how old is my snake?

[Snake lover 3-25]

I caught my female eastern??? garter in 2006 and she was 26ish??? now she is 28" her almost 2 yr old baby is 15, how old is she!

[ssssnakeluvr]

there's no real way to tell unless you raise her from birth....they grow at different rates depending on how much they eat and the types of food they eat...

[adamanteus]

You'll never know.... unless you cut her in half and count the rings!:D

[Stefan-A]

You'll never know.... unless you cut her in half and count the rings!:D
:D Or snap off her head and look for a label? ;)

[adamanteus]

Or maybe she still has a recent birthday card that might reveal her age.

[Stefan-A]

Better have an older one as well, in case she's celebrated the same birthday twice.

[Snake lover 3-25]

LOL very funny... Darn I realy wanted to know... :( :( :( :( :(

[Lori P]

Oh, you guys are sooooo funny. Ignore them, Shanley. Or better yet, musk them. LOL

[Snake lover 3-25]

thanks LOL :)

[aSnakeLovinBabe]

since when did we thamnopis members go about musking one another!

[Snake lover 3-25]

LOL :) but i do realy want to know...

[Lori P]

since when did we thamnopis members go about musking one another!

((Hanging head in shame)) Well, they WERE making light of her question. ((Kicking at the ground)) I didn't really MEAN it. ((Sniff))

[Snake lover 3-25]

LOL I know It's gonna be ok... :)

[adamanteus]

LOL :) but i do realy want to know...

There really is no sure way to tell the age of an adult wild caught snake. There are so many factors contributing to their growth rate. Sorry.

[Snake lover 3-25]

darn i just wanted to know how mych longer she would be with me...

[ssssnakeluvr]

with good care and barring no unforeseen illnesses, you should be able to keep her around for another 5 - 10 years, possibly more. I had a wandering that was caught as an adult and I had her for 7 years. Probably would have had her for longer if I hadn't gotten some bad fish from the local store (that's another story...:()

[Snake lover 3-25]

So sad... thanks i'm reassured

[EdgyExoticReptiles]

you have that pretty baby female to carry on her line just incase anything else happened anyways

So sad... thanks i'm reassured

[Stefan-A]

I caught my female eastern??? garter in 2006 and she was 26ish??? now she is 28" her almost 2 yr old baby is 15, how old is she!
Sorry about all the joking before.

Like pointed out, it's impossible to tell with any kind of accuracy. Her growth rate and the fact that she has given birth can at best tell you how old she has to be at least. 2 inches in as many years suggests that she was an adult that had already started to slow down its growth rate, plus they usually reach sexual maturity at 2 or 3. Add the years and she's probably no less than five years old. How much more, is impossible to know.

If my conclusion is flawed, please jump in.

[Odie]

I caught my female eastern??? garter in 2006 and she was 26ish??? now she is 28" her almost 2 yr old baby is 15, how old is she! She had to be at least 2yr when she gave birth :)

[mycolorfulheart]

You could approximate from when her baby gets to be 26", you'll never know for sure though.

[Snake lover 3-25]

You could approximate from when her baby gets to be 26", you'll never know for sure though.
ok... i think i'll do that :o

[Stefan-A]

Don't bother, growth rates depend on environmental conditions, diet and feeding intensity and to some degree it's even individual.

[Snake lover 3-25]

darn... :(

[stonyloam]

Being a retired scientist, it is fun try to use the old brain to apply the little knowledge and logic that I possess to try to answer a question. I certainly can’t tell you how old your snake is, but I can take a pretty good guess at how young it isn’t. All of the stuff that follows is by observation. Wild snakes in NY are born in late July or early August, about four to five inches long, assume they add an inch or two before they go down for the winter in October. Snakes that I have found that I am pretty sure are approaching their first birthday are about 10 or 11 inches, let’s say about a foot by fall, at age 1. Assuming four or five inches of growth by age two would put them at 16 to 18 inches the next spring (first mating). Chloe was about this size last summer when she had 7 babies (about the date of her third birthday). Two gravid females that I found last summer were significantly larger, in the 20 to 22 inch class, and had about 16 babies each, so a good guess is that they were approaching their fourth birthday. So I am guessing that a 24 inch snake would have been at least four and probably five years old (or older) in the fall of 2006. In any case her expected lifespan probably improved significantly when she was taken into your family.:D Wow! I agree with Stefan, how bout that?:eek:

[Stefan-A]

Wow! I agree with Stefan, how bout that?:eek:
I had a feeling something was up when I saw that pig fly by my window.. :rolleyes:

[adamanteus]

Wow! I agree with Stefan, how bout that?:eek:

I agreed with Stefan once..... but then he changed his mind!:D

[Stefan-A]

"If you can't change your mind, are you sure you still have one?" ;)

[adamanteus]

I'm pretty sure I still have one...... but most of it has calcified now.

[Snake lover 3-25]

she had 18 babies that help your guess?

[stonyloam]

Well we could do snake years, dog years people years. It is said that a dog ages about 7 years for every people year, however this is not quite true, because the first couple of years the dog ages faster, about 9 years/year then slower 6 or seven for the next few years and as it gets very old even slower , 4 or 5. So it averages out about 7/1, depending on the dog of course. Seems snakes would follow the same trend, aging being front loaded. See where I am going here? No?:confused: Snakes probably reach peak sexual maturity a little later than dogs, so lets say after their fifth birthday you might expect maximum babies with diminishing returns some years after that as the snake reaches old age. A healthy mature eastern could be expected to have 30 or more babies, which is about twice the yield of your snake. It could be argued that your snake is off-peak, either younger or older than optimum baby snake having age. Since the snake was not huge (24”) and still growing , I would guess younger, four maybe five which is what I guessed before except I tend to think that might be her second bout of motherhood, so maybe four is more likely. Even more likely I don’t know what the heck I am talking about.:rolleyes: You can tell I don’t have anything better to do tonight. By the way: glad you got your snake back:D

Hay Stefan: How old was that pig? I understand that as they mature the wing loading gets too high and they have trouble getting off of the ground.:p

[Snake lover 3-25]

LOL thanke for all the info even if it may be false!!! :)

[anji1971]

Deejay (my eastern) is about 24-25 inches long, and she'll be three years old at the end of July.
MInd you, she's never lived in the wild, and she eats like there's no tomorrow, so I don't know if that would make a difference or not.