Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,

Of the six baby Gopher snakes I hatched, I am keeping three of them.

I was wondering what the best way would be to get them to grow at a good rate and to a good size. They are from a four foot mother, and I was wondering if that limits them to four feet??

I am hoping to get them to grow at least six feet....I know it will take a good long time, but I just need to know if there are certain feeding habits and other conditions that will let them grow to be that big.

Thanks.

I don't have much experience with Gopher Snakes in particular, but I've found that it's best not to push Pituophis too much. With baby Pine Snakes, I've found that something like the folowing seems to produce good growth rates:

Hatching to 4 months- 1 mouse pinkie every 4 days

4 months to 8 months- 2 mouse pinkies every 4 days

8 months to 12 months- 3 mouse pinkies (or 1 rat pinkie or 2 mouse fuzzies) every 4 days

12 months to 18 months- 2 rat pinkies or 1 mouse weanling every 5 to 7 days

18 months to 24 months- 1 adult mouse every 5 to 7 days

after 24 months, I try to switch them to 2 weanling rats every 7 days and then increase the size of the rats to small adult rats at about 2 1/2 years. I don't feed adult Pituophis anything bigger than small adult rats no matter how big the snake is.

Trying to power-feed Pituophis often results in regurgitation. Once a Pit regurgitates, many times it is the beginning of the end for that snake. They will just continue to regurgitate meals from that point. I think the lining of their stomach and esophagus is more sensitive than other snakes and once it is irritated by the action of regurgitating and the backwards movement of the food item, it just doesn't quite recover again many times. Keeping them too warm will also cause regurgitation, by the way.

Anyway, with the above feeding schedule (or something close to it), I generally have breeding sized animals in about 24 months or so. If you brumate the animals during the first 24 months, you won't have quite as much growth. I don't necessarily think it's a bad thing to brumate them during that time, but I think you do miss out on some growth by doing so. Generally I don't like to breed them until they are 3 years old even if they are big enough before then, so I will brumate them during their 3rd year. I have brumated them during their first and second winters and still had good breeding size in the 3rd year.
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We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children. Ralph Waldo Emerson

I think it depends on the subspecies. Ive heard that pacifics dont grow as big as the others. Is that 4 foot female fully grown, or was this one of her first clutches? Im betting she will continue to grow larger, and I dont think there should be a problem getting those babies up to 5' or so. As said in the other reply, dont power feed them, just let them grow naturally. Give them time.

Thanks for the advice. right now I am not worried about feeding them too much because they are hard to get to feed. A lot of the time they will just sniff the pinky with their tongue for a good while and then wander away. They have each had about 3/4 to 1 meal a week.

Another thing I was wondering is how often baby gophers should shed. These little guys have shed just the one time shortly after they hatched which was on September 9th through 11th

Again, thanks for the advice. This is my first time raising babies, and I want to make sure they are as healthy as they can be.

I have a male and female 277 Bull and a male Lubbock Red Bull all hatched out in June. The 277's female eats two hopper mice and sometimes three a week. The Male takes 1 or 2 hopper mice a week. They are both big healthy two feet long snakes. My Lubbock Red is slightly smaller and takes 1 or 2 hopper mice a week. The first time I fed them the males took pinkies and the female took 1 pink and 1 hopper. Eversince they have taken hopper mice.

My mice come from RodentPro. The pinks are their peach fuzzies and their hoppers.

From the home for Piggy Pituophis,
Mike B