Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have two photos of him. He hatched in April and I am going to miss him.

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of him. Sad to see him go.

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hi robert,

ah yes, the tough part, watching the babies grow up and leave home. i can see your sad expression, reflected in the indigo's eye.

matt

It still amazes me how little snakes can be at birth and grow to be so large. How many years does it usually take for an Eastern Indigo to reach full adult size?

Wow. What a great question. I can only guess. It is important to know that snakes are among the few organisms known to Biologists that have indeterminate growth. They continue to grow throughout their entire life.

Indigos in captivity can reach sexual maturity within 18 months and produce fertile eggs. I raised some up once and put them together at 18 months. I got two fertile clutches from my 1997 Vintage females. They were born in 1999. But those animals continue to grow every year.

I suspect the animals grow fairly slowly in nature because the younger animals I have that are 6 feet long have small heads. The older the animals, the larger the heads. I suspect we way overfeed our indigos (and other snakes) in captivity.

I would guess that it takes 6-8 years to reach roughly full size, roughly 7 feet, with a fair sized head. Keep in mind that reports from nature have them at 9 feet and greater.

I would want to get Dean's ideas because he is currently working with animals in nature. Dean will know how big and long they get. Dean also raises indigos and may have additional or different growth information than I.

Dear Robert,

That information about breeding indigos at 18 months old is very interesting and valuable. How large were they at that age? How about their girth? Were the eggs from them smaller than normal? How about the hatchlings? Did you do anything to get them to grow faster? What did you feed them and how often?

I know that I owe you an e-mail. Sorry, I have been very busy. I will try to get to it soon. Take care.

Robert Bruce.

That was an unexpected occurrence. They were about 4 1/2 feet long and slender to medium weight. They had been raised in big blanket boxes in a rack system with no lights, and I only fed them rats and mice. It's hard to remember the clutches, but I want to guess 7 eggs and normal size. As I recall, all the eggs hatched and the hatchlings were normal.

I thought that I would be able to repeat this, but I always failed. Normally, the animals were not up to size, but when they were, I either got infertile or stuck eggs.

I look back on this success at 18 months as unusual for captivity. I imagine it is possible in nature, but I do not know how fast they grow in nature.