weight and length

[Snake lover 3-25]

do any of you weigh and measure your snakes regularly???

what are your results??? but first i have some questions....

i just did mine and they came out like this... the weights came out pretty funny all ending in 8 lol

meadow-31" 168 grams:eek:

sooty-21" 58 grams

baby-17" 48 grams

new girl (unnamed)-29" 68 grams

the new girl is so thin i'm really worried.... i plan to release her but her chances... being this thin..... couldn't be very good... only 2" shorter than meadow and 100 grams less...... this winter was real hard on them..... and i think that she stopped eating (due to her pregnancy) very shortly after she was out of hibernation.... and yet she still deivered 22 healthy babies.... no stillbors or jellybeans!!! how can this be??? and more importantly how can i get her to gain alot of weight quickly???? i've been feeding her every day..... and every day she eats.... but not very much so i think maybe it'll take some time before she can take a whole meal..... but until then can i keep feeding her however much she eats every day????

and also.... her babies.... i have fed them twice so far.... they were born on sun.... but diff. ones don't eat every time???? i think that all of them have eaten at least once.... but why would the ones that ate last time not eat this time???

[EdgyExoticReptiles]

the best way to fatten her up would be mice i think

[Snake lover 3-25]

yeah.... she won't have anything to do with them..... the only things she's eaten so far are garter grub which i got free with my mice from my supplier and night crawlers....

[crzy_kevo]

hmm have you tried fish or frogs or toads

and i measured george a few days ago when i got her she was 19" and missing 1" of her tail
now she is 22" long and i have had her for 2 months and she has shed twice
i guess if she is growing this fast i must be doing something right :D

[Snake lover 3-25]

not yet... i ran out of tailapia butt i never even thought of frogs!!! thanks!!!:D

lol sounds like she's gonna be a big girl!!! you should try and keep her eating all through the winter so she can grow really big.... then if you decide to breed her she'll give you lots of babies!!!:D

[crzy_kevo]

ya see im planning on brumating her in the winter though and i wouldn't want her to have too many babies but at this rate she could end up 30" by winter

[Snake lover 3-25]

lol yup she'll be a big one!!! although my 30 ish in female only had 18 her first time..... lol good luck!!!:D

[Hornets23]

garter grub?...what is garter grub?

[Elliot]

garter grub?...what is garter grub?

It's a product made by T-rex (I think?) that's made of fish and other things kind of mixed together. I haven't seen any place that has it in stock for quite a while now though.

[Snake lover 3-25]

yup.... the guy i get my mice from had some left in his freezer....:D they actually went out of business a wile back..... they sold lots of reptile food...... snake steaks.... garter grub.... idk what else.... but the garters love it!!!!:D

[GartersRock]

I weigh mine all once a week. ;) You wouldn't want me to post all their weights. Too many!
My biggest female garter is 104 grams. 168 is huge!
But then again... I don't have any easterns.
My biggest snake outweighs my gram scale at something around 7 lbs. My female blood python.

[EdgyExoticReptiles]

they always have a smaller litter their first time, shell have a lot more next time

lol yup she'll be a big one!!! although my 30 ish in female only had 18 her first time..... lol good luck!!!:D

[Snake lover 3-25]

i hope i can find a male so i can have a "next time"!!!!! the only male i have is her son...... and he has been kept with her since birth...... i'm sure i can get them to breed.... but i really hate imbreeding...... even though it doesn't effect them unless you do it extensively......

[Snake lover 3-25]

do you think that it would be ok to keep the female over the winter and give her a short brumation and get her all fattened up to release next summer??? she is just so thin and i don't know if i can get her up to a good weight before fall..... and if we have a long winter again.... if she was out there like this she would have no chance...... i just want to give her a chance..... :(

[Snake lover 3-25]

anyone have an opinion????:confused:


i have been feeding her 4 + times a week as many worms as she will eat (around 4 huge canadian night crawlers) and she has only gained 7 grams!!!!:(:mad: she should be around 140 grams at the least... but she's only 75.

i have the time, space and resources to keep her but i don't think that she likes being in a cage...... i just want to know if it would have any bad affects on her if i release her in the spring.....

at this rate there is no way she could gain enough weight to survive another long winter....... :(

[Elliot]

If you fed mice she'd probably gain more weight, worms are mostly water. Mice probably have a lot more fat, protein, and calcium, so I'd guess that they'd support quicker growth.

