Just a quick suggestion that may or may not work for you.
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Put the animal down quietly against a blank wall in a large empty room, an empty hallway, or a large room with all the furniture moved to the other side.
It works best if the floor is smooth like tile or linoleum, or like here, laminate flooring.
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If things stay quiet, the animal will often straighten out and crawl along the wall right where the wall and floor come together.
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You can place an object down the wall on the floor, like a copy of Ditmar's Reptiles of North America and when the snake reaches it, mark the spot where the tail is, then measure.
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This takes patience and is not "dead-on" accurate. It works consistently with Boas and pythons, but can work with Rats and Kings if they don't panic.
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Good Luck,


-----
Regards, Bill McGighan

[ Hide Replies ]

• Exciting Times - corythreatt, Tue Jul 22 08:43:15 2008
• RE: Exciting Times - DMong, Tue Jul 22 09:43:22 2008
• RE: Exciting Times - Trolligans, Tue Jul 22 09:57:33 2008
• exactly!......... - DMong, Tue Jul 22 10:52:28 2008
• Sorry - corythreatt, Tue Jul 22 13:16:45 2008
• RE: Sorry - DMong, Tue Jul 22 14:05:47 2008
• Common Misconception - Trolligans, Wed Jul 23 10:43:57 2008
• RE: Sorry - tbrock, Wed Jul 23 18:07:07 2008
• RE: Exciting Times - ratsnakehaven, Thu Jul 24 01:02:16 2008
• Ball Park Measure Technique - BillMcgElaphe, Fri Jul 25 08:34:16 2008