Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Does anyone have any advice or tips on how to accurately measure big snakes? I have a squeeze box I use for small ones, but my boa and retics are too big for that (unless I make a squeeze box the size of a bathtub). Weights not much of a problem, but length and girth sure are.

Use a piece of string and run it down his back and then the girth. Measure the string then you got it.

I Don't know what the temperaments of your animals are, but I usually measure mine during the warmer months out in the backyard. I just let them crawl around for a while to burn off some energy, pretty soon they just start chilling and I just string them, like the last post stated. To make it easier to measure the string, double it 1 or 2 times, then measure and multiply by how many times you folded it.
Good luck!
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Mike

I've tried all sorts of ways and the best for me is to let them crawl along a wall, like in a hallway with bedroom doors shut. Sometimes you have to redirect them or reposition them but they'll usually crawl pretty straight against a high wall.

For girth you can use a dtring or a tailor's tape (used in sewing).

Have a good one!
HH
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Due to political correctness run amuck,
this ol' hillbilly is now referred to as an:
Appalachian American

www.natures-signature.com

I've been meaning to give this try. I think if you took an overhead pic from a ladder, balcony, rooftop, etc... you could get a pretty accurate measurement.

www.serpwidgets.com/Apps/apps.html
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-Jeff
http://jefflumanreptiles.com

Seems like a very interesting idea, but being that most of my snakes are 18' plus, I don't know how I'm going to get high enough above them to get that nice "square" shot....LOL. For smaller animals, I think it would work great!
Good luck!
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Mike

While I have read about the string measurement method for decades, I have never needed to use it on really large constrictors. All of the large pythons and anacondas that are currently in my collection are docile enough that they will stretch out straight on the floor, or along a wall, and can be measured with extreme accuracy. I have always wondered about the accuracy of this method and decided to test it on a large python.

This evening I used a metal tape to very accurately measure an albino burmese in my collection at 16 feet 8 inches. I put her back in her unit and then took a length of fairly thick cotton string and ran it along the spine, doing this very carefully to get an accurate measurement. I also did this with a few "S" curves in her body as an added test of the method. I made three completely separate measurements with the string. All three string measurements were between 16'11'' and 17'3'' with an average of 17 feet 1.5 inches. I was really surprised as this was much more accurate than I would have thought it could be on a python of this length. For pythons of this length, it shows an accuracy of within 2%. In other words, the string measurement times 0.98 will give the true length of the snake. Additionally, one important thing that you must do to maintain accuracy is when measuring the string you just ran along the snake, be extremely careful not to stretch it in any way when measuring it with the tape.

Kelly