how old is my dumerils?

[pinsonoso]

I just bought a 0.1dumerils yesterday and she's roughly two and a half feet long,can anyone help me estimate the age? I guess 6 months to a year

0.1BRB,0.1DUM

[ErikBush97]

Hard to say :/ the problem is that one 6 month old could be two feet long and their sibling could be 6 months old, and that one could be four feet long... You can't really guess any snakes age unfortunately.

[SSSSnakes]

Growth rate is determined by how well the snake eats. It is really hard to estimate an age by the length and weight of a snake. I have a King snake that is over 5 years old and is smaller than my 1 year old King snake.

[Mikoh4792]

Originally Posted by SSSSnakes

Growth rate is determined by how well the snake eats.

Is growth limit also determined by how much a snake eats, or will a snake being fed well just get to the limit faster, while the same snake will get to the same length on a more moderate feeding regimen, just more gradually?

[exwizard]

Originally Posted by Mikoh4792

Is growth limit also determined by how much a snake eats, or will a snake being fed well just get to the limit faster, while the same snake will get to the same length on a more moderate feeding regimen, just more gradually?

I like your question. Before I answer this, I will tell you where I am coming from with this. I keep 11 species of 38 different snakes. They range from Corn snakes and Kings to Burms and a Scrub. I feed different size rats to different size snakes.

2 examples I want to zero in on are Medusa, my 8'+ Burm and Black Betty, my 9' Dum. Medusa is younger than Betty and still has a lot of growing to do, Burm that she is. I have her on small rabbits weekly. Betty is the same size now that she was when we first picked her up 3 years ago. She is much bigger than Dums are supposed to be and will her being 11+ years old, her growth rate has slowed to an imperceptible level. She is on XXXL rats, one per month, if she even takes that.

Yes, growth rates depend a lot on what and how much they eat, but species and age has a major influence in that as well. With most, if not all snakes, most of their growth happens when they are younger and slow down as they age but certain species get much bigger than others overall and those size limits are primarily determined by the species themselves. Of course it's not exclusive to that but it is heavily influenced by that.

[pinsonoso]

Thanks,I guess being a Dumerils Its safe to say its still pretty young considering its eventual size

[Mikoh4792]

Originally Posted by exwizard

I like your question. Before I answer this, I will tell you where I am coming from with this. I keep 11 species of 38 different snakes. They range from Corn snakes and Kings to Burms and a Scrub. I feed different size rats to different size snakes.

2 examples I want to zero in on are Medusa, my 8'+ Burm and Black Betty, my 9' Dum. Medusa is younger than Betty and still has a lot of growing to do, Burm that she is. I have her on small rabbits weekly. Betty is the same size now that she was when we first picked her up 3 years ago. She is much bigger than Dums are supposed to be and will her being 11+ years old, her growth rate has slowed to an imperceptible level. She is on XXXL rats, one per month, if she even takes that.

Yes, growth rates depend a lot on what and how much they eat, but species and age has a major influence in that as well. With most, if not all snakes, most of their growth happens when they are younger and slow down as they age but certain species get much bigger than others overall and those size limits are primarily determined by the species themselves. Of course it's not exclusive to that but it is heavily influenced by that.

Ah I see.

So let's take a female jungle carpet python for example. Both it's parents are around 6 ft. No more than 7.

The female is 3.5ft at a year old(I know huge) from an aggressive feeding regimen. Does this mean that even with a moderate feeding schedule, the fact that she is big for her age means that she will most likely be one of those monster jungles, or can she fed to grow around 6 to 7 ft without underfeeding her? Keeping in mind that she still has a couple years to grow.

[Aaron_S]

I recommend cutting it open and counting the rings.

[exwizard]

She will be bigger than normal because of the earlier aggressive feeding schedule but because of her more moderate current feeding schedule she will not be as big as she would've been had het feeding schedule remained on the more aggressive side.

That said, power feeding snakes to get them to a certain size is unhealthy for the snake and will shorten its life span. I would never to that.

There are many factors that figure into a snake's size, feeding schedule only being one. There is variation even within the species but you will never have a 10' Corn and you will never have a 16' Dum.

[mmarchl23]

Originally Posted by Aaron_S

I recommend cutting it open and counting the rings.

I cannot express how hard I laughed at this...

[marvelfreak]

Originally Posted by Mikoh4792

Ah I see.

So let's take a female jungle carpet python for example. Both it's parents are around 6 ft. No more than 7.

The female is 3.5ft at a year old(I know huge) from an aggressive feeding regimen. Does this mean that even with a moderate feeding schedule, the fact that she is big for her age means that she will most likely be one of those monster jungles, or can she fed to grow around 6 to 7 ft without underfeeding her? Keeping in mind that she still has a couple years to grow.

My 8'.4" and 16 lbs Jungle Carpet is a flat out monster for a Jungle. Since she was three years of age she gone off of feeding 4 to 5 month's every winter. Even then she will skip a feeding a couple times through out the rest of the year. From 1 year of age when i got her to almost 5 or 6 she would only eat once a month. I offer every other week but she just wouldn't eat. Out of every snake i ever own she is by far the most irregular eater and yet she grown to be a monster. So it really hard to say.