Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'd guess she's around 26 inches at the least... but it could be closer to 28 or even 30 inches! My little corn snake is quite a character, and she thinks it is WAY FUN to wrap around the measuring tape. What do you guys do when stretching out just for a moment isn't an option? Or maybe even, is there a position i could hold her in to get her stretched out long enough to measure?
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purrhisswoofmeowblubsqueakneigh

I lay mine out on a long piece of paper and mark off their length on that quickly and measure that. Much easier than fighting with a measuring tape and a squirming snake
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0.0.1 Green Water Dragon
1.0.0 Tokay Gecko
1.1.2 Bearded Dragons
0.1.0 Columbian Red-tailed Boa
1.0.0 Yellow Ratsnake
0.0.1 California Kingsnake
0.0.1 Black and White Tegu

I've found that letting them crawl along the baseboard worked best for my older snakes. At some point they are usually spread completely out and you mark their front and back then measure the distance between the two marks.

The easiest way to get an accurate measurement is to use serpwidget's snake measurer program. It is a free download you can find on the net.

You need to photograph your snake next to a ruler with a digital camera or a scanned image from a film camera. (like this black milksnake I have shown). Then you open up the file in serwidgets and follow the directions to get an accurate measurement. I have tried this using several scales and compared it against other measurement methods and found that it is without doubt the most accurate and consistent way.

It is important to have the snake not coiled and to photograph it from straight above.

This was my male 52" black milk in 11/03. Must be time for another measurement!
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Chris Harrison