Determining age by length?

We have three new BP, two that are a little over a foot long and then one that is about three and a half feet long. We are unsure of their ages as we got the two smaller ones from a PETCO in town and the bigger one off of Craig's List. Does anyone know how to tell at least somewhat closely as to what age these guys are?

You can't really determine age by the size of a snake because they all grow at different rates.

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Originally Posted by ballpythonluvr

You can't really determine age by the size of a snake because they all grow at different rates.

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Yeah that makes sense. We're kind of new to owning the snakes. We also have a really gorgeous red tailed boa.

But do you by any chance know of any way to tell how old they are?

the ones about a foot are probably 2011 babies. most likely hatched in the spring. 3 1/2 footer could be anywhere from 2+ years. It depends on a lot of factors, mostly feeding. I have a one year old who's over 2 feet and a 3 year old who's the same size (both were adopted) - hope this helped.

Here's a picture of one of our guys who was hatched in summer 2011, he's a lot smaller than his brothers and sisters, but you can get an idea of how big they get within the first year.

http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...9/8/lesser.jpg


cheers

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Originally Posted by decensored

the ones about a foot are probably 2011 babies. most likely hatched in the spring. 3 1/2 footer could be anywhere from 2+ years. It depends on a lot of factors, mostly feeding. I have a one year old who's over 2 feet and a 3 year old who's the same size (both were adopted) - hope this helped.

Here's a picture of one of our guys who was hatched in summer 2011, he's a lot smaller than his brothers and sisters, but you can get an idea of how big they get within the first year.

http://ball-pythons.net/gallery/file...9/8/lesser.jpg


cheers

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Thank you, this helped a lot!

And to show more on being based on the individual... Our 2010 spring baby is approximately 36" at this time. Our little piggie has grown a ton on his weekly mousy treats.

Aging snakes by length is like guessing a humans age by height, it doesn't work.
I have seen mid 2009 snakes smaller than early 2011's.

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Originally Posted by snakesRkewl

Aging snakes by length is like guessing a humans age by height, it doesn't work.
I have seen mid 2009 snakes smaller than early 2011's.

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Agree completely. I recently rescued a ball python that was over a year old, and weighed a whopping 91 grams. It's not an accurate way to measure at all.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by snakesRkewl

Aging snakes by length is like guessing a humans age by height, it doesn't work.
I have seen mid 2009 snakes smaller than early 2011's.

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x2 or 3...or whatever # we're on now ;)