Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey everyone I don't think I have been on here for years because I have been so busy with other things in life but my interst in snakes have currently been rekindled. Over my life I have kept some wc catenifers but nothing too serious, and I still have had one for almost 6 years now (caught when he was just born in 01 summer). Anyways I was just wondering (probably asked this back in the past) what is the longest recorded pacific gopher or what is the biggest one you guys have seen in the wild or captivity? Mine is about 4 ft. now but at the widest part of his head it could be no bigger than a nickel maybe even closer to a penny; he has not reached his full growth right? He seems like he could get a lot bigger and dont all snakes pretty much grow until death, or do they just grow width wise and not length wise once they are mature? I have always wanted him to be a big snake and no I didn't want a bullsnake or any other large colubrid because I have always liked the local East Bay area catenifers best. Does the enclosure size really effect maximum growth? Rats are the best diet, correct, or should I keep it varied? Well thank you if you have any insight as my snake knowledge is extremely rusty and sorry for such a long post.

Ryan

I'd definitely say he has more to grow but I do not know if my experience with pacific gophers was representative of them across their range. All the ones I kept in the past were from the El Dorado County region of northern california.

The pacific gophers I kept in the past got up to just over 6 feet long.

I'm currently trying to track down some pacific gopher snows (or possibly other morphs) so I can start keeping these again but without the hassles of permits. Unfortunately I haven't heard of anyone working with pacific morphs for at least a year or two.

Sean.

this is the biggest pacific i've caught he was all of 5 feet and about the thickness of susan b. we were actually going swimming after herpin all day and stubled on this guy on the way to the swimming hole, along the crooked river in central or. i have no idea about captive size, i wouldn't doubt theres some six footers out there!

I have an albino male that is well over 4 feet. He might be 5 feet by now. His head is very small though, about the size of my thumb. I don't like it at all!!! Somehow his tiny head kind of hurts my feelings

I had to laugh about the tiny head part. From everything I've read and seen the tiny head thing just comes w/ the territory when keeping Gophers. I had a post on here awhile back asking for pics of "monster" Gophers. I keep reading about 6 footers, but have never seen any.

reako45

As I said I am not sure if the 6footers I often saw was just that region or a trait common to pacific gophers but I saw it somewhat regularly where I was living when I was keeping pacific gophers. That was back when I was living in El Dorado County north california though so almost 15 years ago.

Unfortunately I was just a kid when I was keeping gophers and there were no digital pictures so any that might exist would be hard copy photo's surviving many moves and if they exist I haven't seen em for years(pics that is). But for size refference one of my old gophers used to crawl through the center of a carpet roll(8 ft) and when he was full stretched out going through it he covered about 3/4 of the length.

Sean.

i caught 4 foot garter snakes when i was like 8 but then again i was eight! lol

lol true enough but I wasn't the one measuring my gopher snakes most of the time so I'm pretty sure I know the lengths of the ones I kept. And I know many I saw in the area I lived were near or as large as mine. But yeah age definitely does temper your perceptions.

Sean

I found one DOR up here in Redding that had to be pushing 5 feet. I don't think it was quite there, but it was close.
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3.6 L. getula californiae - 5 eggs (Cal. King)
1.1 L. getula nigrita (MBK)
1.0 Pantherophis guttatus guttatus (Corn)
1.0 Pituophis catenifer catenifer (Pacific gopher)
3.3 Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata (Cal. Alligator Lizard)