growing

Thanks Iris

I had no idea either way what their response to available food would be. Guess we need to all be responsible feeders. Not like anyone is going to come up with Jenny Craig for snakes!

My first two corns were opposites when it came to food. One would only take one pinkie, no more than once a week, no matter what. The other would eat anything that remotely smelled like mouse, anytime, anywhere. This little glutton would keep on eating pinkies until she looked like a hat. She would eat a day or two after a meal, or when she was in shed. She would try to bite my hand on the spot touched by a plastic bag that had contained a mouse. Although she can digest very big meals, she did regurge a couple of times till I decided to quit playing around and put her on a schedule.

To Absoluteneil,

Not trying to step on any toes or start a flame war but, measuring the skin of a snake is not a good way to measure the length of your snake. The shed skin is often streched and then shrinks a little as it dries. IMHO, this would give you inaccurate records on the length of your snake.

Peace
wc

Although true that sheds are a different size than the snake itself, they may be accurate enough to measure growth (meaning the change in size from one shed to the next), although not for current size of the snake. If the snake sheds under the same conditions (same cage, same substrate, same level of humidity, etc) every time, the sheds should all show the same environmental influences, therefore the difference should be the size. This, of course, should apply to sheds nicely laid out and not to the ones all bunched-up, as it sometimes happens with my snakes.

To measure my boa I let her crawl on the carpet along a wall while I slide a yardstick alongside her. She crawls slowly in a perfectly straight line and I get accurate measurements. The corns, however, are all over the place and the best I can do is estimate their length. Maybe corns slow down with age, mine are all hatched in '01.

Hey Warren, in defense of absolutneil, I too measure the length of the shed skins to measure my corns. Why? I think it is the closest I'll get to being 'accurate.' If one really wanted accuracy, then they would have to either kill the snake, or sedate it, then measure, otherwise it will have to be a 'best guess.' I have measured snakes while they've been on-the-run in all sorts of situations, both outdoors and indoors, never are they completely straightened out for an accurate measure to be made. I have found that measuring the skins has--for the most part--confirmed my best guesses, however. In other words, I've gotten the same, or very close to the same, readings whether I measured the skin or the squirming snake. Measuring the skin is much easier and quicker for my schedule and, to me, seems to be as accurate as I'm going to get.

In defense of your position, I understand what you are saying about the lack of accuracy in measuring sheds. To add to your argument, a lot of times, sheds aren't 'good,' or are good, but are broken, and one is left trying to manage more than one piece.
It is by no means an approach which assures absolute accuracy, but, as long as I'm in the ballpark, and I know that it's only a best guess and nothing more, then that's good enough for me.

To sate my need for accuracy, I use a gram scale to measure my corns' weight gain. It's a little bit easier to close up a corn in a cup, box, or pillow case, and weigh it, than it is to mess with a corn snake in one hand and a measuring tape in the other.

I just had an idea, not original, but modified. I saw herp handlers use a clear tube to confine rattlesnakes for vet procedures on Animal Planet. What if you used a clear tube slightly larger than the diameter of the snake to be measured? Let the snake crawl into the tube, which in turn forces it to be stretched out. Take a measurement and then let the snake crawl out. You would of course have to make sure the tube inside diameter is large enough for the snakes widest part not to get stuck. I'm going to see what 4 foot lengths of clear tube are available in 3/4" - 1-1/2" sizes. The inner diameter of those sizes should be sufficient for yearling to adult corns.

Peter

But doesn't your snake kind of..I don't know how to explain it..scrunch up and then spread out, then scrunch, spread like an inch worm sort of? I let mine crawl along a ledge or a wall and have a tape measure or yardstick handy. The moment he stretches out I take the measurement. It usually works until he's distracted by the yardstick moving along next to him and tries to wrap around it
It would be interesting to see if your idea works

Iris

I would think that they would move into the tube the same way they would into a hole in the ground. It will be interesting to find out if it works the way I think it will. I'll let ya know for sure later this week.

Peter

I didn't mean to suggest that measuring sheds was the way to measure your corn...

I was stating that to confirm growth you can measure one shed to the next. I know they dry...stretch...whatever. However the change should reflect growth. Am I wrong?

Yes, Absolutneil, that would be a good way to see growth from your snake. I hope you understand I wasn't trying to be mean. I just didn't want other people to get the wrong idea and start measuring skins for accurate measurments.

One way I have heard for measuring a snake is to take a string and follow the snakes curves from head to tail tip. Then pull the string out straight and measure from there.
I'm not sure, but I believe someone named Serpwidgets has something on his site about measuring snakes. I haven't checked it out yet but....

L8r,
wc