42 inch female?

[Tori]

I found my female Cali stretched out along the glass in her cage and since we were measuring to find out how we could get a couple more cages in the room I took the time to measure her. She might be longer, but not shorter than 42 inches long (can't ever get them completely straight, you know). I was wondering, Do Cali's usually get that long? She is only 3 years old, will she continue to grow? Good thing her cage is 5 feet long. I'm tempted to measure the male, but he is the hateful one (tries to circle around a mouse to get to my hand to bite, honest! He goes out of his way to get a chance to bite!)

[Stefan-A]

That's pretty big.

Judging by what I've read and heard, most snakes' growth slow down significantly after the first three years, but they should keep growing slightly in length and width.

[drache]

very cool
that means my baby's got a chance to grow that big

[Sid]

That is one good sized Garter.

[anji1971]

That's a good size! Deejay's only 26 or 27" long and she'll be three this summer.

[GarterGuy]

Very nice....that is big for a Cali., they are just a subspecies of T.sirtalis, so I don't think it's very out of hand big though. Yeh, pretty much like Stephan said, she'll continue to grow some, but her growth will be much slower from here on out.

[ssssnakeluvr]

to measure mine I take a piece of string, put the end at the head of the snake, work my way down grabbing the snakes and holding the string against the back of the snake. it usually takes 2 people to do this. after you get to the end, you grab the end of the string to mark the length...then measure the string... my melanistic eastern measured at 42" last summer....she is huge, eats full grown mice like crazy!!! snakes continue to grow their entire lives, however as they get older they grow slower...

[Tori]

Yeah, this one eats adult mice too. I keep them for my corn snakes, but hoppers just weren't big enough anymore. Prettyboy (misnamed since she is a female) also eats adult mice, but everything else is eating fuzzies or hoppers.

Bill loves looking at them, but won't touch them. So, measuring them is NOT something I could ask him to help with.

[ssssnakeluvr]

did you by chance hibernate them so they would breed???? i am looking to get some CA reds.....

[Tori]

They have bred repeatedly over the last month. The last time they...um...hooked up, was March 1st. Her eating habits have increased dramatically. Yesterday, she kept staring at me (my computer is in the snake room) all day until I was forced to feed her or give up on my homework, that was 3 days early. She actually climbed the glass to get to the mouse. Usually, she very calmly takes it when offered, even if I offer straight from my hand. I wouldn't have tried that yesterday. I've never seen her go after food that way.