Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I try to keep careful records of my snake. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has trouble attempting to get a general length measurement of a snake seeing as they love to squirm.

So the question is, would a newly shed skin give a good indication of length? My personal though is "no", seeing as the skin is usually crumpled, or even stretched.

I'm just asking because my snake decided to shed INSIDE her humid hide last night so I got myself a near perfect shed skin which would be easy to measure (and I did, and my last measurement was short by like 10 cm!). Its just I'm wondering if the skin has been stretched to the point of a false size...

They can stretch up to 20% longer than the snake. I never bother trying to measure accurately, usually, I just weigh 'em.
-----
Eryx - All the fun of a boa in a convenient pocket size!

As meretseger said, measuring sheds is very unreliable. They stretch and shrink depending on how dry they are and how they dried.

A good way to measure your snake is to use the serpwidgets program. For this program, you need to have a photo of your snake as a jpg file taken from straight above with a ruler. If you have access to a digital camera, this is easy to do.

The program is free and can be downloaded at www.serpwidgets.com/cornsnakes/Apps/apps.html.

-----
Chris Harrison

I was just wondering if your house snakes shed like mine...

She goes off feed for a week or so (during the blue eye phase), and once the eyes clear up, she doesn't shed at all until she gets food.

I figure she only gets the instinct to start scratching her nose once she feels fat and thus more constricted in the skin with the food in her belly. She does this regularly and often fools me (as I always think her shed might be hidden somewhere or under the substrate or something).

(I was reading the thread below about wether its proper to feed during a shed or not...I was just curious)

Good question. I've always wondered that myself. My Florida king just shed yesterday, all one piece. I'll measure both Jones and his (her? still not sure) shed skin, and let you know what I find.
-----
MichaelB

to measure a sanke in a very easly get a sewing tape less than a dollar in cost come in 6 feet plus and are felxible made out of cloth work great

Yes, but it is much more difficult to get them to cooperate sometimes. I think my BP has a complex about his size as he likes to make it difficult for me to measure him.
-----
Check Out My Albums

1.0 Ball Python
"Aragorn"
1.0 Kenyan Sand Boa
"Gimli"
1.0 Mexican Black Kingsnake
"Indigo"
1.0 Saharan Sand Boa
"Frodo"
0.1 Rough-Scale Sand Boa
"Arwen"

0.1 Australian Cattle Dog/Pointer
"Kira"

Jones, my 2003 Florida King, shed last Friday. Here are the measurements: Jones, 19 inches (48 cm), shed skin 24 inches (61 cm). For this one, the increase weas 26 percent.
-----
MichaelB

I raised this question on another forum where we too tried this experiement.

My results:
Immediately after shedding his skin (Mexican Black Kingsnake) was 20 inches stretched. 3 days later still measured 20 inches. I got a rough measurement of the snake today - 18 inches.
-----
Check Out My Albums

1.0 Ball Python
"Aragorn"
1.0 Kenyan Sand Boa
"Gimli"
1.0 Mexican Black Kingsnake
"Indigo"
1.0 Saharan Sand Boa
"Frodo"
0.1 Rough-Scale Sand Boa
"Arwen"

0.1 Australian Cattle Dog/Pointer
"Kira"