Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I don't have records for my few w/c (LOL) so I am not sure how old they are, but my oldest are my two knobochi which are still only 7 years young. Just wondering what others oldest snakes are and thought it was fun. Hopefully this can't start arguments!

My oldest snake is my old corn named Harold. I got him as a baby when I was eight years old. 13 years later I work at the reptile store I got him from. I also have a BIG wild caught rosy boa who probably has some age on her.

Joe, although I've had snake's in the past much older than this, as of right now in my collection, my original BHB anerythristic Honduran is my oldest specimen at 14 years old. He is one puppy-dog tame, easy-going individual man, and has NEVER had any issues or refuse a meal whatsoever his entire life. He still breeds like a champ too, and I had him out on breeder loan to a friend just last season too. All 8 eggs his female had were huge and fertile, and hatched nice, robust hatchlings.

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

I have a butt-ugly male woma that is at least 15 years old.

Mine is a 9 year old female banded cali king.

Cool stuff. Doug, is that hondo taking any snake viagra!? LOL.

Oh yeah!, but they have to be rodent scented first!

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

Cool posts! My oldest is a Cal king I cought 9 years ago as a neonate, in S Ca. Many more good years to come from her. Next would be my male thayeri, he's 8.

Scott

Nice Scott. Ya gotta like the ones that you yourself caught and are doing well in captivity.

Thanks Joe! Yeah it is a nice feeling, guess I'm doing something right??? LOL!

Scott

My oldest is a female amel corn, "Miss Pink", that is around 15 years old. She's a funny old girl. When she is in shed and can't see much, she just opens her mouth for me to insert the mouse.

She came from some family friends - their teen age son had had her several years and got tired of her. Now we've had her seven or eight years.
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Amy Claiborne

Don't let them take your wasted time. J.T.

I have a blotched king that is 11.

a corn snake that is probaly 17 or 18yrs old.

We have two family pet snakes. Our First snake A corn snake (named Tabby)that we got when my oldest son was 12yrs. old. The corn snake was about a year old when we got him, and my son just had his 29th Birtday. So he's at least 17 plus years old.
We also have a gopher snake that is 14 plus years old.
Tabby the corn snake started showing his age last summer by his feeding habits( on and off alot), and he has a hard time seeing the food that I have to hold in front of him. He strikes and misses alot. He's still a heathy looking snake Just a little slow.
Bob

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R.Bichlers Colubrids
http://www.webspawner.com/users/rbichler/index.html

>>I don't have records for my few w/c (LOL) so I am not sure how old they are, but my oldest are my two knobochi which are still only 7 years young. Just wondering what others oldest snakes are and thought it was fun. Hopefully this can't start arguments!
>>

I hate to brag about this snake, because it is not mine personally, but he is REAL cool to have over here in my snake room.

Shannon Brown sent me an original wild collected male Amealco, Mexico, Ruthveni.....He was collected in 1983 by Mr. Lloyd Lemke himself. Soooo this male is at least 27 years old....

He is an old dog that I have to help shed every time and he is blind due to cataracts.....Really......But he LOVES to eat...
Here's some pics of the old guy.....He is the grandfather to nearly all of the aberrant ruthveni in the nation.....



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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...
www.coastalbendcaptivebreeding.com

As for my own oldest snake....I have a 1998 hatch Ric Blair Knoblochi.......So he'll be 12 this year....

I had a 14 year old Cal King back in 2006 that did not breed until he was 9 years old.....
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...
www.coastalbendcaptivebreeding.com

I also received a 1996 hatch Jalpan Ruthveni from Shannon Brown.....Both he and the Old Amealco are here on breeder loan....
Here's the 14 year old male Jalpan Ruthveni......

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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...
www.coastalbendcaptivebreeding.com

He still looks great!

>>He still looks great!

I think so too Joe.....
I like his feeding response the best, but I got to be careful, cause he cannot see so he just strikes (opened mouth) at anything that smells like food.....LOL
I usually just dangle and F/T mouse right in front of him and hasn't forgot how to constrict, find the head and swallow.....

Cool snake......and doing great.....
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...
www.coastalbendcaptivebreeding.com

Awesome John!,....hat's off to the ol' fella!

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

>>Awesome John!,....hat's off to the ol' fella!

I agree...I consider myself lucky to be in his presence sometimes....LOL

And yes...hats off to him for sure......

BTW...he bred successfully in 2007...not bad at 25.....LOL
Shannon gave him a break last year....
I am giving him a break this year.....

He may get at least one more shot at a female......
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...
www.coastalbendcaptivebreeding.com

Yeah man,...that is quite a long-lived special snake. Apparently, Shannon, and now you have taken great care of the guy.

