how old?

[bdc873]

How can you tell how old a snake is?

And how much shoudl i be feeding him/her?

Shes about a foot and change from tail to head. I gave her one small mouse like 2inches with fur about teh size of my thumb per week. Is this enough? Or do I need two per feeding?

[DutchHerp]

I have a very sophisticated method of finding out how old a snake is.

First off, I buy the snake from a reputable breeder.

Then, when I feel like it, I shoot this person an e-mail asking how old the snake is.

Then, when you're lucky, they'll send you an e-mail with the hatch date of the snake.

This method has worked for me more than once and I definitely recommend it!





As for the feeding, I want to be able to see a slight lump in the snake's body.

[bdc873]

but,

assuming you bought it from petco, and you have a bunch of retard teenagers working there...who wont know the age...then, how do you know?

[joshn6805]

theres really no surefire way to know how old they are unless they have a record of the hatch date. as for the feeding i always feed a mouse about the girth of the snake and i always offer a second one. sometimes they take the second one sometimes they dont.

[DutchHerp]

but,

assuming you bought it from petco, and you have a bunch of retard teenagers working there...who wont know the age...then, how do you know?

If it's only a foot in length it's definitely an '08.

[M&J in NC]

I also have an '08 and he's 25 inches. Hope that helps some.

[Slim]

If you got it recently from PetCo, it' most likely an 08'.

[Kaorte]

The best way to measure a snake is to weigh it. Length is really not that useful :/

Go out and get a scale, it will be your new best friend. I weigh my snakes every week, the day before feeding. To find out how much they should be eating, I weigh the mice (f/t). I feed 10-15% of the snakes body weight.

When my snakes were under 300grams, I fed once every 5 days, but now that they are a bit chunkier, I feed once a week.

As for determining age, if you got it from a petstore, all you can do is guess. I would assume you have an 08 (maybe an early 09 if you just recently got the snake). Knowing its weight can give you a little bit better of an estimate. But you will never really know for sure.

[FatBoy]

Feed one rat slightly larger than the largest part of the snakes belly. Do not offer a 2nd one. One rat every 5-7 days. The reason to buy from a breeder is to make sure you get a well established healthy snake.