Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Which sex of cornsnake is typically larger please folks?

My girl's a CB March '06 animal, coming up to 2 yrs old and measures 4.5 ft - eats two rat weaners a week

...is this normal or does she sound bigger/smaller than average?

Just wondered because I've heard that males get longer (esp. the tails) but mine seems fairly big already and her sheds haven't slowed down, she grows 4 inches a month and sheds every month.

I also wanna guage whether I am a generous feeder or a stingy one - any ideas?

Would anyone like to predict her full adult size?! I'd love to hear some guesses.

Best wishes for '08

Willzy

Some literature states that males grow longer (on average), but I haven't found any difference - I've seen some pretty large females too.

Tim

Third Eye

Also, at the "said" rate of growth,...4 inches a month(1 inch per week), and not even being 2 years of age at 4.5 ft in length, it just might be in contention for the WORLD RECORD!..LOL

If all this is accurate, the snake seems to be growing at the rate of "sea kelp" off the coast of California!..LOL

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

L.O.L.,I'm glad you said that!I was beginning to think my babies were puny! Jeff

OK, just messing with Tim. He does know his stuff

But a grasshopper has to stretch his wings now and again.

TIM TIM TIM TIM TIM

wu wei wu
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Thanks for reading.
Big Tom

www.HerpZillA.com

...males are larger than females. Just as it is with all species, there are exceptions, but males are generally larger than females.

Are you sure you have a female there? Also, are you measuring it by the shed skin, or via direct measurement of the snake? Not that 4.5' is impossible for male or female sub two-year olds, but that is very large for that age. On that note, if you discover you have a male, you should immediately cut down on the amount you are feeding. If you're positive it's a female, I'd still consider cutting back to one small rat per week. Just like humans, once they reach size maturity, it's not wise to feed them more than they can utilize. The extra calories (after metabolism and growth use) will convert to fat. Snakes do not get enough exercise to justify that many calories, at that age. The largest items we feed any of our adult corns is small rats. Very few get those. 98% of all our breeders get nothing more than one adult mouse per week. Males, even less.

Good luck,

Don
South Mountain Reptiles

I agree with Don(hi there Don). Generally the males get bigger than the females,it's part of their sexual dimorphism). That being said I have seen some bomber(5 foot plus females), in fact one of my breeder females is a 5 footer, and I have also had past females that pushed 5 and 1/2 feet. All were from the Okeetee populations, where they do appear to grow larger than the norm.

It's also worth noting that some races like the Miami and Key Corns naturally grow smaller than some other races, like Okeetee. Therefore the genetics can play a big part in overall adult sizes.

Tim

As long as she does not seem to be getting overly fat or obese then your feeding schedule is fine. You'll want to slow it down when she stops growing though. As long as she is growing and not getting obese then no worries.

Sean.
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1.1 BRB
1.1 Triple Het TPRS's
0.1 Silver TPRS
1.1 Amel Bloodred Corns
0.1 Abbott Okeetee Corn
0.1 Blizzard Bloodred Corn
1.1 Thayeri Kingsnakes
0.1 Reeve's Turtle
0.2 Amstaff's
1.0 Pudytat

With my refferences to fat/obese I was trying to address what Don just covered about calloric intake. I don't have alot of experience with adult corns dietary intake so i was just mentioning the visible effects of the too high callories.

Don, as usual , has much more specific and helpful data.

Sean.
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1.1 BRB
1.1 Triple Het TPRS's
0.1 Silver TPRS
1.1 Amel Bloodred Corns
0.1 Abbott Okeetee Corn
0.1 Blizzard Bloodred Corn
1.1 Thayeri Kingsnakes
0.1 Reeve's Turtle
0.2 Amstaff's
1.0 Pudytat

Now is that a great topic or what?!

OK, Don and Kathy are posting, and they both have seen tons of corns. So a good time to get them in on this.

How LONG is the longest corn snake ANYONE, has had? Measusred by body not skin, and not of gee he must be 5'.

Serious answers please. Also anyone know the record?

Then, now a touchy topic maybe, if a creamcicle broke the record would it be legit? Or would it need and asterisk?
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Thanks for reading.
Big Tom

www.HerpZillA.com

From what I understand, the record length is 1.8 meters(6ft.) (Conant and Collins 1991),....but who REALLY knows,......there could be a kid watching cartoons holding a 6.4 ft specimen as we speak!..LOL.......who knows with absolute certainty.

I'm guessing the dude posting the 4.5 ft. corn that's only 1.75 years old will BUST that record!.....also, I think he needs to move away from the nuclear reactor that's in his neighbohood!.LOL!!!

~Doug
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

As that was up, and you were responding I was looking up Marvin the Martian wav files.

Maybe the guy has some Illudiom "Pew36" buried in his yard?

"I'm all agog!"

4.5" a year? Well I made it as easy as I could for him to post pics. Watch it be a retic!
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Thanks for reading.
Big Tom

www.HerpZillA.com

n/p
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"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Hello,

Back from the power plant with my reticulated giant corn!

When I got her the guy said male but I posted pics up here a while back and everyone said female (pics below) - stubby tail. The 1st pic is her at 8 months. Check out the colo(u)r change between the old pic of her and the two more recent pics! Will get some recent shots up soon.

I measured her with string and a tape ...last 3 measurements were 44",47",52".... 3 feeds then shed,3 feeds then shed.... every month without fail. This is why I posted because I expected growth and shedding to slow down at 3.5 - 4 feet but she's shown no signs of slowing down.

Really appreciate all your comments.

Hope to get decent pics of this fatty up soon!

Thanks,

Mr. Burns

i posted some pics in the previous post - anyone know what local population my corn would be from?

Willzy

Back in the mid-80s Jim Harrison and I were field herping in Jasper county, S. Carolina, when we came upon a HUGE male corn in a dead stump. This animal appeared to be very old and "on its last legs"-lots of scarring, old injuries and rather sluggish.

It taped out at 6'2", if I remember correctly.
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Brad Chambers

The Avalanche has already started-it is too late for the pebbles to vote....

My apologizes. Some of the info did not sound right, and we have all heard so many stories on length size, weight, etc.

I jumped the gun on my retic remark. Note I even put it in the title so the lazy people can see it .

BUT!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nice snake.

Again, some new pics.
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Thanks for reading.
Big Tom

www.HerpZillA.com