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

>>Yeah man,...that is quite a long-lived special snake. Apparently, Shannon, and now you have taken great care of the guy.
>>
And Lloyd and whoever else had him after Lloyd.....
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...
www.coastalbendcaptivebreeding.com

"And Lloyd and whoever else had him after Lloyd"

Oh yeah!,........and of COURSE them too!

~Doug
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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

that was probably one of the snakes collected by the locales. Lloyd and John Ruiz would go down there and offer money to the townsfolks to do the actual collecting. They would show them how to find them. then they would get drunk and play volleyball all day.

Ahh those were the days!
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www.Bluerosy.com

"Pray for Obama. Psalm 109:8".

"They that can give up essential liberty, to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty or safety." -Benjamin Franklin

>>that was probably one of the snakes collected by the locales. Lloyd and John Ruiz would go down there and offer money to the townsfolks to do the actual collecting. They would show them how to find them. then they would get drunk and play volleyball all day.

Almost sounds like the perfect way to snake hunt, but myself I'd rather be doing the hunting!

Scott

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1 zonata 2 zonata 3 zonata 4, 5 zonata 6 zonata 7 zonata and more!

The oldest I currently have is a 11 year old female normal corn who will turn 12 this summer. I bought as a hatchling in 1998. She is still going strong and I plan to breed her this spring. I had a ball python I bought as an unknown baby in 1989 that I gave away 8 years ago. She may still be kicking.

First of all, those are gorgeous Knobs!!

My oldest is my Sinaloan milksnake, who will be 16 this year. Close second is my albino Sonoran gopher, who is appr. 14-15.

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Genesis 1:1

15 years

my oldest was a hybrid "Jurassic Milk" female 1994-2009. though i have kept some rosy boas for around that time span as well.

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www.Bluerosy.com

"Pray for Obama. Psalm 109:8".

"They that can give up essential liberty, to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty or safety." -Benjamin Franklin

The original albino striped cal king caught in Balboa park, lived 35 years after he was acquired as an adult. Cheers

Do you know of any captive-hatched kingsnakes that have lived over twenty plus yrs?

The only two Cals that I have seen still chugging along after 20 plus years are wild-caughts. Seems that captive produced Cals typically do not make it that long.

My friend has rosyboas that were wild-caught as adults and have been in his care for over 23 yrs. And unfortunately, his captive-produced rosies, even babies from that old pair, have never lived beyond about 12-15 or so yrs even when kept under the exact same caging and heating as the old pair.
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Mark

...
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- Matt

1.0 Black Milk '04
1.0 Andean Milk '06
0.1 Eastern King '97
0.1 Bullsnake '09

I am blown away by the age of some of these snakes. Awesome, and amazing. Just goes to show that these are long term "pets" and with proper care they can go a LOOOONG time.

the boa Yoda's at least 12 or 13. He's my oldest

7 year old applegate het pyro

I have 2 female boas that are a good 15 years old each. Got one as a baby in 95' and the other was a young adult when I got her in '97. I could have had a king, corn, or rat that was older but these are the only 2 that made it back to me after I sold them to start college.

Our copperhead at work recently passed away in January. WC in 1984. Time in captivity was 25 years 5 months. Estimated age at time of capture was 3-5 years. Estimated age at death 28-30 years. He could have been older as most copperheads in the wild typically reach around 2 feet in length at 4 years of age.. he was 26" at capture.. at death was about 45-46"

I currently have an amel corn that I got in 2002 from a friend and he was ~3 years of age at the time of adoption... so he's going on 11 years. I had one okeetee corn snake at work die at 21 years of age, a normal corn at work die at 12 years, and an amel corn of mine die at 11 years.

I have an emory rat snake that is currently pushing 19-20 years of age (maybe older). Got her in 1994 and she was already at full size... so was probably 4-5 years old at the time of purchase. She's been gradually developing cataracts on her eyes the past 2 years.

I have a ball python I took in as a rescue in 2006. She was previously owned for 10 years before I got her. The previous owners had bought her from a pet store and was NOT a baby. Most likely she was originally wild caught as back then not many sub adult cb's available in pet stores. She did put on a lot of growth/weight after coming into my care as previous owners underfed. Possible guess is that she's around 18 years of age. Currently pushing 8.5 lbs on an empty stomach... but being full of eggs at the moment is probably closer to 10 lbs.... BIG ovulation the other day.. gonna be a large clutch.

