Growth rate of older snakes.

marvelfreak · 01-31-13, 06:28 PM

This was brought up in another thread and it got me thinking. For anyone with snakes ten years old older. How often does your snake shed? Some say they never stop growing, but i think they reach there maximum size a stop.

I have a Jungle Carpet that's just shy of 12 years old. After looking at my records i noticed she has only shed about once every 4 to 5 month's for the last couple years. When i measure her she hasn't grown maybe a 1/4 a inch in over two years if that.

So i am curious about what other think about if they keep always growing or do the top out at some point? I really like to hear what others have noticed with there old animals. For the record my big Jungle is 8'4" long and weighs 15.5 lbs. She has gain about half a pound in 18 months.

Terranaut · 02-01-13, 03:22 AM

Funny you mentioned the shed rate at 4-5 months I have 5 adult snakes that shed at that rate. 2 JCP's 2Boas and a king. None of these are 10yrs old but they are fed well and if they were going to grow much they would be shedding at shorter intervals. Even if they are growing it's at a super slow rate now. My JCP female is about 7.5 ft and 12 lbs ish.
Great thread idea Chuck!

marvelfreak · 02-01-13, 01:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Terranaut

Funny you mentioned the shed rate at 4-5 months I have 5 adult snakes that shed at that rate. 2 JCP's 2Boas and a king. None of these are 10yrs old but they are fed well and if they were going to grow much they would be shedding at shorter intervals. Even if they are growing it's at a super slow rate now. My JCP female is about 7.5 ft and 12 lbs ish.
Great thread idea Chuck!

Thanks Dan.

I have also noticed when she goes into shed it's for a longer period. Plus when she does shed the shed itself is a lot thicker than when she was younger. Her and my anaconda are the same size but her skin from her sheds is easily twice if not more thicker.

Terranaut · 02-01-13, 01:56 PM

I will pay more attention to the thickness of their sheds and see if mine are the same.

exwizard · 02-02-13, 11:52 AM

Out of all my snakes, only Popeye and Black Betty are over 10 yrs (both being '02s). Since I moved here 6 months ago, Popeye has shed 4 times and Black Betty shed 3 times. Neither has has grown enough for me to notice any size difference. I'm still of the opinion that snakes never really stop growing but they do slow down enough to where any growth that does take place is so small that it's imperceptible but that's just my experience with the older snakes I have.

**Aaron_S** · 02-02-13, 01:59 PM

I just measured one of the oldest ball pythons here. He's a 12 or 13 year old albino male. I measured him using two different methods.

Both times he came out to be roughly 54 inches. We can give or take an inch or two for the fact you can't just stretch out a snake easily. I'll keep notes on this for the next few years.