Reptile & Amphibian Forums

i know alot of petstores keep snakes small so people will buy them, do those snakes whose growth was stunted still have the same size potential?
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jake

my addiction:
2 normal ball pythons (lazlo and izzy)
1 amelenistic corn snake (zyklon)
0.1 blizzard corn (blizz)

>>i know alot of petstores keep snakes small so people will buy them, do those snakes whose growth was stunted still have the same size potential?
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>>jake

First let me say that I don't think the logic follows. Around here if you have a big snake for sale it is gonna sell much faster than a baby. That and having worked many years in the pet industry I have never seen it that a store intentionally underfeeds or stunts an animal. So anyway.
To find out if the stunting is reparable it would depend on too many factors I think to know. Like how long at what age did some sort of stunting happen? You just aren't gonna know what is gonna turn around and what isn't.
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Sonya

Haven't we warned you about tampering with the structure of a chaotic system?
Mrs. Neutron

I have heard that snakes will reach their full potential even if their growth is stunted. This is because it is in their genes to reach a certain length and size, all it requires is food! So either the animal will die eventually from lack of nutrition, or it will just very very slowly fill out to that size depending on how much (or I should say little) it is fed. A prime example would be "power feeding". These snakes don't necessarily reach extremely huge proportions, they just grow much quicker and at a faster rate because they eat that much more. Hope this answers your question.