And just for fun... I have a cb eastern hognose that will be 6 years old this July...never once ate a toad.. strictly a mouse/rat eater from the start. Pretty good age for the naysayers who think hogs can't live long term on a straight rodent diet and claim they will die in a couple of years if you try to attempt it.

Awesome stories. Do you have a picture of that copperhead with some scale in it? I love copperheads and have caught too many to count but have never seen one that large. Not doubting you or anything, I just would love to see one that big and be able to see how large it is in a photo. Sounds like you are running an old folks home for snakes over there. LOL. Great stuff.

>>Awesome stories. Do you have a picture of that copperhead with some scale in it? I love copperheads and have caught too many to count but have never seen one that large. Not doubting you or anything, I just would love to see one that big and be able to see how large it is in a photo. Sounds like you are running an old folks home for snakes over there. LOL. Great stuff.

Yeah seems like it. Last year had a Barred Owl at work suffer a series of strokes...we had her 14 years and she was already an adult when we got her so no telling how old she really was when she passed away (could have been a 2 year old or a 10 year old - hard to tell with raptors). We have a great horned owl who is currently at least 20 years old (also came to us as an adult)..he's really showing his age these days.

Anyways... these were shots I took of good old Vern before deep freezing him. I tried my best to get a straight shot down and then used Serpwidget to draw a line down along his spine to get my size estimate. I had a 6" ruler and a Quarter for my size references. Serpwidget worked out about the same as having used a piece of string to mark his length and then measuring the string with a tape measure. Probably going to look into getting him taxidermied some day. For a copperhead he was really sweet and laid back.

And a belly shot.

no idea, in 2005, I caught a male suboc that was 68" long, he got hung up in a notch during a shed and passed away in '08. I only had him 3 years but to be that long he had to have been 7 or 8 at the least when I got him, probably much older. Currently I have a large male corn that is 8 and many w.c. P.e. meahlmorrim that are large and unkown, but adults when captured 8 years ago. My oldest c.b. king is an '03 male thayeri. I have too many w.c.'s to know their ages.

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Todd Hughes

Man, that is one HUGE copperhead for sure.

female California mountain king that is keyed out perfectly to be a St. Helena zonata. It's actually a gift from an old friend, who purchased the snake when his daughter was about 8 years old.....his daughter is now 39.

***Interestingly enough, my friend hypothesizes that she might be able to produce viable eggs. I'm on the fence about that. I have her in brumation now, but was coincidentally going to bring this up as a topic of discussion.

Any input is appreciated for the sake of this old girl.....
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Jerry Kruse
www.zonatas.com

And God said, "Let there be zonata subspecies for all to ponder..."

Impressive, a 30 year old L.z.zonata. I see no reason why she shouldn't be viable at that age, if she's in good health? She might not lay the amount eggs like she did in her younger days, but I think the eggs would be viable and I do think it would be very interesting to find out for the data one way or the other. That could be very important data on zonatas! Myself I would jump at the chance.

Scott

I, too think she will lay fertile eggs.....Unless some type of infection or internal injury affected her reproductive systems....

I know a male that old will still have viable sperm......A little dusty but viable nonetheless......LOL.....POOF!
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...
www.coastalbendcaptivebreeding.com

So John. I take it that POOF means dust in the wind? LOL!

Scott
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1 zonata 2 zonata 3 zonata 4, 5 zonata 6 zonata 7 zonata and more!

>>So John. I take it that POOF means dust in the wind? LOL!

As long as it is done with the wind and not against the wind....
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John Lassiter
Poor planning and procrastination on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part...
www.coastalbendcaptivebreeding.com

My oldest is my 16 year old male Colombian boa. When I got him he was about a foot long, now he's over 9 feet long. He is also the calmest coolest snake I have or have ever had.

I got an adult female Kenyan sand boa from my friend Jeff Monhiem about 6 or 7 years ago that was caught as an adult in the mid 80s. She died in 09. She was estimated to be around 30 years old.

Dan Eby

I caught in 1985 as a 30 inch adult. I still have some pyros that are 1st or 2nd generation offspring of pyros I caught in the 1970's and 1980's that are close to twenty, Nowdays, I am really more into rattlesnakes so I only have a few kingsnakes left, but most I kept easily reached their twenties. I do know of a pyro that reached at least 41 years, it may still be alive, I am not sure.
I have a male Blacktail Rattlesnake that is about 35, several other rattlesnakes that are my captive bred or wildcaught as newborns that are in their twenties (molossus, abyssus, atrox,mitchellii)

Here's a few averages for other snakes I have kept over the years..
Green Rats 20-25
Common Kings 20-25
Western hogs 15-16
alternas 15-20

Rich
Regal ringeck 20