Growth rate between sheds

zombielotus · 05-04-11, 09:25 AM

My Jungle X Jag, Dezra, just shed last night. Its the second time she has shed since I have had her. She shed on March 29th and now May 5th.

This last shed is about 6 inches longer then the previous one.

I was just wondering what the average growth rate is in between sheds.

Dezra is almost 10 months old now. (hatched July 16th, 2010)

*Side note... After I typed this, I read it and it made me laugh. It almost sounds like math problem from grade school. LOL

KD35WIN.AS.ONE · 05-04-11, 09:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zombielotus

My Jungle X Jag, Dezra, just shed last night. Its the second time she has shed since I have had her. She shed on March 29th and now May 5th.

This last shed is about 6 inches longer then the previous one.

I was just wondering what the average growth rate is in between sheds.

Dezra is almost 10 months old now. (hatched July 16th, 2010)

*Side note... After I typed this, I read it and it made me laugh. It almost sounds like math problem from grade school. LOL

I have been wondering the same thing! I too have measured the size of my Carpet Pythons last two sheds both times they have increased by 6 inches. I know the shed is NOT a indicator of the size for its stretched. So i wish i could have been more help. Heres a picture of my last CP's shed just for fun lol.

sickvenom · 05-04-11, 10:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zombielotus

This last shed is about 6 inches longer then the previous one.

I was just wondering what the average growth rate is in between sheds.

sheds stretch for various reasons. despite what one person on this forum keeps saying, there is NO accurate way to determine how much a shed will stretch. the variables are too many. also, sheds don't occur simply due to growth rate therefore, there is no average growth rate in between sheds.

stephanbakir · 05-04-11, 10:11 AM

We had a shed a while back that was 9 ft 3 inches long, about 3 sheds later we got one that was 9 feet long, and in between we got a 9 foot 6 inch shed. Sheds are by no means a method of gauging a snakes overall length. Unless you believe they can shrink 6 inches.

Lankyrob · 05-04-11, 10:38 AM

Growth rate between sheds will change depending on the age of the snake and how much it is being fed etc - every snake within a type will be different let alone ones from different types.

red ink · 05-04-11, 05:42 PM

Meticulous sustained record keeping is the best way of understanding....

Feed type + weight
Intervals of feed + defication intervals
Shed interval + weight + length increase
Seanonal change notation

Over time this will give you an average picture of growth rate in correlation to shed intervals.

Won't help you now but something to think about if you get a new neonate specimen.

stephanbakir · 05-04-11, 07:17 PM

Its also important to note that this will be specific to this animal and still subject to the possibility of erratic changes, and comparing the log of one species and that of another will only bring you to false conclusions if you don't take the time to test them.

blindfireak40 · 05-04-11, 08:33 PM

If you REALLY want to get a decent idea of how much your snake has (or hasn't) grown, then your best bet would be the SnakeMeasurer program. It's not phenomenally written, but it's a pretty accurate way to measure a snake without having to get the darn thing to stretch out by a tape measure.

Apps

It's freeware, and I've installed it and run it several times with no issues. Just make sure that the pictures you use are about 1094X820 pixels, as you can't resize images once in the program. You can get pictures to be about this size with Paint or Gimp, the latter essentially being a freeware version of photoshop.

Basic instructions for program use are on the page.

stephanbakir · 05-04-11, 09:01 PM

That's pretty cool if it works, ill need to check it out.

blindfireak40 · 05-05-11, 07:43 PM

It works pretty well. all you need to do is include something of known length in a bird's-eye picture of the snake.

the way the program works, you set a "reference" with the known length, and then you can click off points along your snake's spine and it measures the distance between the points.
i used it twice on one picture, with two seperate instances and got an error of rougly 1/8 of an inch. i'm fairly certain it's accurate, especially for small snakes, as they are easier to get in a top-down picture with a reference.

Coffee Black · 05-05-11, 09:01 PM

Speaking of record keeping, does anyone have a good sheet/graph/whatsit they use? I keep a basic one in notepad but have always been on the lookout for something better.

sickvenom · 05-05-11, 09:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coffee Black

Speaking of record keeping, does anyone have a good sheet/graph/whatsit they use? I keep a basic one in notepad but have always been on the lookout for something better.

be more specific. what kind of graph? i used computer software for all my record keeping.