said a young age so you would feel like you're getting a baby snake. The shops around here try to do that all the time. Peoply would just generally like to get babies of whatever pets they're buying (ex: kittens, puppies, young hamsters) so reptiles sell better when they're advertised as being fairly young.

I would say your snake is probably about the same age as mine. It probably hatched last year so will be about 10 months to a year old now.

Either way, corns are great and I hope you enjoy her immensly!

I don't reall have any input, but I wanted to address something Katie said: Katie, corns and most other snakes can breed during any time of the year if they are stimulated. The period of winter changing to spring and the temp. changes after hibernation tell them that it's time. There are people who run lights and heat during the winter and confuse their snakes. Therefore, there are young born towards the end of the year. I also wondered how one or two of the guys had infant, really little corns during a november (I believe) reptile show. Hope this helped...

You CAN fool your corns into thinking its spring when its really cold outside. I do that to a degree so that I can get my hatchlings out ASAP. I have to heat them longer where I live than others do in Florida anyway, so I just start a little earlier with the heat so as to give me a couple of weeks headstart on baby sales. I also cool mine earlier in the fall as well.

Also, those really young babies in a November show may be the result of a female that has double clutched or something. You just never know about those corns!

Darin

thanks 4 ur help everyone, as i thought she is a lil older, i dont mind tho she is great! and has a great home now.

As I said in my earlier post, it's unlikely that a corn was hatched in the middle of the winter. I've never heard of anyone doing that. I can understand a few weeks early or late for different reasons, but a snake that is 6 months old now would have had to hatch in December . That's why I said it was unlikely. I'm sure there are people that do that though, just for the sake of having babies to sell all year round but I think there is a big majority that breed in spring/summer time rather than in the winter (or all year round).

Just for curiosity sake, does anyone here (or do you know of anyone) who breeds all year round?

Thanks for the input guys!