[Malc]

Hello,

I have been looking on the forum and online, but I need help finding a proper growth chart for corn snakes. The ones I have found have contradictory information and are in imperial, which adds to the confusion. Does anyone have any idea where to find a good one?

Thanks!

Didn't know such things exist as like all things individuals can grow at different rates. Most of the time weight is used rather than length, so it would be helpful if you could either provide more detail on what you are actually looking for by linking to examples, or state the reason, or what information you wish to glean form the data.

In general, most snakes reach the "average" length for the species by the end of their 4th year, with years two or three being the time of fastest growth rate (dependent on species)

 

[Malc]

Hi Malc,

I don't know if this website is reliable, but they offer this basic growth chart. I want to ensure that my snakes are growing "well", I'm an inexperienced keeper, so I'm ensuring I'm not messing up. As the snake's weight also relates to the size of the feeder, I don't want to be underfeeding or overfeeding them.

Newbie doubts, I suppose...

It's been a long time since I kept and bred corn snakes, but I did pick up my Bairds rat snake as a 6 month old hatchling. She was fed fuzzy mice when I got her, which moved to fluffs after three months, and by the time she was a year old was on small mice at weekly feeds. I increased to adult mice by the end of the second year. She remained on adult mice to large adult mice until she was around three and a half when I switched over to small weaner rats on a 14 day cycle. From March of this year she's been on large weaner rats taking 1 every 14 days.

That website is full of misinformation - some of which Elly has already pointed out.

To give you some idea of the snakes size, this video was taken around this time last year.

As you can see she's mature at around 3.5 to 4 feet, which is around the average size of a mature corn snake.

And her feeding response to the large weaner rat is very dramatic - ensuring it will never get away

 

[Malc]

Also there is a very good sticky post at the top of the snake section

A Beginners Guide to Cornsnakes (Pantherophis guttatus)

A beginners guide to cornsnakes (Pantherophis guttatus) This species has one of the longest historys in the hobby, they have been bred for many decades and in that time many mutations (color morphs) have appeared. This species has everything from solid dark grey/brown to completely snow white...

www.reptileforums.co.uk

That has a lot more information and a better reference than that website you linked to

 

[Malc]

You can not use a shed skin as a means of measuring the snake. The skin is stretched in the process of being shed. Also part of the problem is that what one supplier class as being an adult mouse is another's medium, so its often easier to weigh the food item and use that as the identifier. You could always try the next sized food item and see how they take it. It should leave a nice rugby ball shape bulge after being consumed.

The good thing is that as the snake does most of its growth in the first three years, so what you offer and the frequency in this time isn't that concerning as it is used to grow rather than becoming obese and overweight.

As you can see from the image above the weaner rat is around twice the girth of my Bairds, yet she manages the rat without difficulty. You'll be surprised just how well they can take what seems a large meal.

Lastly, it's great to see you keep records. Keeping records is in my mind as much an important part of reptile keeping as any other aspect. Take a look at Reptiware which is an affordable PC application that can be used by a hobbyist with one or two snakes, through to a commercial breeder or retailer.

 

[Malc]

Yes, I buy my feed on weight rather than what they've been classed as.
I've found corns can take good sized feed and would definitely want to see a good bulge afterwards. I do think we underestimate what these little headed snakes will devour 😁

I agree. If you look at the head of my Bairds you would think she wouldn't be able to take something no larger than a fluff that's the thickness of a finger.... Seeing how easy she stretched to swallow the weaner rat and didn't struggle is quite an eye opener