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dwarfism in snakes
- Thread starter Outcast
- Start date
Nanci
Alien Lover
He was at the breeder's first, but he started out on whole very tiny pinks. I think they call them cherries or something when they are day-old. Reds, that's what they call them! You could always start a tiny baby on pinky heads, though. I believe he was 4g at hatching and 6g when he came to me. I know someone who hatched out 2g tri-color hoggy twins which started on pinky parts.
Camby
He will join us or die
Dawrfism does exist and sometimes it is a heritable trait like mentioned. Some also belive it can be line bred and may also be the product of the envioronment. Look at the intermontane rat snakes (dwarf emoryi) and the dwarf bulls. Both come from higer altitudes with shortened feeding periods. This may attribute to the "dwarfisim" because they do not feed for as long a period as other species????? Also, with the intermontane, the babies actually hatch out larger than any of my other emoryi and corns. They are huge for their size. I suspect for the same reasons as above. The Intermonts are larger and come from bigger than normal eggs probably because they need the large egg sac and may need to consume larger meals as hatchlings because they will not have very long to feed before their first winter and have to eat what the can find easily. None of this is proven and may be hog wash, but it is my thoughts.
You can also shrink fresh pinkies to have smaller food items for smaller than normal snakes or a hatchling that regurged and you want to offer a smaller food until it is well established.
dc
mindfreak
New member
Following up on what Nanci said, the breeder I got my snake from said he was quite the runt when he was born. The breeder put a lot of extra time and care into taking care of him, sold all his siblings but kept him as his own. When I got him he was still pretty small for his age.
Now, he's about.. oh, 7 years old now? and is pretty big. Around 5 feet, maybe a little bigger now. I haven't weighed him for a while but he's a good healthy weight. He's had a few eating strikes and has gotten sick twice in the entire time I've had him, but overall he's a great snake, not many issues, and is certainly a ravenous eater. I've NEVER power fed him or anything--I guess it just took a little longer for him to get around to growing.
Just sharing my limited experience with smaller snakes :]
Now, he's about.. oh, 7 years old now? and is pretty big. Around 5 feet, maybe a little bigger now. I haven't weighed him for a while but he's a good healthy weight. He's had a few eating strikes and has gotten sick twice in the entire time I've had him, but overall he's a great snake, not many issues, and is certainly a ravenous eater. I've NEVER power fed him or anything--I guess it just took a little longer for him to get around to growing.
Just sharing my limited experience with smaller snakes :]