Snake shead size ?

[Kratos]

So my snake just shead its skin tonight and i was woundering if the size of its sheaded skin is the actual size of snake. I would think that it streaches a little cuz if not my BRB grew a foot in 6 months, which was the last time i mesured its shead. This would be about the 3rd time since then. Today it mesuers just a little over 5 ft.

[poison123]

Yes the SHED does stretch out a bit. But it is helpful to give you an estimate.

[Kratos]

Thank you poison that what i needed to know. Just like you said it will give me an idea of his size. so thatll be almost 1.5 feet that its grown since ive had it for a year now. As for the age of snake idk since i got it from a friend who paid it no attention. I would guesstamate around 3 years old if that sounds right for its size.

[Starbuck]

not only does the shed stretch a bit in the process of getting off the snake, but it also shrinks as it dries out once off the snake. One cool thing i like to do to measure approximate growth with my sheds is measure the width of the large central scale on their heads (i keep mainly colubrids), as i feel that offers a better estimate of growth over time vs. total length.

[Stephan Grundy]

You can't get a real measurement off a shed (stretch), and even comparative lengths can be problematical for measurement within a couple of inches either way because the degree of stretch may vary depending on all sorts of things. But as a rough indicator of how your snake is growing (lots or a little), they work okay.