[GartersRock]

Yes, you have only been feeding worms? If she needs to gain weight worms most likely won't do the job. Good luck!

[reptile3]

I weigh & measure all my reptiles every month....

my ball python- George he is 35 in long, 611 grams as of Aug 2008
I got him back in Dec 2007.

[crzy_kevo]

i believe i may have discovered the miracle grow for garters
george is still on a steady diet of 85% salmon dusted with calcium every other feeding and 15% frogs she has grown another 2" for a total of 24"

[Snake lover 3-25]

i need to get some fish.... but she shows no intrest whatsoever in mice...... even scented ones...... her food has to be moving..... and she will not eat if i am watching.... so tease feeeding is out of the question.... and there is NO way i could EVER feed her live pinkies...... it would break my heart.....:( but i need to get some feeder fish and then i might be able to fool her into eatng some mice and fish pieces..... but i put repti-vite on her worms once a week......

[crzy_kevo]

have you tried forceps or tongs of some sort i got checkers to start on salmon using tongs

[Snake lover 3-25]

yup that's what i use.... she hates them and runs from them..... but she did bite me today!!!! yay!!! i want her to stay as wild as possible so she will be easily released:D

[Snake lover 3-25]

WHOO HOO!!!!!! yes she ate 5LARGE fuzzies!!!!!:eek::D yes i finally!!!! figured out the key to feeding her!!!! i scented the first with a toad and then i just threw it!!!! it bounced and she grabbed it!!! the next 4 i didn't even have to scent!!!!:D

[GartersRock]

Whoohoo!! Awesome!!!

[jitami]

Wow! 5?!? Good job getting her to eat Shanley!

[Snake lover 3-25]

i'm so happy!!! now if i can just keep this up she'll be FAT in no time!!!:D:D

[Elliot]

That's great news, just make sure you don't overdo it. :)

[GartersRock]

I just realized thats alot of mice!! Rofl!

[Snake lover 3-25]

lol it sure is!!!! but the sad part is..... you can hardly tell she ate anything...... that's how thin she is:(

[jitami]

She must be a good sized girl! When Sly eats two fuzzies he blows up like a baloon... like in this month's photo contest pic... that was right after a meal... he's a fatty :p

[Snake lover 3-25]

yeah.... she's about 28-29" but she is SO thin that her skin doesn't even need to expand when she eats:(

[jitami]

I dunno... lol... Sly's about 26" but then again he's never had babies :D

I'm guessing her skin is loose and wrinkly on her? Poor girl...

[crzy_kevo]

checkers shed today and i measured the skin at 25.5" which means i must have gotten a bad measurement from george so george must be around 27" cuz she is quite larger than checkers

but luckily george looks like she isd gonna shed soon too her belly is starting to get bluish so im guessing her eyes will start in maybe the next 2 days and then problably shed by next friday so i can get a good measurement then

[Elliot]

Remember that the skin stretches when they shed. :)

[crzy_kevo]

oh i didn't know that the skin stretches when they shed so how much length should i deduct

[Elliot]

I'm not sure, but I think it stretches at least like 15% if not more.

[GartersRock]

I wish you could measure by shed... But that would be to easy now! ;)

[Zephyr]

The only snake I really measure for size is Fatty.
She was 21" in Mid June and now she's 24", possibly more. :)
And she's staring at me from above the computer. XD

[GartersRock]

I never measure lengths on my snakes... I guess I don't really care. But I weigh in grams once or twice a week in OCD fashion. :D