corn snake not shedding or growing

i got my gold dust morph corn snake from a petsmart on december 24th, 2018. he was very small and squirmy and though i do not know exactly how old he is, i assume he was very young when i got him. i've read several articles saying that corn snakes are nearly full grown by 2 years old, and he is over 1 year old now. he has barely grown (maybe a couple inches in length) and has only shed between 2-3 times since i've had him. in terms of his eating habits, he refused food for a few weeks when i first got him but since then he has been eating a f/t pinkie once a week very regularly. he doesn't act abnormal (to my knowledge) except that he rarely seems to use his warm hide, he's always on the cold side or in the middle. i use a thermostat to regulate his warm side between 83-87. i'm most concerned about his lack of shedding and using the warm side. (sorry that i do not have a scale to weigh him, i will hopefully get one soon) i also tried to attach the most recent photo i have of him (also i just realized i always refer to my snake as a "him" but i do not actually know the sex)




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Corn snakes are not full grown by 2 years of age, it'e more like about 3-1/2 to 4 years of age. I would consider a 2 year old snake to be similar to about a 12 or 13 year old human.

Snakes like any other animal each have their own Biology, Genes, Growing habits and Schedule. Just as a full grown person can be 5 feet tall and 100 lbs or 7 feet tall and 300 lbs. A "Fully Grown" Corn snake generally is between 3 and 6 feet in length. Those are the "Extremes" and the majority of them will be somewhere towards the middle, about 4 to 5 feet.

Your snake may (or may not) happen to be one of the smaller ones. It's no big deal, it just is what it is.

You stated you have had your snake a little over a year but you're not sure of its age.

By the looks of it, I am guessing it to be about a year and a half, possibly 2 years.

One thing to keep in mind, snakes grow faster and bigger with the meals they are eating. You stated you are feeding pinkies weekly. A snake is "Not" going to grow very big on a diet of Pinkies.

That snake can clearly be eating bigger mice than that, certainly it could at least eat 2 or 3 pinkies or a fuzzy or even a hopper.

Most of us follow the "Munson Feeding Plan" which is based on the fact that a growing snake can eat 10% to 13% of its body weight in food, per feeding.

Therefore if your snake for example weighs 15 grams, you should be feeding mice that weigh about 1.5 to 2 grams, and if your snake weighs 40 grams, you should be feeding meals of about 5 grams, and if your snake weighs 200 grams, it could easily be eating 20 to 25 gram mice....etc......

I just going to say you are probably under-feeding the snake.

I would suggest you get a scale, weigh the snake, and feed accordingly. As the snake eats more, it will grow more.