Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Why do y'all measure your snakes' weights in grams? Are they snakes or drugs? Just kidding about the drugs, but why not ounces?

Also, why doyou most often refer to a snake's weight versus it's length.

And when you measure length, do you "stretch" them out, or is it typically with the natural S-shape?

Grams are a lot more accurate in many cases. For something like a big python or BCC, grams don't make that much sense. But at ~28 grams per ounce, measuring my 8 gram house snake in ounces wouldn't make much sense Also, a weight loss that may turn out to be significant would be easier to notice with more accurate measurements.

As for measuring length, I just measure their sheds and call it close enough. Easier than holding them up in a corner between walls to get 'em to straighten out.

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1.0.0 Normal corn snake (Frito)
1.0.0 Creamsicle corn (Tang)
0.1.0 Ghost corn (Raynham)
1.1.2 Bay of LA rosy boas (Rivet, Cali, and Cali's unnamed babies)
0.1.0 Cape Gopher (Mole)
0.0.1 African House Snake (Casa)

grams are much more accurate than ounces. When I measure the length I just place the snake in an empty 41 qt sterilite. The snake will usually stretch out fairly strait when crawling along the sides and you can mark the nose end and tail end and measure that way. Also I know that my container is roughly 34 inches long along the floor so you can get a good estimation just by looking at it. Shed skin can work as well so long as you remember that a shed skin is about 1/3 longer than the snake is due to its elasticity when it comes off and then hardens in the streched state. I've found that my 35 inch corn will have roughly about 41 inches of shed skin as long as its in tact and not missing the tail piece.

There's a handy program you can use to measure your snake. Take a picture of it from above and place something next to it that you know the length of eg a ruler. The program then allows you to 'measure' the snake.

Much easier than straightening them out!