Quote:
Originally Posted by DLena
Mandy is very pretty, and I love that name. (If I would have had a daughter, that would have been her name - lol.) It looks like she has a butterfly saddle; I think those are especially nice.I was wondering how you knew her age, since she was adopted. Did the surrender people know or is there a way to guestimate? (Like a snake equivalent to checking a horse's teeth) I ask because I have no idea how old Gypsy is; I only know that she is a 964 gram adult.
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There really isn't a good, reliable way to tell age but there are a few markers that can be used. Head shape can change a bit in very old snakes and corns tend to darken up a bit as they age, getting a wash of melanin over the whole body, if they are a morph with black pigment. That said, snakes, like people, can age at different rates. So one could actually be older than another but be physically younger than their chronological age. And color can vary so much between individuals that it might not mean much.
I'd take a guess that Gypsy is a little younger than Mandy but that's a bit unfair to say until she sheds.
I'd guess Gypsy to be between 6 to 10 years old from that picture, but that's just a minimally educated guess over the internet, so take it for what it's worth.